"Young Master Yasuo hasn't been home a while," the head butler said, sitting down with legs and arms crossed.
Although his face was expressionless, behind him was his aura that was so strong that it looked like an oni.
In front of him were all the maids and butlers down on their knees. All of them were trying to hide it, but the aura of the head butler was so powerful that even if they weren't being made to sit on their knees, they wouldn't have been able to stand up anyway.
"His stay must be perfect. Do you understand me?"
The oni behind him suddenly had a kanabo (a spiked Japanese war club) in his hands. It smacked it on its palm in a constant rhythm.
All of the maids and butlers nodded faster than the speed of light.
"What will happen to those who make a mistake?"
""We hang them!"" they replied in unison.
The oni behind the head butler smiled.
"What about those who disrespect the Young Master?"
""We kill their family!""
The oni nodded.
"Good," the head butler said as he waved his hands, dismissing them. Everyone immediately dispersed, getting to work.
The oni created by his aura disappeared (if you couldn't tell, the oni wasn't actually real. He doesn't actually have "aura"). The presence of the head butler returned to an old man as he stood up and chuckled, making his way over to the main building with his arms behind his back.
There was an excited pep to his step as he almost skipped rather than walk with the dignity expected from him.
* * *
"How's it going with your classes?"
Yasuo looked at his mother without a change in his expression for a brief moment before laughing softly. He answered, "Momma, there's no need to pretend that you don't know how my grades are looking. Aren't you and Father the only reason why I haven't been expelled?"
She flinched for a split second but quickly pretended like she didn't know what he was referring to.
"What are your plans?" she asked.
"With school?"
His mother nodded.
"I'm not sure. I'm thinking of actually committing myself once I return to class," since that would make his mother happy, "but I might consider dropping out too," he continued, telling her the truth.
Seeing that he was seriously considering the first option, she knew that this would be her chance to finally convince her son to lock the fuck in with school.
If he didn't… if he didn't — well, if he didn't, she would still love him the same.
"Let's discuss that with your father once he gets home."
She would need the help of her husband to convince him. One of them alone could only do so much. But the two of them together, if they fuse together as they do in Dr*gon B*ll, their power level would be unmatched.
"What made you decide to come home, Young Master Yasuo?" asked the head butler who was standing by the couch with the straightest posture possible.
"Was feeling homesick," Yasuo answered.
"You took your sweet time but… it's great that you finally decided that we were worthy enough for you to miss," his mother said in a joking tone.
The two of them continued talking for the next hour, the head butler occasionally chiming in.
They talked about anything from what show they've been watching to rumors about their relatives.
As Yasuo was enjoying himself, feeling the warmth of being with a mother, a part of him started to feel bad for her because while he was her son, he also wasn't.
Even with how terrible the original Yasuo was, he was still the son that she loved dearly. And now, now he was gone.
* * *
When the man known as Yasuo's father returned home, there was a stoic expression on his face.
Not a single muscle on his face suggested that he gave a single damn about whether Yasuo was home but Yasuo was able to tell by extremely subtle cues, especially the way his moustache twitched, that he was ecstatic to see his son home.
The two boys caught up for a little bit as the maids and butlers finished setting up the dinner table.
Once they were done, the three family members took their seat and within a few minutes, they had fallen back into the routine of meaningless chatter as if Yasuo had never moved out of the home.
Finally, they came to the topic of college life.
"Sounds like you're at a crossroad," his father said as his mother explained to her what Yasuo had told her a few moments ago.
"Yeah. And don't feel burdened by this. It's not because I feel obligated to do this for you guys," he gave a small white lie, "I am simply unable to choose between the two. It's truly a perfect split down the middle. 50/50."
"Then you honestly mean it when you say that you're considering focusing on school?"
He expected his son might drop out someday once he got too bored, but the opposite occuring had never even crossed his mind.
"Yeah."
"Don't you find school boring?"
"Yeah. It is boring but life is never guaranteed," he told his father while thinking back on his death. The real answer was he felt an obligation to his mother, but what he was saying was also a little bit of the truth as well.
Someday, his parents might go through tough times and go bankrupt.
He would need to be able to survive without their resources and also pay them back someday if that occurs.
Yasuo didn't elaborate on his answer. Instead, he gave another reason, "It would be nice to have a degree up on the wall for me to look at in the future as well. My kids could also admire it."
"I see. Well, if it's 50/50… then why don't we put it up to a coin toss?" his father suggested.
Tilting his head, Yasuo thought about it for a second before shrugging.
His father turned to the head butler, who pulled a coin out of his back pocket as if he was already ready for this.
"Heads. You drop out. You can decide then if you would like to start learning about your father's work and prepare to take over the company. You can also not do that if you don't want to. Tails, you focus on school and attend your classes. Deal?"
"...Deal."
Yasuo watched as the head butler flipped the coin.
What he didn't know, as it was never mentioned in his memories, was that the head butler used to do magic tricks in the past. One of the tricks he had was that he was able to manipulate how the coin would land.
Tink tink tink tink.
Yasuo looked at the coin on the floor.
"Tails it is," Yasuo uttered as he took another bite of the food in front of him.
Underneath the table, his father and mother gave each other a high-five.