Dueling life in a futuristic world

 Liam lunges from his decorated armchair and holds out his arms to grab Miranda, who just fainted without warning.

 As her head is a moment away from hitting the floor, he manages to get his hands under it. Cushioning her head before it bangs on the hard wooden floor.

 He kneels down next to her and grasps her body, carrying her similarly to a princess carry, before looking straight at the camera, frowning.

 “Now look what you did. Couldn’t help but scare your mother half to death?”

 ‘What the fuck is he talking about? Was I supposed to show up in a suit and tie now!?’

 I lean in and demand.

 “How exactly? And shouldn’t you be caring a little more about her and less about me right now? Call for paramedics, for fuck’s sake!”

 Liam focuses on me for a moment before two people wearing light-blue overalls enter the room.

 They carefully grab the woman from Liam and place her a top of a gurney before carrying it out of the room.

 He stays focused on me during the whole thing. “Now listen here, Missy! I won’t be talked down by the likes of you! Go dress up in something more appropriate and then we’ll talk.”

 Tilting my head to the side, I feel a deep rage bubbling beneath my skin, my left eye twitching.

 “… What? Are you serious right now? You abandon me for the best part of four years and this is how you act the first time we meet?”

 His eyes open wide. “How can you act like everything is fine!? Your mother just fainted at the mere sight of you and you still talk back? Keep acting like that and you’ll find this deal off the table faster than I could ask a maid to spank some sense into you!”

 I hastily shoot up from the couch.

 “And you think I need this deal? I was plenty satisfied having nothing to do with you for the rest of my life! You’ve done nothing but hold me back those four-teen years! And now you act like you still control me?! Call your little band of pajama assassins or whatever, you’ll find me much more capable of defending myself than I was four years ago!”

 *Swaaauu!*

 A ripple wave moves around a thin blue barrier that abruptly envelops me. Followed by the sound of glass hitting the floor.

 I raise my arm, revealing a fully powered up duel disk projecting a dueling blade. In a split second, I place a card down on it, and a two meter tall warrior lady appears behind me. It’s D/D/D Oracle King D’Arc.

 Looking over my shoulder, I spot three assailants donning a familiar uniform composed of overlapping black bandages standing behind the couch.

 Seeing as my warrior is outnumbered, I place down two more copies of King D’Arc, the sound of them materializing overpowering any other sound in the room.

 I equip my duel-gazer, activating an AR window with the field of view of the first of the Oracle King summons to monitor the assassins.

 Focusing on Liam, I put on my best mean face and say.

 “Did you really think I wouldn’t make any preparations when I knew I would be talking to you? You’ve already proven to be capable of getting people up here with Lucy. It was just a matter of time before your other lackeys showed up.”

 He straightens his back, closing his eyes and breathing deeply.

 “I see… Now this is exciting. *Snap*”

 At the snap of his fingers, the three figures kneel and raise their arms with open hands.

 “What kind of game are you playing here, Liam?” I can’t help but question.

 He lets go of a deep breath. “Fuuaaaaa, nothing too extreme, really. Your father just wanted to know how his little angel grew up.” He nods and puts on a wide smile. “And it seems she has grown up to be quite a devil.”

 I gaze at him with a deep frown. “Are you seriously calling me a devil after you literally placed assassins in my hotel room? What was this even supposed to accomplish!? Are you trying to scare me? Because that’s not working.”

 As I finish saying that, I order my monsters to capture the three and walk them with their hands tied in a line in front of the holographic TV.

 They do the deed, bringing the three assassins with their arms and legs tied in projected steel cuffs. No; Those cuffs’ original purpose wasn’t restraining criminals; Don’t ask.

 I stand in front of the right-most one, placing a hand on top of their hood.

 “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” Liam suddenly advises.

 “Oh, and why not?” I ask with a mischievous smile.

 He takes a step back and calmly sits down in his cushioned armchair. “No reason, really… It’s just that if someone other than them removes their hoods, it activates a nanovirus which fries their brains. A simply but effective anti-interrogation mechanism. So unless you’re feeling like killing three people today, I would recommend you throw them out of your room and sit back down.”

 I immediately let go of the assassin’s hood and stumble back. I turn to Liam. He’s got a smile on his face.

 “Tch, you bastard. How can I know they won’t just try this again after I undo their restrains?”

 “Because I’m saying they won’t. I can promise you that.”

 “And why should I trust you, exactly? You haven’t really been a bastion of honesty.”

 He shrugs, also crossing his legs. “Yuumi, Yuumi, Yuumi, I may be many things, but a liar I’m not. And if you really don’t trust my word, slay those three yourself. If you have the guts, that is.”

 I grumble. ‘Fuck, I can’t just kill them…’ “… Fine, but if I see any more piss-ants following me, I swear I will cut them down with no hesitation!”

—

 I begrudgingly let go of the three assassins and returned to the couch. It obviously didn’t sit right with me, but I hadn’t taken a life yet and I wasn’t about to start because of him.

 Liam was still sitting on his god-dammed armchair, looking as if nothing had happened.

 After sitting back down on the couch. I focus on him and demand.

 “Are we actually going to discuss something today? Or was this just all a distraction so you could try to kill me?”

 “Now, now. Calm your horses, Missy. I just needed to know if there was even a reason to arrange something with you. An ant and a tiger can’t negotiate if the tiger can just crush the ant if it doesn’t get what it wants. Same principle applies here…” He looks off to the side. “But I’ll admit… I wasn’t expecting you to actually fight off the ambush. You’ve really grown these last four years.”

 “Pfft, are you really trying to compliment me after that? Read the room Liam.”

 He narrows his eyes, his lips forming a light frown.

 “I was just trying to be nice for once. But seeing as you still refuse to call me anything other than ‘Liam,’ I can see that it was pointless. It’s not really important, but it seems like any deal we hash out will be little more than a business transaction, which, I’ll admit, saddens me.”

 I tilt my head slightly. If he’s trying to make me feel guilty, then that’s not happening.

 “Are you seriously expecting me to call you ‘father’ or ‘dad’ after what you did? I still remember the day you threw me out of the estate. I cried my eyes out in front of you, but you didn’t budge, even for your fourteen-year-old daughter. You called me a brat, said I would never amount to anything—” I feel a slight wetness under my tear ducts. “—You threw me out like a piece of trash! I still remember mom wailing behind you as the guards grabbed me by the arms and knocked me unconscious!”

 Tears cloud over my vision to the point where I can barely see anything on the screen, yet I still hear Liam’s monotone voice.

 “Yuumi, listen to me. You were out of control. Your mother and I were afraid that if you continued on that path, you would end up dead. But that’s the thing about you. Ever since you were just a little kid, you never gave up on something once you put your mind into it. ‘No’ wasn’t even a word you recognized. We had no choice.”

 “Bullshit!” I yell, wiping my tears away with my arm. “You were rich! Why didn’t you just let me duel?! It’s what the kids did! It’s what everyone does! Why specifically cut me off there!? And still! Why not just have me be adopted by a middle class family or something? Did you even think about the implications of leaving me in a back alley with barely any money which you knew I would not use wisely? Did you even think at all before you threw me away like a bag of trash!?”

 …

 …

 …

 My outburst leaves Liam silent. Something wholly uncharacteristic of him if my memory serves me right. He always had to have the last word in everything, and while delayed, this conversation would not be an exception.

 Even with everything I said, his expression doesn’t change to anything more than a simple frown.

 “Yuumi, I’m sorry for this, but I can’t say what you need to hear over a GlobalNet call. But you still raise a good point. I could’ve made you more comfortable and there was no guarantee a random street tug wouldn’t end your life. I’m sorry that I prioritized operational convenience over your own life.”

 I close my eyes tightly, a single tear running down my face. “And you really think a sorry is all I’ll need to hear to forgive you for abandoning me? It’s not ‘Liam’, what you did was inexcusable.”

 His expression doesn’t break. “I can imagine it is, so please allow me to make this right. If you would just return—”

 “No!” I interrupt him. “I’m not going back to the manor! Not after this! Thanks to you, I have my own life now, a life I built from the ground up with my own two hands. You’re not taking this away from me Liam, I won’t let you.” I once again raise my duel disk, this time just for show.

 This time, his frown deepens. “Yuumi, please think about Miranda before you say that.” He looks to the side. “She has been working herself to the bone ever since she heard there was a change you would return. Why do you think she fainted?” His voice loses its usual monotone and turns into something heavier. “Do you really think some painted nails was all it took for the woman I married to collapse like a paper doll!? Screw that! You could’ve appeared dressed like a damn prostitute and she would still love you! That’s the type of woman she is!” He leans down and holds his head up in his left hand.

 ‘… Did… Did Liam just lose his cool? In all the four-teen years of memories I share with Yuumi, there’s not even a single instance of that happening… How desperate does he need to be to speak like that?’

 I look down, but can’t help but ask. “Liam… Is mother okay?”

 He looks up, still holding his head. “If she cools it down for a while, she’ll be fine. But she’s been working herself to the bone just to see you again…”

 A wave of guilt rushes over me, and I can’t help but think. ‘Why am I feeling so shitty? These memories aren’t even mine, for fuck’s sake! These aren’t even my actual parents!… This was supposed to be so easy! Just take over the body of a brain-dead orphan and live how I wanted. How did it turn out like this?!’

 ‘I feel like an apology is in order.’ I hear a familiar voice in the back of my mind.

 ‘Not now! Please, just leave me alone for a minute.’

 ‘Even if you say that, your mind is going nuts over this. I should’ve warned you before you accepted Yuumi’s memories. Even if they are kept separate from your primary memories, your unconscious will still access them the same. The repercussions of that are what you’re feeling now.’

 ‘Then how do I stop this!?’ I ask right after.

 She takes a moment to respond. ‘You don’t…’

 ‘What? But you just said her memories are separate from mine? Can’t you just, I don’t know, disconnect them?’

 ‘Annfff, you were a tech guy, right? Then let me put it like this: what happens if you take out a storage device being accessed by a program?’

 ‘It crashes?’

 ‘Correct. And what happens if that program is running on a monolithic operating system with no task separation?’

 ‘The entire system crashes with it? What are you trying to say?’

 ‘Also correct. The brain, like many biological mechanisms, is extremely complex, but not more than it needs to be to keep you alive. As a result, think about your memories like an enormous hard drive, connected to an incredibly complex and powerful processing system, but as every process is critical, that system is monolithic. If a single process stops, it also stops. What I’m trying to say is: you’ll go braindead if I remove the connection.’

 ‘Then what the hell am I supposed to do!? Live with fake memories, feeling fake feeling at people I never even met!?’

 ‘And is that really true? What defines a living being if not their memories? Yuumi, I’ll let the philosophy rest, but as I see it, you have two options: Go into isolation so that someday you might cut the connection to your body’s memories, or accept you’re not the same person who was reincarnated anymore and accept those feelings as your own. I’ll leave you to decide.’

 …

 …

 …

 ‘I see…’ I look up from the floor and finally at the screen again. It’s not like I never felt like my personality was changing, but it was never really relevant until now.

 Taking various deep breaths, I try to calm myself down. All the while getting my thoughts in order. Before, it that was an incredibly arduous task, but now that I finally accept who I am, it’s suddenly so easy.

 Gathering my courage, I stand up and say. “You win Liam, I’ll sign that damn contract, but before I do, I have some conditions.”

 He looks up from his hand, his eyes distant. “What are these conditions, exactly?”

 Nodding, I go about laying down my terms. “First, you don’t get to tell me what to do. I’m an adult with more than enough experience living on my own. Second, I won’t move to the city permanently, and I won’t quit the NWDA. I already have my own life and I’m not throwing that away so easily. Third, you deal with whatever the council thinks it can do to me. I could handle it myself, and I’m pretty sure the NWDA’s director can handle the draft situation, but from now on, you’ll protect me from them if he can’t. In return, I’ll be joining you two at the manor when I’m free from the academy and I'll accept the last name 'Katayama' .Sounds good?”

 His unusual crestfallen expression changes into its usual neutral position, and then into an even more unusual smile. “You’ve really grown into something else, huh? Well, it’s not like I have a choice.”

 *Thunk, Thunk* The sound of a door knock echoes around the space.

 I glance at my hotel-room door, but soon realize the source of the sound is the video call.

 “Sir, Mrs. Miranda has waken up. She’s coming this way.”

 Liam nods at the attendant. “Very well.” Then he turns to me. “Well, it sounds like you will have a lot to catch up with your mother today as well. I’m happy we could get the outline out of the way before she joined us.”

 I also nod. “I’m glad that we could as well.”