They explained to him what this was all about. What was expected of him. He nodded at the appropriate moments, but otherwise he sat silently, staring at the floor and holding something in his hands.
"You understand, of course, that now you are here, you are no longer Mail Jeevas."
He looked up, surprised. "Who will I be?"
"You will be called S. We will find you a suitable cover name to go with it later, but for now, you are S."
"Why 'S'? I want to be M. For Mail."
They looked a little flustered at his opposition, since he had been mostly despondent until this point. But the man talking to him smoothly explained, "There is already an M here at Wammy's. If it were possible, we would let you be M, but unfortunately he arrived here quite a while ago. It can't be changed now."
His firm expression didn't waver. "I want to be M. I don't care about that other guy."
"I'm sorry, it's not possible-"
He stood up suddenly. The thing he was twisting in his hands was revealed to be a pair of goggles, which he lifted up and strapped onto his head with surprising dexterity. He stared the man in the eyes, and said, "I am M. No matter what."
And then he walked out.
And after several more days of stubborn argument, they finally let him be Matt. M. But always, in his mind, Mail.
-
Left Right Dodge Attack...
His fingers moved across the game controls with the same amazing dexterity. He had attempted this game a thousand times before, but never tired of trying to beat it. This one especially held a special significance in his collection. He had gotten it on his last birthday, from his parents, before...
Damn. Game Over already, but his high score had gone up by a couple ten thousand points. Re-start. Right away, go right and get the bonus, dodge the attack...
"Hey." A rude-sounding voice broke through his concentration, and he looked up reflexively. There was another boy in front of him, who looked a little older. He had a mess of long blonde hair that made him look like a girl, but his angry stance and rough-looking self was definitely unfeminine.
"Yeah?" He had fortunately paused his game when this boy called him, and would like to get back to it so he could try to beat his record again. But the boy, staring at him with small angry eyes, clearly had other ideas.
"I haven't seen you before. What's your name?" Straight to the point.
"What's yours?" he shot back.
"My name's Mello. Unofficially. On their records, I'm M, and soon enough they're gonna be calling me L." He resisted rolling his eyes at the brag. That's probably what every kid here tells themselves, he thought. What about me? He hadn't been here long enough to be sure.
Then he remembered the blonde boy was waiting for /his/ name. "Ma...Matt." In his haste to reply, he'd nearly blurted out his /real/ name. He mentally kicked himself in the ass for nearly forgetting what those adults had forced into his head: Never reveal your real name. Ever again.
The boy raised a skeptical eyebrow. "You're kidding, right? 'Matt' would make you a second M. That's not right, right?" His expression got even angrier, as if trying to intimidate him into changing his name that he had fought to get.
How had he missed it? Of course, in a place like this, with kids like this, the original 'M' would be pissed at him. It was just his luck that it happened to be this angry guy.
He shook his head, which was actually kind of dumb because the answer was /yes, that's my name/, but the blonde boy seemed to get it. That, or he was bored with him, because he rolled his eyes, made some sort of "Che" noise, and said, "Whatever. It doesn't even matter what your name is, as long as you know I'm always number one."
Then he swung around the chair Matt was sitting in (the way his hips moved reminding him even more of a girl) and leaned over his shoulder.
"What're you playing, anyway?" Matt told him. "That sounds like a stupid game. I bet it's really easy."
He didn't respond, except to un-pause it and show Mello just how 'easy' it was.
Although people watching normally made him uncomfortable, knowing Mello was watching him to find some weakness made him play even better, and he quickly beat the boss with all his lives /and/ smashed his old high score.
When he turned around to see the other kid's reaction, Mello only rolled his eyes again and said, "So, you're a gamer nerd. Good for you."
Matt only smiled.
It wasn't until later that he found out Mello was actually ranked /second/ by a whole 4 points, but it was too late. He had already decided he liked the other M.