"What's his fucking damage anyway?"

These questions weren't uncommon in this classroom. A good number of the male students held some form of distaste for Kaiba Seto. Jealousy played a large role in that. To them, he was a foreigner, despite the fact that he had been born and raised here as any of them had. He didn't believe this hatred had anything to do with his race, and it didn't. This hatred stemmed from whatever sense of entitlement, and whatever privilege they believed him to have. His classmates didn't realise this, but Kaiba had worked to get where he was. He had worked for everything, he had suffered, he had cried, and he had bled. It wasn't as though they could have known this. His past wasn't something he delved into. Ever. It was his burden, and his burden only. No one else needed to know the details of his sob story. He didn't care if they continued on believing his was raised in a luxurious world, one with now worries or troubles. He didn't care if they believed he had been handed everything he had now for little to nothing. For the sake of his peace of mind, he'd act as though he still had that silver spoon in his mouth, despite the fact he'd never held one.

"He's such a prick."

Maybe so, but no one else was any better.

Unable to face the truth behind their shortcomings, these boys blamed all their issues on anyone they possibly could. Their targets changed often enough, however, they constantly came back to Kaiba. These boys were of the "alpha" variety. They believed themselves to be of higher intellect, despite how they never bothered to apply themselves in the school setting. They claimed they were too good for school, for society. They believed the words they spat. To them, everyday was some test to their dominance. Their friends weren't truly their friends, as they too believed themselves to be the alpha of their "pack". They contested with one another, but still kept company in each other, as no one else would bother to have them. Arrogant, obnoxious, worthless. They were scum.

"He doesn't even give them the time of day, why do they flock to him like that? He isn't deserving of their attention."

Hadn't they stopped to consider that he wasn't interested in that sort of thing? This was a school, he had come here to learn. He held no intentions of starting any relationships, romantic or platonic.

They didn't care how he felt about the attention he received. They never bothered to give that thought the time of day. All they cared about was their own selfish agenda. They didn't like to believe that their female classmates held no interest in them. Instead, they chose to blame their disinterest in him. "Ladies are always attracted to the assholes" they'd all claim, day in and day out. Without bothering to think about why that might be. They never bothered to consider anything but his wealth as a factor. Not his intelligence (because who was smarter than they were? Certainly not some peasant who allowed themself to be kept a slave of society). Not his bright future (as surely they were destined for so much more than Kaiba could ever hope to dream of). They thought themselves to be above all else.

And why couldn't they be? Never had they been told that they'd need to work to achieve greatness. America, as a whole, taught boys that all they had to do was exist and they held position above all others.

"They're all just blind, if they want to hurt themselves over and over again with some squalid little boy, who cares? I'm not interested in whores who only look at a guy for money, I want a lady who can contribute to intellectual conversation."

This particular group of boys was of the worse variety. The kind who believed a women had no right to refuse them, and to do so made them into some vile creature, ugly and uninteresting, despite how they might have been grovelling at her feet in pleas for sex mere moments before. To them, their dicks were a status symbol that any and all women should be honoured to view.

They truly were the worst of the worst.

"Dude, guys, people, uh, things, whatever the fuck you gremlins are, you realise how ridiculous you sound here, right?" Their class president of the previous three years (who now served his fourth term) was no stranger to dealing with trash. Before transferring to this school, before moving to America, he had been apart of the beautification committee in his middle school. Although, seeing as this was a school in America, he didn't get the chance to rejoin, as for whatever reason, the students didn't clean up after themselves.

Honda really would have preferred inanimate trash, but this would have to do.

"Excuse you, heathen, have you even bothered to learn proper English? Such slang is disgusting."

Without realising it, the gremlin, himself, had used a slang word himself. The word "slang" was in fact slang for the term "shortened language". They did realise this, didn't they? No.

"Do you really think someone dependant on brawn rather than brain holds any right to speak with us?"

They seemed to be stuck in their own little world, and Honda couldn't exactly blame them. If his life was as bleak as theirs was, he too wouldn't want to face reality.

"I'm gonna stop you there, thanks. I need you to stop talking smack about our classmates. Everyone can hear you. You can't go around calling guys 'squalid' or whatever, and you gotta know by now you can't just go around calling our female classmates whores, that ain't cool." He didn't feel the need to yell, at least not yet. If they kept it up, he might get to raising his voice.

Usually, they gave up on these antics once they realised Honda was getting angry. He was a big guy. Tough. He was their class president, however, he was on the soccer team (despite how his looks would suggest football).

"If the title is fitting, I don't see why we should be forced to censor our opinions."

"Especially considering the government will be enforcing just the same once we've graduated into adulthood."

He didn't even know who was saying what by this point. They shared a hivemind, collectively, every one of their kind, all across the globe. They even seemed to share the same voice. He found literally no difference in any of them.

"Well, one: based on your.., everything you won't be graduating anything anytime soon, and two: if you want to continue giving your uncensored opinion, I have no problem reporting you to the nearest teacher. I hope you don't mind a trip to the detention hall, fam."

They looked between themselves. How they didn't go blind from the buildup of oils on their skin was sort of amazing.

"You jest, don't you? Wh-"

Honda gave a heavy and "untimely" sigh. He had meant for it to be this way. He wasn't up for listening to their over-inflated egos as they lost air.

"Hasn't your mother taught you any manners?"

"Hasn't yours taught you how to be a decent human being for even a second in your entire lifespan? Seriously. If you don't knock off the bullying, I'm not just gonna sit by and listen. Cheesy as it is, we're all in this together, it isn't cool to talk shit. That sort of thing can upset someone, we don't need to start beef." He saw them getting ready to come up with another of their obnoxious responses. He wasn't about to give them the chance. "Like seriously, what has Kaiba ever done to you, or anyone for that matter? You've never looked him in the eye, let alone held a conversation with him. He's literally the least problematic person here. And I'm tellin' you now, those girls aren't ignoring your advances because they like assholes, they're ignoring you because you are the assholes. Maybe like, take the time to think for two seconds instead of spouting off bullshit to cover your insecurities. If I hear you harassing Kaiba or those girls again, I'm getting the teachers involved, you got it? Good. I'm not warning you again."

He waited absolutely no longer than that. A second dawdling was a second they could have taken to spit out some bullshit encased response to defend their right to piss everyone else off.

He hated those kind of guys.

He hadn't wanted to call them out like that.

He had always waited to get them alone before issuing a warning, as he did with everyone. Most people decided to stop, at least while he was around. However, these weasels weren't affected. The moment they got back into class, they went back to their old habits. It was as if this was the only way they knew how to socialise. It probably was.

He hoped that dragging them in the middle of class would cause an actual change this time. Maybe the threat to their pride (or honour or whatever the fuck these guys called it) would be enough to scare them straight, at least for a little while.

Or maybe they'd talk shit about him instead? He was fine with that. He gave zero shits about them, or their opinions, or their existence. They could say whatever they wanted about him. He'd be fine. They had better back off the rest of their classmates though.

Honda didn't even really get why anyone would have beef with Kaiba. The guy had literally never done anything wrong in his life as far as anyone was aware. Sure he was famous and most of those guys had something bad going on, but all he had ever seen about Kaiba in the media was praise from every news source aside from Fox, and no one important listened to Fox News anyway.

Who would have shit to say? Kaiba was the role model of just about every child he'd ever met. Who could blame them though? Kaiba had opened an amusement park, several actually. Orphans, or otherwise less well off children were able to get in for free. That was an incredible thing.

These girls hadn't done anything wrong either. They had "friendzoned" these guys sure, despite the fact that they didn't even want to be friends with them. However, as human beings and not inanimate anime girl body pillows, tiddy pads, or blow up dolls, they did hold the right to refuse whoever the fuck they wanted. They themselves held as much right to deny these gremlins as they did to fawn over actual decent guys.

Honda might have to end some lives if he heard anyone talking shit like that again.

That sort of behaviour wasn't appropriate for a school environment.

No one he had just got through defending gave him any praise. To be expected. It was dumb to do so in front of these guys. They'd only have more shit to talk by next period. Ignore them, and they might keep quiet, but not always.