yeet.
I burn.
It's hot.
I'm simmering, keeping the lid on, but the pressure is building... the pressure is building.
And building.
And building.
I'm here, sitting on my knees and draped in my family crest. A procession of my cousins pass before me in some archaic, nonsense ritual. Each look at me with cold eyes as they address me, but their coldness is nothing compared to mine. They know what I think of them. I wear it on my face. I've worn the expression of frigid contempt for five years.
Nobody here sees me smile.
They've haven't heard me laugh.
I hardly talk to them.
I avoid them like the plague.
Why wouldn't I? I'm merely a figurehead here anyways. 'Clan Leader' my ass, the power lies in the hands of the elders. They can't have some musclehead teenager dictating the family finances… but when things go to shit, guess who the blame falls on?
That's right.
Me. The 'Clan Head'
Ha!
A wry chuckle escapes from between my teeth. My knees ache, and I've clenched my fists so tight my knuckles stand out white. Dad looks over and fixes me with a stern stare. I snap my head over to meet it. Maybe there's something vicious in my glare, so he averts his gaze.
He knows I have no love for the Kusanagi clan.
He knows I hate to be at home with him.
Does he know why?
…
I bet he doesn't.
I've been thinking.
When I took my revenge.
We killed the scientists, yeah.
And we killed the NESTS Boss too. Me and Yag.
But you know. We killed a lot of other people.
You know, the janitors… and the secretaries… and the finance people, and the Inventory people, and the bookkeeping people, and the IT people, and the accounting people and the security people and the HR people and the…
Well, a lot of people.
Some had never seen me before. They've never touched a scalpel in their lives.
But we still killed them.
Because they were part of the problem.
They turned a blind eye to my suffering, so we judged them guilty and purged them with fire. They're scattered on the seafloor.
…
So.
I've been thinking.
My family… why are they different?
They… they stood by, didn't they? They didn't come for me like they said they would. They tossed me aside the moment I was compromised. They were the only reason I went to the KOF tournament, right? Did they know NESTS might be there? They might have, after all, bad things happen at Tournaments. They knew that! They knew it for sure.
So why did they send me!
They risked my life for the sake of bringing them honor!?
And when I am crushed by the evil they threw me into… they let me fall by the wayside? No longer useful?! No longer relevant?! Willing to let me waste away in some underground bunker, hidden from the eyes of the world, for the sake of the family honor?!
Fuck!
Fuck family honor!
Fuck this family!
Aren't they part of the problem?
…
Do you think… maybe they're guilty?
...
Well, I've been thinking…
Just thinking…
Oof Dinotime!
