“Why did you expose her like that?” Even though an hour’s already passed, his intensity hadn’t simmered down.

  “I called her out in public because I needed to expose her manipulative side to everyone-”

  “And what gives you the right to do that?” He held eye contact as he demanded an answer.

  “I did it to help her-”

  “Help her? It’s been two hours and she’s still a mess, and what’s up with your blank face and your emotionless voice? Do you not feel any guilt?

  Do you not care?”

  “Osamu, did you come here for answers, or so you could make accusations?”

  I asked him a blunt question as I held onto my calmness, forcing him to slow down.

  “Answers, accusations - what’s the difference?

  The only possible explanation is that you’re stupid enough not to realise what would’ve happened, which I know you’re not.

  That means you’re just cold enough where you don’t care, right?”

  The Osamu in front of me is nothing like the Osamu I’d known in school.

  How much has he been hiding behind that quiet persona?

  “If I didn’t care about her, then why would I make myself look like a monster in front of everyone? Don’t tell me you think I’m stupid or petty enough to break her without thinking about the consequences it’d have on me-”

  “Don’t try that on me. I’m sure this serves some greater purpose, some end goal that you want, right?”

  Where is this coming from?

  “Well, yeah. My end goal was to help her, even if that meant making myself look like a cruel psychopath in front of Yori and Mei-”

  “Yeah, sure. In that case, why did you want to “help her” so badly that you’d expose her in front of them?”

  I calmly put on a gentle smile before answering.

  He consistently cut me off as I spoke, so the only way to slow down the conversation would be to take my time after he makes a point.

  “I’m capable of helping her, so of course I’d want to. I knew I’d be able to handle Mei and Yori after-”

  “I don’t believe that for a second, but even if I did, how was any of that helping her?” I took a deep breath as I tried to regain some control of the conversation.

  “I don’t know if it’s on purpose or if it’s subconscious, but Yaeko has a tendency to use her emotions to manipulate people. Why are you so morally opposed to my attempts to force her to grow past that, when I’m the only one who’s trying to help her grow-”

  “Are you helping her grow? Because it looks like you’re just hurting her-”

  “I tried explaining it earlier, but you cut me off.” I firmly interrupted him and looked him in the eyes, forcing him to let me explain myself. “Yaeko’s manipulative nature stems from a need to feel above everyone else in order to protect her pride-”

  “Stop acting like you know everything! You’re neither a god nor a genius, where did you get the arrogance to spout all this?” Osamu’s fist clenched as he took a step towards me.

  “I saw right through your insecurities, didn’t I?

  I’m the reason you even went to talk to Yaeko after the game, aren’t I?

  I don’t know what she said to manipulate you, but that’s where I get my confi-”

  I slipped to my left as Osamu through a right handed cross.

  He immediately stepped through with his left foot as he tried to hit me with a left handed uppercut. I didn’t have enough space to keep dodging, so I had to end it now.

  I leaned backwards to dodge the punch and grabbed his wrist with my right hand. We locked eyes as he struggled, but I refused to let go.

  “Even if you’re right - even if you know she’s in pain and all of this was to truly help her, what gives you the right to break her?

  You don’t have any idea what type of pain she’s in, and you could never even begin to imagine it, so why don’t you feel any guilt?

  Any shame?

  Any remorse?”

  He clenched his right hand into a fist as he struck downwards, aiming for my arm. I held onto his wrist as I moved my arm to dodge the attack.

  “I don’t have the right to hurt people, nor do I need it.”

  Osamu’s jaw opened as he threw another punch, but with his body being off balance, there was no force behind it.

  “We’re gifted with independence and agency. We’re all allowed to do whatever we want, as long as we’re prepared to deal with the consequences.”

  “How are you this arrogant?” Instead of trying to break through my wrist hold, he tilted his wrist so it was also grabbing mine. He pushed forward to throw me off balance so I countered by planting my weight heavily on my front leg, but as soon as I did this, he caught me off guard and pulled me towards him as powerfully as he could.

  “How can you go about justifying hurting people, just by saying you have the right to do whatever you want?”

  He shifted his weight to his back foot as he pulled me into him.

  I noticed him twisting his hips, setting up for a right handed hook.

  At this distance, at this height - he wasn’t aiming for my chest or arm to get me to back down.

  I instantly realised his only possible target was my head.

  I reflexively bent my left arm and brought it up to the left side of my head. I felt the impact of the punch less than half a second later, but I didn’t let it shake me. I carried my forward momentum and pushed him towards the right, making sure he didn’t hit his head on the table.

  I tried to stop my body and pull my arm back as he fell, but he refused to let go of my wrist, making it so I landed on top of him.

  The landing impact was finally enough for him to let go of my wrist, so I quickly pushed off the ground to stand up and create distance, but he reached out and grabbed the tips of my fingers just as I was about to exit his range. I didn’t have time to brace myself as he pulled me down to him, and I instantly realised this wasn’t good.

  Stolen novel; please report.

  I was falling towards him in a straight line path.

  My gravity would keep me falling even if he let go.

  He can let go and take his time to line up a power punch for my head.

  I had no choice but to abandon any hope of defence.

  I pulled my hand back enough to load up a power punch of my own. If he didn’t defend himself, then we’d both get hit.

  I didn’t want to hurt Osamu, but that wasn’t the point.

  I wasn’t trying to salvage a draw.

  I’m gambling that his instinct for self preservation would take over from his righteous protection of Yaeko.

  The only way to avoid his punch is to force him into defending himself, making sure he never threw it.

  He bent his right arm and threw it above his face to protect himself. It wasn’t a professional guard like the ones where both your arms run vertically across your face. His left arm stayed frozen as he panicked and moved his right hand to create a desperate horizontal guard.

  There was one massive flaw in his guard.

  What is this feeling?

  My heart skipped a beat as I processed how his horizontal guard covered his eyes.

  How his left arm was frozen in such a critical moment.

  How his lips were spread wide from the fear of bracing himself for a punch.

  If I wanted to end this fight and prioritse my own safety, then I could do the exact same thing I did against the employee with the knife.

  His horizontal guard only covered a section of his face. His throat was fully exposed.

  I would rather get beaten up than do that to him.

  My analytical approach to a fight is perfect when we’re both on our feet trying to strike the other person, but it was almost useless in a grapple where pure strength is much more important.

  But I’ll happily risk it.

  I won’t hurt him.

  I shifted my weight to the left so I wouldn’t land on him and immediately pushed off the ground as hard as I could once I’d landed. His confusion lasted long enough for me to get away, and I realised things had changed. His fear meant we could finally have a discussion.

  “Osamu, this has gotten way too crazy. I’m sorry that I pushed you like that, I probably could’ve been more considerate to Yaeko’s pain. Let’s end this and go back to having a discussion.” I reached out my hand as a gesture of good will, but he simply moved his arm away. He looked at my eyes and then my hand before he pushed himself up, refusing to take my hand.

  “You said you don’t need the right to do something if you’re willing to deal with the consequences.”

  He took a deep breath out as he watched me in the eyes.

  “How can you genuinely believe that? That’s like saying a murderer has a right to kill someone as long as they’re willing to go to prison.” I could’ve addressed the immediate flaw in his logic straight away, but I decided to take this from another angle instead.

  “Does a murderer have a right to kill someone, if that someone were to go on to kill thousands?”

  He replied instantly.

  “Well, it depends.” I watched as he tilted his neck before answering. “Does that person go on to kill thousands maliciously? Or is it an accident that could’ve happened because of anyone?” I couldn’t tell whether he was intentionally dodging the question to protect his view point, or if his morality genuinely made him blind to the logic of the question.

  “Are you saying that things would change if you knew for sure what would happen, and why?” He smiled at the perceived absurdity of my question.

  “Of course it would, why ask something so stupid?” He looked at me as if he was trying to figure out if I was taking it seriously.

  “From my perspective, I know that Yaeko will suffer greatly in the future if she doesn’t get over her ego. Shouldn’t that make my act of hurting her to save her from that future pain a morally ambiguous one, rather than a detestable one like you’ve made it out to be?”

  Osamu stood in silence as the anger in his eyes intensified. I could tell there’s something he wanted to say, but he held himself back.

  Does he know something I’m missing, or is he simply that naive?

  “Earlier, I said that I neither have nor need the right to hurt people. I never said a murderer has a right to kill someone. I think the act of a simple cold blooded murder for money, fame, revenge, whatever it is - I think that’s morally wrong. No one has the right to murder for reasons like those.”

  I understood why Osamu was so conflicted.

  He couldn’t find the flaw in my argument, but he knew he still disagreed with my conclusion. That’s because he initially misunderstood my conclusion, so I tied my point into the original argument.

  “From your perspective, me hurting Yaeko should be morally gray because you don’t know how to balance the outcomes with the act of inflicting pain on her.”

  He didn’t nod, nor did the intensity in his eyes die down.

  “The reason we don’t see eye to eye is because I understand people and the way they think much better than you. Therefore, I can be much more certain of the outcomes, so I’m more willing to make those choices.”

  He just watched me with a straight face.

  I didn’t expect him to agree with me, but I expected some sort of acknowledgement that he’d understand the point I was making.

  “There’s one other reason we can’t agree on this.” I took a deep breath to let Osamu prepare himself for my final conclusion.

  “I care much more about the outcomes than the costs. In this case, that’s hurting Yaeko to protect her from hurting herself in the future.

  It’s because of my internal prioritisation that I’m able to act in such a “cold” manner, and that’s exactly why we’ll keep disagreeing.”

  I looked at Osamu in shock as he started laughing and shaking his head.

  “You really don’t know anything, do you?”

  He left my room without saying another word.