Dammit.

Just what games do you make for pensioners anyway?

Hmm, I was wrong about these detentions. This is a good opportunity to get some work done.

If she'll ever get off my case.

Dammit. Takarada said he'd work on Christmas when I asked him last month.

Promises are made to be broken.

Suppose I'll just have to work on Christmas after all. Dammit.

Sorry, Mazaki. No time to waste on useless things like detention.

God, why can't she just shut her mouth and let me get back to work?

Why can't he just be nice?

Does it even register in your mind that maybe hanging around with the ice prince isn't how I want to spend my afternoon?

Believe me, the feeling's mutual.

Yeah, probably.

…I promised him I'd stay home this Christmas. Just like when we were little kids.

Takarada, I'm going to find an excuse to get you thrown in jail for a few weeks. Mark these words. I'll frame you for a bit of money laundering. Nothing serious, but…

It should teach you a lesson about standing by your word.

The fact that he was basically writing down exactly how he was going to frame someone barely registered in his mind.

Don't say it so surprised, cheerleader.

Let's see how you spend your Christmases when you're the leader of the foremost technology company in the world, hmm?

Working on Christmas, that's gotta suck.

Still, it's not like he's Mr. Bright and Happy.

He doesn't really do much to be sympathy-inspiring.

Not that I know much about business, but that seems pretty stupid.

Because it was the nice thing to do, you idiot.

They might all be incompetent but they've been working their posteriors off all year to try and get the releases out. We've made so much money out of it…

Seemed like they deserved it.

Another heap of bullshit from yours truly.

Better she thinks I'm a cold bastard than some kind of working-man sympathizer.

Why are we even having this conversation?

I have more important things to do with my time than talk to her.

Well, someone doesn't know the way things work.

Feels nice to be able to one-up him for once.

Why that…

Just because he doesn't have anyone to talk to!

I'm surprised she didn't expel me.

It was a stupid thing to do. She just came out of nowhere and surprised me.

I've been doing a lot of stupid things lately.

What the fuck do old people enjoy doing anyway, aside from perving on schoolgirls?

I don't see what it is to you.

She came out of nowhere right after I woke up.

Saw someone looming over me. Panicked. Punched.

Too bad it was her. She's an okay one.

I'm not a two-year-old and I don't buy that crap excuse.

Has he ever considered anger management?

Just because he has to sit around some office on Christmas doesn't give him the right to start beating up teachers.

What is he writing, anyway? I can pick up a few words…

They're all in different languages. How paranoid.

And they say only girls can be snarky bitches.

He could give most supermodels a run for their money

I am not in the mood for this.

Even if I was, I don't feel like arguing with her.

Lame comebacks are a good judge of how much I need sleep.

I'd say that's about a 7 on the sleepy scale.

Oh, I'm so hurt.

I don't need weak people like you and your little friends getting in my way.

You have many people waiting for you and you relish it.

I only have one person waiting for me, and sooner or later I'll break under the pressure.

Same thing you said to me at the Duelist Kingdom.

Do you still mean it?

I didn't mean to ask that.

Not out loud, anyway.

But I've always wondered…

Well, that's a straight answer.

I can see he's as talkative as usual.

I told you, idiot.

Just because.

Just because I don't know the real answer.

If I ever find the answer, then I know I won't be satisfied with it.

So I don't think about it.

The company is just something I do. It doesn't matter why.

Confused? Good.

The world is never black and white.

You should have learnt that a long time ago.

Yeah, well you sure don't seem that happy, Chuckles.

It's interesting with you.

You don't sugarcoat things. You either tell the flat-out truth…

…or lie completely.

You have no middle ground in truth.

In anything.

You look down on me.

You look down on everyone, just because we haven't gone through hell like you seem to have.

It's not my fault my life is closer to perfect.

Of course I'm not done.

I have no intention of writing them.

There's not enough time to do anything like that.

No time to eat or sleep or talk or have fun.

No time for anything except,

The company.

The company is all that matters.

You don't matter. I don't matter.

Nothing matters except the company…

……right?

He says that too much.

I don't really care. Not as much as you'd think.

But I care enough to know

I don't want that to happen.

I like constants in my life. You're one of them.

An extremely irritating and grumpy constant, but a constant nonetheless.

You don't have to sound so subdued.

I don't want to feel sorry for you.

But I will.

Because it's what I do and why I'm here.

Because my life seems to have lost all other meaning

Or I've failed at all other meaning.

You find me utterly infuriating. The feeling's mutual.

You shouldn't be so happy and naïve.

I hate the way you and all your stupid little friends are so happy and naïve.

I wish you'd stop reaching out and trying to be nice to me.

I wish you'd stop being so happy and naïve, always running around like you're characters from some magical girl manga out to save the world from evil.

Because when the music stops and your worlds are shattered…

…I don't want to be the one who has to save you.

Stupid wannabe mystery man.

Do you know I feel sorry for you?

I hope you don't.

Because if you knew how much I feel sorry for you-

-how much we all feel sorry for you-

It would break you up inside faster than any company ever could.

You want us all to hate you so you feel justified in all you do.

So you're alone.

I wonder why I'm the only one who sees that?

Don't worry. I'll keep hating you if you keep hating me.

If you all break and see the world for what it is-

-a place where horrible things happen to good people and the 'evil' ones will always win-

-then I'll have to help you.

I'm obligated to help you. Much to my shame, you and your friends have saved my life numerous times.

And this is my way of helping you.

Maybe if it's me who breaks that idyllic world of yours, the transition will be easier.

I know what it means and I don't care.

People die and hurt and fear and are never saved by the knight in shining armor.

I wish you saw the world I see.

Not even close.

You looked sad at that.

For a split-second, anyway.

Sad because we're forgotten or sad because of what you did to the teacher?

Neither and both.

You'd rather be forgotten than remembered as someone who is the way he is for a reason.

And you did what you did because forgetting is harder than it seems.

Or so I think.

In here. In the office.

It's no different to me.

Everywhere is the same to me today.

Dark and uninviting.

And everyone is the same.

Stupid and treacherous and ignorant of what's going on around them.

God, I hate Christmas.

Christmas is a time where you can habitually break every promise you made over the year.

You can realize how alone you are and even though you might be one of the richest men in the world, you have nothing.

Christmas is when you realize that when all's said and done, you've come out last place in everything you thought you'd finally achieved.

What an odd question for you to ask.

Of course I get tired of being happy.

Trying to put on a perky face when you're in mortal danger isn't easy, you know.

Just as I'd imagine trying to pretend you don't care that everyone's happy but you.

Have you started yet?

If it wasn't you and me talking…

…I'd say that was no answer.

But it's us, and that's the only answer you can give.

Don't be an idiot.

Of course not.

I never will.

If I start the lines…

I'll have to finish them.

And then I'll have no excuse for not leaving and going home

And breaking another one of my famous promises.

You're starting to see the evil in this world.

I'm glad.

I'm glad that I could show you some part of it.

I'm glad you won't be broken.

I don't know.

I don't know if I even do, really.

It's just something that I have to do.

I know why.

Because you've seen only the bad.

And I've seen only the good.

And for us there can never be a middle ground.

So I didn't.

We're playing a weird game here, aren't we?

I think I know the right answer.

Give the girl a prize, she's beginning to grasp the concept.

People cannot explain their feelings to one another.

Particularly not people like us.

I don't know if I like her. Or could even tolerate her if forced to.

But now, I can at least respect her.

Because while she will live in her ignorant idyllic world, she knows it's not real.

She's nearly finished her lines.

1 more to go.

And it's over.

Walk away.

Good.

I'm alone again.

I'll leave too.

No point being here.

Time to go home and pretend I hate the world.