Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Everybody Hates Leon ❯ Leon's New Interest ( Chapter 16 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

I was sadly mistaken if I thought things would improve once we got back to Germany. If anything, they got worse. Herr von Schroeder started having alcohol as soon as he woke up every single morning. Frau von Schroeder had immersed herself in a big landscaping project. Not that she actually did any of the landscaping. She would sit in a lawn chair, champagne in hand, and watch the servants do the work.

Zigfried no longer had time for his dirty magazines. His father was making him take business classes virtually around the clock. I got the feeling they were working on some kind of product, but whatever it was, it was TOP-SECRET.

I thought I could trace this increase in work directly back to when we got back from Japan.

A year after we went to the party, the von Schroeders hosted the Japanese businesspeople at their own house. This did not put Herr von Schroeder in a good mood, but he knew it was mandatory courtesy.

This time, Leon and I did not attend the festivities. We stayed in our apartment. I don’t think I heard a peep out of Leon that night, because he was too absorbed in his book!

Poor Leon. He was withdrawing into his own private world more and more as the months passed. I think this was mainly due to school. He was now in the German equivalent to third grade, and the schoolwork was no more challenging to him than the work of kindergarten.

After a while, I decided enough was enough. I pulled Leon out of public school and started home-schooling him. Frau von Schroeder was not thrilled about having Leon in the house all day. She only allowed it after I promised to never let Leon leave the apartment.

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One of the benefits of home-schooling was that Leon and I had virtually 100% control over extracurricular activities. We managed to sneak out of the house when Frau von Schroeder wasn’t looking.

Sometimes, we went on elaborate field trips. We toured the historic parts of Berlin that hadn’t been bombed in World War Two. We must have gone to all the museums of Germany twice. We even went to Paris once! That trip was quite memorable. I kept sighing over all the latest fashions in the boutiques, and Leon got annoyed because he wanted to visit every single place mentioned in the guidebook.

But we couldn’t do things like that all the time. We were very well-off, but our money supply was not unlimited. Thankfully, Leon was perfectly content to visit the local park. Unfortunately, he still had an aversion to exercise, and would sit around and observe the things around him.
It turned out to be one of those park visits that would change Leon’s life forever. Whether it was for better or worse, I never decided.

April 1999

It was an unusually warm spring day at our usual park. Leon had retreated to a patch of shade. While he was there, he got involved in a game that other boys his age were playing. It was called “Pokemon cards”.

I had heard of Pokemon, but I didn’t think it would be the type of thing Leon would be interested in. Boy, was I wrong! Within a month, it was Leon’s goal in life to collect every single card. When he wasn’t doing that, schoolwork, or reading, he’d watch Pokemon on TV.

After a few months, Leon announced that he was growing out of Pokemon. But he was still interested in collecting cards of some sort. It took me a few tries to find something he liked, but I succeeded by the end of the year.

This game was even more complex than Pokemon. It was a strategy game known as “Duel Monsters”.



Sorry to end it there, but I needed to save some stuff for the next chapter, which I think will be about Leon’s rise to fame in tournaments.

I chose Pokemon as his first interest because the Pokemon-to-Duel Monsters transition is a common phenomenon.

Finally, I’m sorry if my “Melissa” voice seems rusty. I’m really out of practice!