This was written for TTY7. Thank you so much for reviewing and I hope you enjoy it!
This is also a sequel to my other one-shot gifted so I recommend reading that if you haven't. I also wrote it in the same style because consistency.
Recognition
Katsuya Jounouchi was a very lucky man. It was almost uncanny, really. His entire life had been filled with barely scraping by and just making it by the hair of his neck. Honestly, it had been a lot luck that had got him into Domino High School when he had spent the entirety of middle school only doing enough to pass. It had been luck that saved him from being arrested when the police had been called on the gang he had been in. It had been luck that the people at hospitals had never actually opened an investigation into the injuries he had, only had merely talked to him. It had been luck that had allowed him to become friends with Yugi and the others.
Or, at least, that was what he told himself when he had been preparing his deck for Kaiba's Battle City tournament nine years ago, when he decided to put gamble cards into his deck. Some might think it stupid, especially if they knew how much his family had suffered because of gambling. It was his justification at the time. He didn't have Yugi's skill or Kaiba's money to purchase rare cards, but he had almost impossible levels of luck.
Actually, that luck had helped him get his first job. He had taken school slow, so that put him lower than people who had graduated on time in all possible employers' eyes. He knew that it would happen way back when he first graduated high school. But, even with his mom offering a little financial support his first year, he still had bills to pay. Plus, his sister was entering college soon as well, and he needed to help her. So, he took light course loads and worked at an off campus grocery store full time so his sister could take her classes without having to worry about working. Because of this, she graduated a full year ahead of him, even though she's a year younger. When he finally graduated, he must have filled out two dozen applications for schools, and even to the newly finished Domino General Hospital in the wealthy area of town, but to no avail.
It had been a huge stroke of luck that when he went to Domino City Hospital, the hospital that was close to where he lived, that he saw a familiar face. Well, he was seen by someone familiar, really. It took Jounouchi a moment to recognize him, but he did in the end. The man, Mr. Mizuki, had been the counselor at Rintama, the middle school he had attended. He often got sent to his office to talk about his fighting and his low grades. He never really told anything to personal to Mizuki, but Mizuki had seemed to just know things about him. He had been so happy when Jounouchi had told him that he was going to Domino High School. When Jounouchi had explained to Mizuki that he was turning in an application here, Mizuki had been pleased to tell him that he was the one who conducted the interviews for the hospital.
Jounouchi still didn't understand why Mizuki had hired him; after all, he didn't have a good track record with the man. He had known him during his worst years and yet still here he was, working under him at Domino City Hospital. Well, hopefully he would still be after all this was over.
Jounouchi had been breaking protocol, he will admit. He normally kept his cool when working cases, but this one had been different. The young girl, Ana, was about fifteen, bruised up, had a broken left arm, and visibly flinched whenever anyone came too close. Her mother had hysterically rattled off three different versions of how the injuries occurred with her boyfriend beside her, but the same words kept coming up, "accident" and "my boyfriend didn't touch her".
He had gone in to talk to Ana, with the intention to pass the case off to his female coworker when she came in. She was usually better for this type of thing, anyways. He always got a little too worked up with these cases. But, she instantly recognized him. He had asked if she knew him, only for her to reach down and pick up a deck of Duel Monsters cards. She told him that even though her friends wanted Seto Kaiba to win the Battle City tournament she had cheered for him, and even asked her dad to go out and buy cards for her so she could learn to duel because of that. He would occasionally get told things like that, and even though it wasn't the first time, the compliment meant a lot and he did puff up his ego a little. He had chatted with her a few minutes to break the ice, and she seemed to be really interested in dueling him. He told her he didn't have his deck on him, but if she was still here tomorrow, he would take his deck with him and they could. She was elated by that, so he decided he better approach the subject of her injuries now.
She had told him exactly what he and her doctor and nurses had expected. She had been crying by the end, and he had promised her they would get her taken care of. There was something about her that reminded him of Shizuka. It wasn't her appearance; Ana had short black hair and almost black eyes, contrary to Shizuka's long brown hair and brown eyes. It wasn't even the way she spoke; Ana spoke informally while Shizuka formally addressed everyone. But, there was the same trusting gaze, like he would make everything okay.
So, the next day when he came back in to work, he had his deck tucked into the pocket of his pants and his work briefcase in his left hand. He was almost to Ana's room when he heard the arguing.
At the door of Ana's room stood the mom and her boyfriend. They were having heated words with Dr. Ito, who merely replied with "I'm sorry, but I can't let you in until her caseworker gives me the green light." The boyfriend had seemed to have enough, as he grabbed Ito and shoved him against the wall.
The protocol for these situations was to attempt to talk the two parties down, and if that didn't work you were to go fetch hospital security. Maybe it was because he knew what this guy had done to Ana, because he could tell he was an asshole by looking at him, because he just manhandled Ito, who was the nicest doctor here, or a combination of the three, but something drove him to grab the guy and punch him in the gut. He couldn't help but feel a dark satisfaction as the guy yelled in pain and doubled over. 'Not so tough, now' He thought to himself.
That satisfaction had disappeared though when he got reamed out a few hours later by Mizuki for that, of course, and had it put permanently on his file with the warning "If we ever have to let anyone go, you'll be on the top of their list." Jounouchi hoped it never would come to that.
End
Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed it and please check out my DM/ GX5Ds crossover that this fits into that feature Jounouchi the Duel Academia professor, adult Mokuba, Cafe owner Bakura, and all other sorts of exciting times.I can't say fun because I have bad things planned.