"The Tale of the Chenoo is a Native American myth that tells of a once kind-hearted individual who became wicked and cruel, forming a heart of ice that was as sharp as glass and sparkled like diamond. The human would transform into the monster and torture living beings as it went along on its quest for power. The only way for the beast to become human again would be for it to become warm-hearted once more..."
The aged and yellowed pages of the dusty book were flipped through once more, then finally closed together. Ryou jammed the book into his backpack as the final bell rang, running to the front doors of the library. He accidentally bumped into some people in his anticipation, but he didn't care as he pounded through the final set of doors.
Today, he and Yugi's group would go spend the evening at the arcade, or wherever else they wanted to be. That didn't really matter, seeing as how Ryou got to hang out with his friends at all in the first place.
Let's see... The boy's thoughts wandered as he tried to remember where everybody would meet up. It was the first tree on the right of the school's entrance...
He skidded as he came to a halt in front of the tree, catching his breath. Once he finally focused on his surroundings, Ryou saw none of his friends had arrived at the spot yet. Whatever. He could wait.
But then the seconds turned into minutes, and the minutes into almost an hour. Where are they?... Ryou wandered around the spot to see if they in a different place. Maybe I'm in front of the wrong tree?... He was positive he was in the correct waiting place, but just in case, the boy searched the entire school-yard and even went to look inside for a bit, but it was useless as he couldn't find anybody.
He sadly walked back outside, wondering what went wrong. Did he wait in the wrong spot? Did they move on without him? Or worst of all, didn't even want him along in the first place? Ryou heard someone cackling in the background. What? Scared your little pals don't love you?
Shut up, shut up, shut up...The boy covered his ears, but he could still hear the voice.
Don't worry. Even after they're all gone, I'll still be your friend.
Go to hell!
Is that anyway to talk to such an old pal?
The teenager shook the thoughts off, trying to calm down. In the midst of all this, Ryou heard someone...crying? The soft, mournful sobs were coming from the side of the building. The center of noise came from underneath a tree tucked away where nobody would look, and it seemed the soul taking refuge under the tree was...
"Yugi-kun?" Ryou frowned. "What are doing? What's wrong?"
Yugi had his face buried in his knees as he cried, looking up when he heard Ryou's voice. Yugi blushed, wiping away his tears. "It's nothing..."
Ryou sat down next to Yugi, setting his bag down. "...Is...is someone bullying you? Is that what's wrong?"
Yugi shook his head nervously. "I don't wanna talk about it...I'm sorry..."
The goth boy immediatly got up and ran away in the direction of his home, leaving Ryou to watch in confusion. What was wrong?
The King's vessel is such a pansy. One hit and he's on the ground crying. Why worry about him liking you? Find better friends, dumbass.
Wait...what was he talking about, "One hit and he's crying"? It...it was probably just the Spirit teasing him again...he couldn't have done anything...
Now Ryou was the one who felt like crying. What was the matter? He didn't know what, and he couldn't stop it either...
On his walk home, the boy heard crying noises again, but this time it was someone else's voice doing the sobbing. The voice was deeper than Yugi's, a voice so manly sounding that it sounded ridiculous when it cried. Ryou looked to see the cause of the mournful sobs was Jonouchi.
HA! The little wannabe badass is in tears too!
"Jonouchi-kun? What's wrong?" Ryou bent down on his knees to be at Jonouchi's level.
Jonouchi gasped, wiping up his tears at lightning speed. "R-Ryou?! What do you want?!"
Ryou leaned back a little in fear that Jonouchi would yell at him, but continued to speak. "I...I just want to help you, is all..."
How about we give him something else to cry about, hm? If he even touches you, I swear I'll rip his arm off.
Jonouchi looked like he could snap due to the other boy seeing him cry, but he pulled back and sighed, giving himself a face-palm. "Ugh, Katsuya Jonouchi, you are the biggest fool the world has ever seen..."
Ryou softened a bit. "...What happened? Did something bad happen to you and Yugi-kun?"
Jonouchi nodded, sighing again. "I threw a hissy-fit at Yugi."
The side of the white-haired boy's mouth curled up a bit. "A hissy-fit?"
"Yeah...I...I had a bad day and I took it out on him...I didn't mean to...See, I was told that if I didn't get my grades up within the next week, I'll have to repeat my senior year..."
"Well...I mean, I guess that's a good reason to get upset..."
"...It probably didn't help that earlier that day I'd been mugged..."
"Yeah, I gu-...what?"
The spirit laughed. Loser.
Jonouchi laughed. "Yeah...so I was grumpy all day, and then Anzu got onto me about something, and I went and overreacted and got into a fight with her, but then Yugi tried to stop the arguing and I yelled at him...he must be upset with me...I'm such a dumbass..." The boy buried his face in his lap again.
Ryou looked for something good to say in this moment of awkwardness. "Well...why don't you tell your friends why you were angry and apologize to them? They would understand, I'm sure!"
"I don't know..."
There was a moment of silence between the two boys. "You know...if it was me in your shoes, you would be telling me, 'If you started the problem, fix it yourself! Be a man and face up to it! If your friends are your real friends, they'll understand, so there's no reason to be scared!' Or...something like that..." Ryou said, deepening his voice when he did an impression of Jonouchi.
Jonouchi looked up at Ryou with fiery eyes. He raised up one of his hands, and Ryou flinched, scared that he had upset Jonouchi and he was going to smack him, but instead Jonouchi patted him on the back and grinned. "You know what? That sounds exactly like something I would say. Damn, you know me well!"
Ryou giggled as Jonouchi stood up, sniffling up the snot in his nose. "I think...I think I'll go talk to them..."
Ryou's eyes lit up. "Really? You will?"
"Yeah..."
The two heard faint crying noises again, and this time they came from down the street, and Jonouchi turned around. It was Yugi still upset, thinking he had done something bad to upset Jonouchi, and Anzu, trying to calm Yugi down. Soon came the moment of silence when all of their eyes met. Then, Jonouchi dashed down the road, Yugi doing the same, meeting with Jonouchi as they smashed together in a bro-hug.
They both cried. "I'm sorry, bro...I'll never treat you bad again..."
Yugi smiled, his words muffled as his face was buried in Jonuchi's chest. "It's okay, it's okay..."
Anzu stood at the other end of the road, saying something about bro-mance as she met eyes with Ryou. She waved, running to the boys where Jonouchi apologized to everybody and explained why he was upset, blah blah blah and all that mushy-gushy crap.
Anzu punched Jonouchi in the chest. "Ow! What was that for?"
"How dare you talk like that to me and Yugi? You can't just yell at other people and take out your anger on them!" Before Jonouchi could respond, Anzu shared a hug with him. "But I'll forgive you."
Ryou smiled as his friends laughed and talked with each other again. Look at that. You help 'em and those 'friends' of yours ditch you again. You must be so worthless that no one wants you.
Ryou gasped in horror as the numbness in his body returned, that same numbness that would appear whenever the Spirit took him over. It crawled up his arms and legs, and up his spine...
Finally, Yugi and his friends stopped talking. Jonouchi turned to Ryou. "Hey! We're still going to the arcade! Wanna come?"
Ryou's eyes widened. That's right...we were gonna go and have fun...
Slowly, the numbness receded. The spirit began to panic. W-What the hell?!
Ryou bit his lip, trying to look calm as a war raged inside of him as he fought against the ghost for control. You can't be here now! I'm...I'm not worthless, or stupid, or anything you say I am! I'm WORTH something, you asshole! They want to be friends with me not because they pity me, but because they like me for who I am!
The boy finally felt the numbness retreat entirely, and he sighed with relief, but the spirit still screamed at him. You think this is it? You think you're some superhero who can kick my ass? You think this is YOUR body?! I WILL BURN YOUR GODDAMN SOUL TO ASHES AND SEND IT TO HELL, YOU WORTHLESS PIECE OF-
"Is something wrong, Ryou?" Anzu asked.
Ryou nodded. "Yeah, I'm...I'm fine. Let's go."
...
"Thanks for letting me tag along, you guys." Ryou laughed.
"No problem! Thanks for joining us!" Anzu smiled.
"Yeah, and thanks for beating me at every single game in the entire arcade and never going easy on me EVEN ONCE." Jonouchi sighed.
"Yeah, it's bad enough he gets beat by Yugi all the time!" Anzu said.
"No, I'm pretty sure Jonouchi has beat me at a ton of games! ...right, Jonouchi?" Yugi said.
Jonouchi laughed and patted Yugi on his back. "Sure, dude."
"Well, we'll see you later, Ryou!" Anzu waved goodbye, walking away.
Ryou said bye to everyone and walked to his apartment building, plopping down on his bed when he got inside. He dug into his backpack to grab the book he had borrowed from the school's library, the one called Native American Spirits and Monsters.
He flipped through the old, worn pages and found the part about the monster called a "Chenoo". Once a kind human, the person would be turned into a cold demon that ate the hearts of other creatures for nourishment. The only way for the beast to become human once more was for it to be shown love and become warm again...Ryou became cold and numb, but was shown love and became warm again...
Damn, you're DENSE. You're actually comparing yourself to some fairytale, eh? Well, let me tell you this-you will NEVER get away from me. I will always make you cold again.
And I will never stop fighting back. My friends will, too.
UGH, this bullshit again. 'My friends love me! I'm IMPORTANT!' HA!
Ryou closed the book again and rolled over on his bed, drifting off slowly into the warm embrace of sleep. That's because I am. And we may be together until the day I die, but I will NEVER stop fighting against you.
We'll see about that, Host. We'll see about that...