Doctor Ryouhou had been in the business for nearly twenty years now. He had traveled the world and had healed many sick people. His talents were very renowned and even now in his old age he had requests to go to foreign countries to help patients do their best. He was too old for travel, though. It was unfortunate, but he would much rather stay in his native lands of Japan. These minds were the ones he knew the best, the people he understood without a doubt. He felt safe here, at home; he had just started a new group counseling program after having a few months were several different patients.
Group therapy was often a touchy time, and sometimes Ryouhou had trouble believing it really worked at all. His methods were touted as being extremely different from his rival therapists, but this time he thought it might work. The minds he had spoken to and the conditions he had been diagnosing had been mostly the same, if the problems not different entirely. But that was the thing with group therapy. He thought by getting all these people in with such strange stories and conditions and bringing them together in the housing of a safe environment that they could help one another. He wanted to see them grow and get better.
The first session was going to be staged in a small town just outside of Tokyo- in the doctor's own home no less. He had a great outlook on it. He was the happiest anyone had seen him in a long time. He was getting to accomplish something new, to meet a brand new challenge.
"Doctor," A soft voice called.
A woman who must have been in her early thirties walked carefully up to him, lines of tension clear in her stance and all over her face. Her violet eyes lowered, not meeting his fully before she reached up to tuck a lock of blonde hair behind her ear. She was uncomfortable. Seeing this man had been in confidence. No one was supposed to know about it. How he even got her to agree to such a thing as group therapy was beyond her.
Well that and her lawyer had written up a confidentiality agreement for all the patients to sign. That eased her just a little, too.
"Ah," The old man smiled, pushing up his glasses. "Mai-san. How are you doing today? Apprehensive?" He called her out immediately. There was really no need for beating around the bush. Not on a day like today.
Kujaku Mai was in her own rights a strong woman. She had grown even stronger in the years that her adventures with Yuugi's group had ended. …but some nights she just couldn't breathe. She panicked for no reason. Things triggered attacks that she had no way to come out of until she was brought far away from a scene. And she just couldn't function like that anymore. So she'd gone to therapy.
This old doctor had helped her a lot, even in the short time they'd known each other. She owed him at least to try this group thing once.
Her arms folded and she tilted her head up. "Tch. I'm not scared if that's what you're implying." She lied. Her heart was already racing. Still, after saying so she smiled at him teasingly. "It's your big day old doctor, how do you feel?" This was as much about the patients as it was for him, she knew.
"We shall see. Go inside now, Mai. There are a few already here. We're only waiting on one more."
"Fine, fine." She sighed, still grinning though.
The door was opened and she saw the insides of his home for the first time. They'd talked about it on some days, when she really didn't feel like talking about what had happened to her in the past week. The house was just as she imagined it. Quaint, warm, with a loving touch. The living room had been rearranged, that she could already tell. It was bigger than she imagined, but that suited the purpose of this experiment just fine.
As she scanned the small crowd of people who had huddled up in groups of two or three, she found herself breathing a sigh of relief. She didn't know anyone. That was good. She hadn't thought she would, but now seeing that no one she was familiar with was here, she could finally relax.
"M-Mai-san?"
And then her day was ruined. Perhaps even her life. It wouldn't have been uncommon for someone to recognize her as a duelist. She had thought about it, but she had just prayed that it wouldn't happen. Now that it had, what was she really going to do?
Smiling she turned. "Yes? Someone wants an autograph?" She deflected her anxiety with humor.
Once she saw who it was, however, any hopes of recovery finally fleeted out of her life for the last time. There was no coming back from this.
Wide violet eyes were staring at her from the doorway, and with them came that unmistakable hair. That tri-colored, gravity defying, triangular shaped hair. Mai's smile left her, in its place a soft sense of resentment though it was quickly buried under unconditional happiness. Yuugi had always made her happy whenever she saw him. He was just so cheerful. For him to be mad at him for being here was nearly impossible.
"Hey short stuff." After all these years he still hadn't grown too much. Just enough to look more like a man and less like a kid, but he'd always be a kid to her. Her shoulders dropped and she turned fully to look at him. "What are you doing in a place like this?"
He smiled, a little embarrassed, and moved from the doorway. "I think I wanted to ask you the same question."
He, too, had been one of Ryouhou's patients for a while now. With all that had gone on, and how his life just had to pick up normally where before it had never been so normal… it had left a strain in his mind that he just couldn't seem to ever break free from. He was unwilling to go at first, but Anzu had asked him more than enough times, and when it became pleading, he finally went.
"It seems that some of weren't as lucky." He tried to keep on smiling even though seeing her there hit his guilt complex in a way he didn't want to handle right then. Her being there was probably his fault. And he hadn't known she needed therapy until he saw her just now. He thought Mai-san had always been strong enough to pick up and carry on.
How stupid.
She had been treated poorly and her life handled the worst out of a lot of his friends. What happened with Malik's other self, and the Orichalcos… yes, Yuugi realized. Mai might have been strong, but how could he not have been there to talk to her after all that had transpired? Had he really left her to carry on those problems he'd led her into?
She reached forward to put a hand on his shoulder. "Don't look at me like that, Yuugi-chan." A wink accompanied with a grin. "You're not thinking I'm some weak damsel in distress, are you?" Her humor still shined through, the only way she knew she was going to get through a situation like this.
Yuugi found himself laughing softly with a shake of his head. "Of course not! Mai-san can take on anything at all!"
Her arms folded under her chest and she nodded. "That's right! So quit it with the sad eyes. Your face wasn't meant for unhappiness."
The two shared a knowing smile, and despite the trepidation both had felt upon realizing the other was there, now a common bond had formed in just a little under two minutes. They both needed help, but they both were still strong. They both would still carry on. So what if they needed someone to talk to? Someone to help? It felt so … normal of a thing to do after all they'd been through. And each breathed a simultaneous sigh of relief when they came to that conclusion.
Before they could have a seat, however-
"Didn't mean to be late! Sorry! Sorry!"
The two turned quickly, shocked look on each of their faces; as it was mirrored on Ryouhou's last patient arriving.
"Now that everyone is here," the doctor chimed in behind the man standing in the doorway.
"Unreal…" Jonouchi breathed out staring first at Yuugi and then Mai.
The two stood awkwardly, painful look upon their face. Jonouchi too? Mai had chased after a failed relationship with the man for a while. How could she have not known he would end up in a state like this? And Yuugi… Yuugi was his best friend. He should have been the one Jonouchi was talking to all this time. And yet, here he was.
Here they all were.
"Unreal!" He shouted quickly a second time, angry all of a sudden. "You two were here the whole time and not one of you had the mind to talk to your buddy Jonouchi?" It seemed he was taking it as a personal offense.
Mai huffed. "Don't give me that line! I thought someone as strong as you wasn't supposed to need someone else's shoulder to cry on." The humor had vanished, replaced by anger at being caught and being accused of being weak.
"Jonouchi-kun," Yuugi added sadly. "You couldn't talk to us either?" He wondered why he was cast aside for a professional opinion. Their friendship had always been so strong. Surely he could have helped.
Jonouchi's head turned up. "I just… I didn't wanna bother either of you! That's all! It's for stupid stuff anyway!" Stupid things no one else needed to know about. His father, being second rate all his life, failed relationships, being controlled… He just needed somewhere to spill it out, to a face that wouldn't judge him. Not that he thought any of his friends would, but they didn't need to know all his insecurities.
Silence hit the room.
It was broken rather quickly by Mai laughing so hard she had to hold her sides. "Jonouchi… you don't understand anything do you?" She said through laughter. "After all this time…"
Yuugi joined in, not as enthusiastically but giggling nonetheless. "Jonouchi-kun, Mai-san, I think none of us understood." He said wistfully through those completely opposing chuckles. Once he was finished, those bright violet eyes of his youth returned, ready to take on the world once more. Just in smaller scale.
"But we can try now."