Looking down.
That was all Jack Atlas could do.
Every day, it was the same- walking on the streets, he was taller that everybody.
There was never anyone he could look up to. Even Martha had lost that special touch, that… that authority.
He was the tallest person anyone could see.
For miles, and miles, it was just him.
And it was lonely. It was heart-wrenchingly lonely.
The only one he would be able to look up to was his father.
Now, his father would stand at least a couple of inches taller than him.
But his father was dead now.
Every day, he would walk and walk, searching for someone, anyone, that he could look up to- a looming figure that, if anything, would just talk to him.
Someone like him.
Jack wasn't stupid.
He knew that life was life, and that life would go on.
That height didn't matter.
But that was only in literal terms.
Because height did matter, even if only to the one person who stood there with his fists clenched, tears streaming from violet eyes, rain soaking golden blonde hair.
It didn't matter to anyone else.
Not Kiryu, who had always taken it for granted.
Not Rua or Ruka, who were still too young to care about anything other than the joy of young life.
Not Crow, who was the shortest of them all, and yet loved every minute of it.
Not Yusei, who seemed to use it as an advantage.
Not Aki, because she'd been through too much to give a damn about it one way or another.
Not Jeager, because he had so much authority that height really did had no meaning.
Not Carly, because, God bless her, if she was tall, she's get seriously hurt each time she tripped over her own shoelace.
Not Misty, because she was famous.
Not Bruno, because, hell, he didn't even know who he was.
Only Jack.
He alone knew what it was like to face the world with no one above him.
And it was so, so lonely.
He had been like the others, once.
He, too, had been a carefree young child.
But then he grew.
And grew.
Until the only thing he could do was look down.
On the world he had grown to hate so much.
His carefree nature had grown distant.
As distant as the ground that he walked on.
He had become far away.
And he hated himself for it.
But this once, he promised himself, he was going to change.
Even if only for a fleeting moment, he was going to love the world.
And so…
He looked UP.
And he saw the sky.
And birds flying to their nests to shelter from the rain
And trees.
And the tops of buildings.
And an airplane flying high overhead.
The rain stung his eyes like hundreds of tiny needles.
But he didn't care.
And he realized something, then.
As he looked up, he realized that he wasn't alone.
He wasn't the highest thing around.
He could still love life.
And so, as he was looking up, he promised himself something.
He promised himself that never again would he be content with what he had been for so many long years.
He would look UP, from now on.
And he wouldn't spend his time wallowing in self-pity at the bottom of a sad little hole.
Looking down.