2Revelation
Phys Ed used to be Jounouchi's favourite subject, no home work, no lectures, no boring time spent drooling over desks, and best of all, the teachers love him. He is, after all the Domino High star athlete. Unlike other subjects, there isn't much attention paid to sports, so the students are pretty much left on their own. The teachers, namely Mr. Z and Mrs. K are more than willing to kick back and relax while the blonde worked with zeal for each and every trophy that decorated their walls.
Ten minutes to go time, Jounouchi did his best to suck in his breath. No good, the bulges are still there, peering annoyingly through the thin tank top he had. Scowling, he glared at the mirror, no good. Perhaps, if he'd let go of that last piece of taco last night…
Even his coach was noticing it; he had put on weight, getting heavier on the hips and other areas... Not good for a runner like him. How the hell was he going to explain the weight gain? It's not like he wanted to gain weight, it, just, happened.
Nothing he did seems to get rid of those unwanted bulges, extra running, extra sit ups, push ups only seemed to encourage their growth, finally as a last resort, drastic cut down in food supply. It work, somewhat, at least the growth slowed down a little, therefore theoretically, it, is not, working. They just kept growing, and growing, and growing, and…
Spying a first aid kit, Jounouchi quickly unlock the catch with a practiced flick and took out a long roll of bandages, five minutes to go time, enough for what he had in mind. Half an hour of warming up later Jou found himself panting for breath, okay, maybe the bandages around the chest isn't the brightest of ideas yet.
A shrill whistle interrupted his thought.
"Okay people! Form two teams! I want all of you guys to participate, that goes for you too Mr. Kaiba! Go on, move it!"
Jounouchi sweat dropped at the tone, wondering what Kaiba is thinking now.
Unusually good mood for once, Kaiba apparently decided to let that remark slide; instead, he sauntered over to one side of the field, settling himself in one of the offensive positions of the football team. Jou and Yugi automatically picked the other side out of habit. Honda, having pissed off at being almost scratched to pieces by angry girls for 'stealing' Jou's lunches, took Kaiba's side. Ryou sided with Yugi, as usual, while Otogi placed himself in defence position with Honda.
The game began swift and deadly, with Kaiba and Jounouchi charging in at the ball, while Jou was built for speed, Kaiba more than made up for sheer power and strategy. The game finished its first 20 minutes with 1 - nil, Kaiba. Unwilling give up, Yugi brought the team together for a quick talk. Despite his diminutive form Yugi remains the ultimate strategist to Jou, when the time out was over, the blonde was bouncing confidently on his sided of the field.
Through some complex passing, Jounouchi managed to get pass Kaiba and landed a goal using Honda's face as a spring board of sort to secure the ball into the net. As predicted, the same trick couldn't be used on Kaiba; he mercilessly attacked the Yugi team, landing two goals in a row. Much to Jou's displeasure.
Half time came and went.
After a cheery pep talk, Jou felt ready to rumble again.
The second half began pretty much the same, until Yugi somehow managed to snatch the ball from Kaiba, and passed it along to Ryou. Who gave it a swift kick to one of the other boys of their team. Running way ahead of the ball, Jou gave a shout, and the ball was kicked to him well above the head of the all the players.
"Otogi! Stop him!" Shouted Honda, as best friend, he knew what Jou is capable of and that is Not a good thing for their team now.
Unfortunately, dice boy still wasn't sure what to do; he moved forward in an attempt to block the blonde. However, Otogi was never Jou's target, with three feet to spare; Jou suddenly skidded to a halt, turned and launched himself into the air, executing a perfect bicycle kick. The ball zoomed pass Otogi's ear, nearly grazing an earring, landed hard on the ground and bounced back with deadly accuracy towards the goal. The keeper was too stunned do anything but stare.
Breathing heavily, Jou gave Yugi a thumbs up, and weak smile. That kick had taken its toll on him, as well as all the running around. He still couldn't breathe properly, and was starting to feel sick again. Damn that last piece of taco. Sensing the weakness in the enemy, Kaiba moved in for the kill, with a vicious kick, he sent the ball hurtling towards Katsuya, attraction not withstanding against the competitive streak he had been born with.
With Bakura standing just behind him, the blonde damn himself for being heroic and took the blow. It plowed right into his stomach. He felt his teeth clicked together from the forced and the metallic taste of blood fill his mouth simultaneously with the acidic content of his empty stomach. Whiteness filled his vision; distantly he felt the tiny frantic shout of a worried Yugi, like it was happening miles and miles away. The smell of wet grass and dirt filled his senses, his vision turned blue flecked with white. It took him a moment to realize he was staring at the sky, with clouds that shaped like doughnuts and cotton candy.
The last thing he remembered was the harsh sound of Kaiba shouting, yelling at something…
Jounouchi Kyosuke senior stumbled uncertainly into the bright lights of the hospital lobby. Aside from a frantic message left on the phone, there was nothing else to clue him in on his son's whereabouts. A small scream on his left alerted his attention, and immediately he shifted to defensive mode. But it was only the night shift nurse, who looked like she'd seen a ghost floating naked before her in all its inglorious glory.
Heh, that young Katsuya had always been afraid of ghosts.
Shaking that random thought from his head, he lumbered closer to the counter, where the tiny looking nurse shrank back fearfully. Okay, now this is when being over 7 feet tall gives you the disadvantage. People became afraid of you for no good reason. Of course, he thought, as he absently rubbed the blonde stubble on his unshaven chin; there may be other reasons why people are afraid of him as well.
Leaning an elbow on the counter, he flash a mega watt smile at the frightened woman, and spoke in his best charming accent, "Hiya, Lady," he sniffed the air around her, Christian Dior?" That earned him a surprise but nervous nod from the frightened nurse.
"Nice," he grinned again, this time the woman gave a tiny smile back.
Gotcha.
"Are you sure it's this floor Honda? Maybe we should ask the nurse again."
"Uh, sure, this is where most of the minor injury patients stayed, you know, the one night probation thing,"
"Look, there's one of the nurses, I'll go ask," said Anzu, hurrying forward.
Yugi and Honda continued looking at the narrow beds placed haphazardly in the room. There was a bus accident earlier, and every bed is occupied, even the floors are lined with thin mattresses filled with groaning patients. Haggard looking nurses darted quickly between them like overworked waitresses on late shifts. The smell of blood mixed with antiseptics was thick in the air, if their blond friend is there, there seemed little hope of finding him that night.
Finally, Anzu returned, a stormy look on her face.
"None of them seems to have Jounouchi Katsuya on their lists," she said tightly, nose wrinkled against the smell, "That one even suggest we go look for him in the morgue, the nerve of her,"
Yugi almost choked at that, even Honda paled a little, but he recovered quickly, "I don't think she really means that, let's just go look for Jou ourselves, he's gotta be here" he gave the jammed packed room a sweeping gaze, "… somewhere…"
"Well, then, let's start lookin-"
"I'm afraid you three will have to leave now," A stern voice said, it was the nurse, the one who told Anzu to go to the morgue, "The doctor is coming to make his rounds soon and he won't be happy to see you here,"
She made shooing motions and more or less manhandled them out of the room. Within minutes, they found themselves standing outside the emergency ward, door slammed in their faces.
"Well, I guess that's that," said Honda.
"What do you mean? We still have to find Jou-"
"Listen, Jou's tougher than that, I mean, I know he fainted after Kaiba dealt him that football, but still, this is Jou we're talking about. We'll probably see him in school tomorrow all smug about that bicycle kick of his."
Yugi sighed, "May be you're right," He attempted a bright smile.
"We'll look for him again tomorrow if we don't see him in school," promised Anzu.
The smile turned genuine.
Jou awaken to the familiar, yet unwelcome smell of antiseptics and blood. It was the smell of a hospital room, a cramped hospital room to be précised, filled with the odours of unwashed bodies and the groans of other patients in pain. Jounouchi Katsuya hated waking up in a hospital. Usually it meant coming out of the bad end of a fight, or a run in with the more colourful characters in Yugi's life. Of course, that would mean waking up in a private, three bed room, with the absence of the smell of unwashed bodies and blood.
This time Jou isn't so lucky, heaped with the rest of the poor population, he was lucky to have a bed at all, never mind the lack of partition curtains. He'd just lost another game against Kaiba Moneybags Seto, puked blood in front of all his friends, said friends seemed not to care enough to visit him, his only sister miles away from Domino City.
Things can't get worse after this, right?
"Hello little Missy, got in'ter a fight 'gin?"
Okay, Jou could stand corrected; wearily he glared at the grinning teeth shining brighter than the golden bush that surrounds it.
"Buzz off dad,"