So here were are again for that chapter three! Thanks to Demons of the arch angel, Jezell, and FanficFemale for the reviews! And thanks to everyone that followed and favorited! You guys are just too awesome, especially the ones that have repeatedly left me their thoughts!
To answer, Demons-kun, yes, Anzu was glaring not only because she thought Yusei was going to be a bully, but because she thought he was gonna be a troublemaking punk in general. Also, the only reason Yusei gained friends so quickly is because of Yugi, and I'm being dead serious on that one. If it wasn't for him connecting them, Yusei, Anzu, Jonouchi, and Honda wouldn't have given each other the time of the day. I mean, think about it- they're all so different from one another. They'd have to leap the hurdles of their social prejudices against each other just to say pleasant "Hello"s, let alone be friends and make nice.
Also... about Yugi's grandpa... eh heh? Oops? XD I kind of just assumed people would understand that reference. One of the first jokes from the first chapter of the manga is Yugi accidentally misleading Anzu into assuming his grandpa passed away. Here, he did the same for Yusei lol. Which is why, when I wrote this chapter, I wrote it on the assumption that people would understand Yusei had that misunderstanding cleared up offscreen. So. Surprise!
The next couple of days passed relatively peacefully, with their little group getting along unexpectedly well. Mazaki, who was a little bossy but was hard-working and looked out for everyone, Jonouchi, who was crass and impulsive but undeniably loyal, and Muto, who was trusting and naive but was one of the kindest people he'd ever met.
And today...
"Yugi, some new cards came in today!" He heard from the door as he followed his new friends into Muto's home, which was also a game shop.
"That's great, Jii-chan! I brought some friends."
"Oh?" Muto's grandfather was a kindly-looking old man and was on the shorter side for his age, much like his grandson. However, unlike Muto's wiry frame, Muto-ojiisan had a stocky and broad build with strong shoulders and hands. It reminded him a bit of the stouter characters in Satellite; Yusei wondered if he worked with his hands much when he was younger. Muto-ojiisan's round purple eyes took in the group of teens, wandering from face to face before they stopped on Yusei in the back.
"And who are your new friends, Yugi?" Muto-ojiisan asked, his throaty voice still light and kindly despite his unreadable eyes never leaving Yusei. He found himself regretting come here; all his presence would do today is upset Muto and his grandfather.
Muto paused for a very brief moment, but continued before it became too noticeable. However, from the corner of his vision, Yusei could see their entire group of friends glancing between him and Muto-ojiisan. "Jii-chan, this is Jonouchi Katsuya-kun and Fudo Yusei-kun."
"Please treat me well."
"Nice to meet ya."
"Ho?" The elder hummed, stroking his gray beard in thought as his eyes scrutinized Yusei. Then, just as Yusei figured Jonouchi was going to say something confrontational, the old man's visage changed completely. "Well then, welcome to my shop you two!" He chuckled, a deep, rumbling sound in the back of his throat, and Muto grew an ecstatic look on his face at what seemed to be his grandfather's approval. "I'm Muto Sugoroku, pleased to meet you. Good to see you again, Anzu-chan." He winked at Mazaki, who grunted back uncharacteristically rudely.
The old man took it in stride, like it was something of a routine, and Yusei figured there must have been a story behind that. Frankly, he was surprised Muto's grandfather would be so amicable with him; acceptance was typically a fantasy in Domino City for someone like him.
"What kind of cards came in Jii-chan?"
"Oh! Come to the counter and I'll show you!" With a vigor and energy that belied his age, he scuttled behind the counter and hauled a cardboard box onto the counter. He chuckled his deep and throaty laugh. "This card game is especially popular in America! It's called Duel Monsters!" He brandished two familiar cards and Yusei's heart stuttered just at the sight of his favorite game. The game had caught on well in Satellite, for those who could scrounge enough cards from the garbage tossed out by the city, but he had hardly seen so much as a card in Domino City.
"Right now it's still a bit niche, but there are already television tournaments and even some Japanese champions. I get the feeling it will catch on here in Japan within the year." He explained proudly, handing out cards to his curious classmates. "Yusei-kun, wouldn't you like to see one too?" He invited with a kindly crease in his eye, once he noticed Yusei lingering in the back.
Taken aback by the open welcome, he mutely took one to look at. As expected, it was a card he's never seen before and he privately relished the happiness seeing new cards always gave him. "Oh, thank you." He said belatedly and with a quietness commonly attached to his words. The elder seemed amused by something and turned his attention back to their group as a whole.
"Each card has a picture and various descriptions that read how the card works. There are thousands of different cards, each with their own strengths and weaknesses." He explained.
Mazaki held two gingerly. "The illustrations are amazingly detailed- but some of them look kind of grotesque..." She grimaced a little at a particularly violent-looking card with a screaming woman.
"How do you play with them?" Jonouchi asked curiously, quickly rifling through them and glancing at two or three at once. He was an energetic kind of guy, always doing things at a fast, reckless pace.
Yusei couldn't really let that slide. "Be more careful with them." He admonished softly.
"Er- right. Sorry gramps." He sheepishly slowed down his rummaging and apologized to the owner.
Muto started to explain the rules, well, just the basics of attacking and defending with monsters. There was a lot more to Duel Monsters than that. Yusei couldn't ever resist talking about his favorite game whenever the topic came up. "There are also spell and trap cards for more complex strategies." He added.
"Oh, do you play too Fudo-kun?" Muto asked, round eyes delighted.
"Yeah."
Muto's grandfather seemed pleased by their genuine interest and added more information. "Since there are so many different cards, some are rarer than others. There are cards so rare they're worth more than a house!"
Jonouchi seemed especially baffled by this. "No way! Just for one little card?"
"Actually, Jii-chan has a pretty rare one right here in the shop." Muto said with a big and knowing smile. "Can you show them?"
The old man snickered with obvious pride, looking mischievously gleeful to show off. Well, Yusei couldn't deny anyone the right to be proud of their cards. "Well, since you asked. I suppose I could." He took out a small locked box from underneath the counter and inserted a key that he fished from out of his pocket. "Here it is, the Blue Eyes White Dragon!" He brandished the beautiful card proudly.
"Wow, it's so pretty, but it's also kind of solemn-looking too..." Mazaki leaned in admiringly. Yusei was surprised that he didn't notice, but she was right. The dragon was beautiful and majestic, but there was also a note of quiet solemnity and solitude in it's eye. That's the feeling he got anyways. From the first card he saw, Yusei always had a strange connection to the monsters in the cards, getting inexplicable, niggling sensations about them that others didn't. Most of his friends chalked it up to their unexpectedly spacey friend and his imagination, but Yusei himself never could. To him, the cards were alive.
"Hey, let's play some tomorrow you two!" Jonouchi grinned, brought on board and looking excited to try the game for himself. He and Muto immediately clamored around the desk to pick out cards to buy, but Yusei didn't want to spend much money this early in his stay at Domino City. There was a metallic ring from behind to signal a new customer entering the shop.
"Welcome!" Muto-ojiisan greeted the tall youth dressed in a crisp white suit. Yusei immediately felt his stomach clench and his teeth rattle at the sight. His experiences with Godwin taught him to pick up the tells of a practiced smile and the plastic air of polite interest. Despite the young face, the smiling newcomer was an uncanny replica of that polished demeanor hiding a ruthless hound his handler liked to wear. "So this is where you live, Muto-san?" He said with a thin smile that stretched his face like stiff dough left to dry out until it was unusable.
Muto, friendly and oblivious as always, didn't notice a thing off with him. "Oh, you're Kaiba-kun, from my class!" What? Yusei didn't remember a single face that looked anything like Kaiba's, and he would, when it so starkly reminded him of the one person he detested the most from this city. He felt a cold chill and found ice blue eyes staring at him like they were two holes punched into a serene landscape to reveal the true backdrop, a frosty wasteland.
"Oh, I'm sorry." The ritzy boy read the mental script he was following and apologized with sincerity to match. "It's only that I've never... well." He said, awkwardly touching his face in a mechanical mimicry of genuine fluster. "This is the first time I've seen such a nice branded."
Before Yusei could say anything in return, Jonouchi cut in irritably. "Don't call 'im that."
"His name's Fudo Yusei." Mazaki frowned, joining the blonde with gusto. Even Muto looked disapproving of Kaiba.
"Oh, you're right. I'm truly sorry, I must confess I'm more than a little sheltered. I can say insensitive things sometimes." Kaiba sensed his misstep and backtracked with the grace of a true conversationalist, sprinkling superficial self-deprecation in a pantomime of true humility.
It worked like a charm. His trio of classmates bought it with understanding looks. "Well, I can't say we weren't the same way, so I can get where you're coming from." Mazaki admitted with an apologetic look to Yusei, who held up hand in a forgiving gesture to her.
"Just don't do it again." Jonouchi grunted.
"Of course." Kaiba smiled at Yusei and he felt a cold, biting wind. "We should introduce each other properly, Fudo-kun. I'm Kaiba Seto."
"Fudo Yusei." He said politely, hiding his distaste with the thought that he couldn't afford catty feuds. Kaiba hasn't done anything anyone else hasn't done here, and so long as he doesn't do anything against him or his friends Yusei can get along just fine. Though, he still couldn't think of any moment in which he saw Kaiba in his class.
"So you're playing Duel Monsters?" Kaiba seamlessly redirected conversation away from his blunder and erased the awkward atmosphere with his flawless composure.
Muto perked up like he tended to do whenever a game was in the discussion. "Yeah, do you play it too, Kaiba-kun? Hey, maybe we should all play together!"
"Me? With you...?" That seemed to throw Kaiba for a loop and he stared at Muto like he didn't quite know what he was seeing. Then his face rearranged itself into it's carefully composed order and the brief pause only lasted for a second. "Well, wait a second. I don't know if you guys are even good enough to play against me. Let me see your cards." And just like that, Yusei's opinion dropped a little lower. It was fine to have confidence, but regardless if Kaiba was truly that skilled he shouldn't dismiss other players.
Kaiba snorted, and the first crack in his carefully crafted mask of polite nobility appeared. "Heh, no way. You're a total beginner; you wouldn't even last a minute against me. I'm the reigning champion from the national Duel Monsters tournament and I've collected nothing but the strongest cards for years."
"Strong cards aren't the only technique to winning, nor are they all that matter in the game." Yusei cut in, his unexpected interjection causing his friends to look at him in surprise. He wasn't one to argue, so it was understandable.
The reigning champion sent him a condescending look, "Come back and tell me that when you've won a championship or two. I won't waste my time on anyone less." Kaiba smoothly ignored Jonouchi's frothing and Muto's struggle to hold the blonde back with grace and poise that spoke years of experience with pissing people off and getting away with it.
Visibly bored with them at this point, the brunette went to the counter to conduct business. "Hey Ojii-san, you sell and buy cards here, right?" Kaiba asked, using the polite form of address for Muto-ojiisan, though Yusei could tell it was mocking.
The elder Muto struck him as sharp enough to notice, but was too patient to let it or Kaiba's rude behavior bother him. "Yes, of course." He said with a genteel smile. It was at that moment Kaiba's eyes had wandered to the valuable card on the counter. For a moment, the brunette went rock still and time seemed to freeze.
"O-Ojii-san...! How... this card! What's it-? Let me see it!" The youth's composure suddenly shattered completely and fragments of sentences gracelessly tumbled out of his previously smooth and charismatic mouth. His attempt to grab at the card was foiled when a wrinkled hand snatched it off the counter with surprising speed.
"Well, I suppose you can just look." Muto-ojiisan said with a mischievous twinkle in his round eyes. He passed it to Kaiba over the counter, who took it with shaking hands. There was a long and uncomfortable pause in which the youth in white just bowed his head and stared at it, leaving everyone visibly wondering as to what he was thinking and leaving Yusei more than a little worried.
"How much?" Kaiba said, the first thing he said for a solid two minutes.
A throaty laugh and a winkled hand plucked the card out of his hands, much to Kaiba's visible annoyance. "I'm afraid this one is not for sale."
In response, a disconcertingly determined look hardened his face. "Fine. I'll trade you this entire briefcase for that single card." The steel briefcase he had been carrying with him was slammed onto the counter with the force of purpose and the contents were revealed to be crammed from corner to corner with cards, some of which Yusei could visibly see were quite nice.
"That's unbelievable!"
"His trunk is stuffed with cards!"
His classmates baulked at the outrageous offer.
A deep throaty laugh. "Nah."
"And he refused him?!"
"That's even more unbelievable!"
They baulked even more at Muto-ojiisan's outrageous refusal.
Kaiba grit his teeth irritably. "Why not?"
The old man smiled, serene and patient. "You seem to want this card a lot, Kaiba-kun." Yusei noticed the less personal use of Kaiba's last name versus the first names he addresses Muto's friends with. "But the reason this card isn't for sale is because it was a gift from a very dear friend of mine in America. In short, this card is as valuable to me as my dearest old friend. It's a treasure worth more than any card in the world because of my sentiment for it. Valuing every last card is the true strength of this game."
Judai, Muto-ojiisan, and Muto the teenager. Yusei believed he had the privilege of meeting the three most wonderful people in Domino City and he wouldn't hear a word otherwise. Muto was unbelievably giving and kind, Muto-ojiisan was unbelievably patient and wise underneath his mischief, and Judai was an unbelievable mixture of the both. His lips curled into a conservative smile in approval of Muto-ojiisan's words.
Kaiba, for his part, sucked in a breath through his teeth, producing a sharp, hissing sound reminiscent of a snake. "Fine. I get it." He stuffed a fist into his pocket and trudged out the door. The teen struck Yusei as the type to get irritable when he didn't get his way.
"That was great!" Jonouchi cackled.
Muto beamed admiringly of his grandfather. "Jii-chan doesn't need rare cards to have fun! Or win!"
The elder Muto chuckled.
They stayed at the shop for another two hours, during which Yusei and Muto helped Jonouchi pick out cards and took turns drilling both him and Mazaki on how the game worked. While she didn't seem too interested in playing the game, she liked hearing about the rules and looking at the illustrations.
The next day saw the three of them sitting around a table and playing match after match. Yusei did his best to hold back and even refrained from synchro summoning, but he retained an uncontested winning streak against the both of them, which was strange because he thought for sure Muto would be a hard opponent. That being said, Muto himself had an unrelenting winning streak against Jonouchi.
"Crap! I lost again!" Yusei had to give the blonde credit for his sheer tenacity, a losing streak to two friends would usually deter anyone from a game, but Jonouchi persistently challenged them for match after match. He was getting the hang of the rules and the jargon with every duel, though; Yusei could visibly see his progress from every match played and every match watched. Muto got better and better against him at an even more impressive rate.
Their games were attracting attention from their classmates, who crowded behind Muto and Jonouchi and made a wide berth from his side. The result was an amusing cluster of kids nudging and elbowing each other instead of just moving aside because it meant getting closer to him. It used to bother him, but now he was jaded enough to see the humor in it. Their free period would be ending soon though.
His thoughts were interrupted when he felt a familiar chill.
"Yugi-kun." A polite and smooth and familiar voice cut in.
"Oh, Kaiba-kun!" Muto turned away from his blonde friend, who was busy being heckled by their other classmates for losing so much, and smiled in greeting to the approaching teen. Kaiba looked ill-fit in their school uniform; he was the kind of personality that only looked suited in something flashy and expensive.
His face stretched uncomfortably again, in that familiar and uncanny pantomime of a genuine smile. "Your game was fun to watch." It was fake. It was so obviously fake.
And Muto lapped it up with a sweet and delighted smile.
"But... if you don't mind me asking, could I please see that dragon card again? Do you have it?"
Yusei wasn't one to boss his friends around, but just as he was about to warn his friend to be careful another voice cut into the general din of their classroom. "Fudo-kun, could you please come to the front?" Their teacher called from across the room and with the worst timing possible.
"Listen, Muto-san-"
"The teacher called you, Yusei-kun." Kaiba smiled with slitted eyes and too much teeth and all the comfort and warmth of an arctic storm. The friendly address felt like pinpricks of frost crawling on his back, a weapon of discomfort and insult with it's proximity.
"Go ahead Fudo-kun." The small gamer smiled at Yusei too, but it was nothing like Kaiba's cold and robotic mockery of human expression.
His hands were tied; he didn't want to make a scene. "Be careful." He said and got up like he was leaving his friend to a proverbial den of lions. He didn't trust the cold-eyed teen's intentions.
The rest of the class had gone mostly quiet, save for the hushed whispering. Their teacher held the door into the hallway for some privacy. There was a slight pause as she seemed to be deciding what to say with a deliberating look. "Fudo-kun," She started, brown- no, honey eyes boring into him with a candidness he never recalled her possessing. "It's come to my concern that you might be struggling in my class."
Yusei was glad she jumped straight to the point. "I am." He said, not bothering to beat around the bush.
She seemed surprised at this. "Well, this is only the first week of class so I won't dally on the subject more than to warn you that if you're struggling this early in, than I advise getting a tutor or some help as soon as possible. Allow yourself to fall behind and it'll be a nightmare to catch back up, especially the way you are now, and the longer you wait the harder it'll get."
"Yes, thank you." He said politely, taking her advice seriously. Strangely, he remembered her being much more nervous during his first day, but maybe she was just getting used to him. He hoped his classmates would follow. When she continued to look at him expectantly, he felt himself foraging around for something he might have forgotten.
The silence stretched to uncomfortable lengths and beyond. "...Do you even know my name?" The teacher asked like she couldn't believe it was even a possibility.
He had the grace to look abashed. "No." And then a beat later, "I apologize." The name of his teacher might have been mentioned by that first receptionist or even on his schedule paper, but he was pretty distracted that first day with the constant barrage of foreign sights. Plus, she was so different that day that she hardly left an impression on his memory.
An exasperated sigh. "It's Tenjoin. Please remember this time." It was kind of impressive how frank and direct Tenjoin-sensei was, considering how tiny she was. She even had to crane her neck a little to look him in the eye, which she didn't hesitate to do anymore. Yusei liked forthright people.
"I will." He said and meant it.
She considered him for a moment and seemed to accept his words as honesty. "Good. I'm expecting much from you. You can go back now." That was a first, most of the other teachers contented themselves to keep a broad berth and unconcern themselves with him.
His fingertips had just brushed the handle of the classroom door when she spoke up again. "Fudo-kun." He turned back to her face, which looked oddly hesitant just when he was starting to grow used to her new blunt personality. "...Be careful around Kaiba-kun." And she was gone in a swish of gray and navy fabric, black heels clicking down the hall.
He had already had his suspicions about Kaiba, and Tenjoin-sensei's warning only confirmed their validity. Once inside the classroom, which immediately hushed at his entry, he sat back down with his friends.
"Hey man." Jonouchi greeted carelessly and Yusei nodded in response. Kaiba was gone, back in his seat at the back of the class and looking worryingly pleased with himself underneath his air of regal stoicism. More importantly, Muto's face had a discomfited look.
"Is something the matter, Muto-san?"
"O-oh, no! I'm sorry Fudo-kun! I was just spacing out!" The smaller teen laughed nervously, much to his suspicion.
"Eh? Something's wrong?" The blonde at their table cut in.
"No, no! Nothing's wrong!"
"Are you sure?" Yusei prodded.
"Yes, Fudo-kun." Muto continued to insist that he was fine, despite their attempts to coax anything out of him. He was surprisingly stubborn at times and Yusei knew from past experience that once Muto clammed up you couldn't get a peep out of him. Class sped forward through the day and, to his deepening concern, Muto would not be walking home with him today. The gamer claimed he wanted stay with a teacher to talk about something. Yusei had offered to wait for him, but Jonouchi, casual an unsuspecting, accepted the story and pushed the two along.
And thus a restless Yusei trying and failing to relax and concentrate on his work. Judai and their cat watched him bemusedly from the floor, their lack of furniture leaving them without a proper table or couch. Cat and human sat on the floor at their coffee table, using spare cushions from the storage closet as padding for the hard floor. "Yusei, you've been acting weird since you got home. What's eating at you?" His roommate had put up with it for quite a while before he said anything about it, talking over the short stretch between the living room and the kitchen.
Yusei had grown as accustomed to being read so easily as he could by now, but this would be difficult to explain. "Nothing much. Just a bad feeling." Judai had cooked tonight, something simple and clumsily made, and Yusei was grateful for the menial chore of the clean-up to distract himself with.
"A gut feeling?"
"I guess." He preferred to think about things logically, but he generally trusted his instincts when they were screaming this loudly at him. "There's not much I can do now though."
Yusei could hear the click and fizzle of the brunette popping open a can of beer; he generally had one a night. "Well, then that's that right?" He said cheerfully, taking a deep swig as the younger male made a questioning noise.
"Well, like you said. There's nothing you can do, so there's no point in worrying now." He explained. "It'd be more productive to think about what you can do tomorrow if something did happen."
The fact that he didn't bother telling Yusei not to worry at all was telling how well Judai knew him. It was helpful to have his thoughts cleared. "Thank you, Judai-san."
"Sure, no proble-"
Knock knock.
Someone was at the door? Yusei cast a look at the kitchen wall clock, who's hands read eight o'clock. It was kind of late for a visit from just about anyone he knew. Maybe it was a friend of Judai's?
"Crap!" His roommate suddenly hissed. "Dude, we have to hide Pharaoh!"
"What?"
"The cat! Landlady! At the door!"
"What?"
There was a mad scrabble and whirlwind of movement as Judai ushered their illegal tenant into his room and Yusei hid away their meager cat-related objects. All the while the doorbell rang at timely intervals and in the back of his mind he wondered what kind of name was "Pharaoh"
"Alright, we're good, I think." Judai said with a big sigh and flopped back down at their makeshift table. The mechanic was closer to the door so it was unspoken that he be the one to open it.
Hoping that Pharaoh would stay quiet, he gripped the handle of their front door and opened it to let their landlady in. He had never met her because Judai handled all of the arrangements, something Yusei had preferred because she might not have rented to them if she saw his trackers. At this point their hefty down payment of three months worth of rent would have proved them to be reliable tenants, so hopefully she wouldn't see fit to do so now. High heels clicked and gray and navy fabric swished through the door.
"Fudo-kun?" It was his teacher, except now her blonde hair released from it's tight bun and left to cascade down her back. She looked as surprised to see him as he felt to see her.
"...Tenjoin-sensei?" Belatedly, he remembered to shut the door behind her.
"Are you Judai's roommate?" First name basis? What? He nodded bemusedly and looked back-and-forth between Judai and the blonde woman, hoping for some kind of explanation.
The brunette only cocked his head. "Eh? You know Yusei, Asuka?"
She spared the older male a curt nod. "I guess I should introduce myself a little more." She smiled at Yusei, a friendly, but crisp, gesture. "I'm Tenjoin Asuka. Judai and I have been friends since we were very small. We currently go to the same school, but I'm substituting your homeroom teacher as a part-time job and lease this apartment." Wasn't that essentially two jobs on top of school?
"I know, right?" Judai snickered, who could somehow read Yusei's emotions despite the fact that he was sure he didn't move his face this time. "Asuka's a total badass."
"Enough of that." She said with a glitter in her eye and obviously suppressing a larger smile. "I only stopped by to check on you. To see how you moved in and if you were getting along with your roommate." Honey eyes glanced dryly at their sparse surroundings. "But I see I should have waited another week. Where are your furniture?" She asked with a tone that reminded him eerily of Martha. Asuka was likely asking a hypothetical question because she already knew the answer and didn't like it.
Judai laughed nervously. "Ah-ha. Well..."
"Yes?"
"Er- I might have forgotten to- well. I forgot to ask Yusei... if he had furniture too?" Judai had an exaggerated way of clumsily dancing around the topic if he knew it was going to get him into trouble. He was probably a horrible liar.
She just sighed tiredly. "I knew it. I knew you would forget to ask him first. I should have checked on that first before I let you handle your furniture-"
Judai cut in before she could develop into an exasperated tirade. "Asuka, Asuka, relax. We got this under control. Besides, I had a bunch of old crap I didn't need anyways."
Another sigh. It was becoming a common expression from his teacher. "Well, I know a good place. I'll send you the details later. Don't dally around fixing this place up. If you don't do it now you'll never get it done. And a good kid like Yusei deserves a nice place while he's in school." It would seem his roommate had saved himself from a reaming, but Yusei had mixed feelings about being treated like a kid. On one hand, it was insulting after everything he'd been through, but on the other it was very kind of Tenjoin-sensei to say that. Yusei was pretty sure that was the first remotely nice thing he had heard any of his teachers say.
"I'm fine with it." He said, surprising the two. Like any old pair of friends that got to talking, they got wrapped up in their own little world and probably didn't notice he had hardly said a word since she walked in.
"Be that as it may, Judai has a responsibility to you." What were they, married? "Look you two, I'm busy right now-"
"You're always busy-"
"-and I have to get going. Keep an eye on your inbox, Judai, and remember what I said earlier!" She ignored Judai's picking like it was her true profession and fussed at him to get things done like she was his mother.
"I hear you. Take care!" He called.
She was already out the door and had poked her head back inside. "Remember it!"
She closed the door to Judai's laughter. There was a stretch of silence.
"Judai-san?"
"Yeah?"
"She wouldn't really kick us out, would she? Over Pharaoh?" Yusei phrased that more like a statement because he already knew the answer.
"Ha! Definitely not. I just don't wanna get chewed out." It would seem Judai was a little less reckless than he thought. Tenjoin-sensei was a good friend to him.
The next day proved his worries mostly unfounded, as Muto arrived to class just fine and in one piece. That being said, there was an oddly sad look about him and Kaiba was absent from class. "Are you alright?" He asked his downtrodden friend.
"Yeah, I think so." He said, staring at the grooves into his desk. "Kaiba-kun and I got into a fight." He admitted in a rare display of openness.
"Is that so? Just words?" Yusei probably couldn't do much against someone so rich and powerful, but the least he could do is take him down a peg or two by beating him at his own game. He was the kind of prideful person who couldn't stand losing.
Muto sighed, contrasting Tenjoin-sensei's tired one by sounding sad. "Yeah, just words. It's sad to fight with friends though." There was a little shift to his eyes, to the side, and Yusei immediately suspected there might have been more than words. He couldn't see any injuries on his friend and he would be in a much bigger panic if Kaiba did anything else, so Yusei didn't press the matter any further.
"It is." He agreed, despite the fact that Kaiba was anything but a friend.
Sorry for the long A/N in the beginning! I just really love that I get to interact and talk to you guys. I know a lot of people really hate overly long A/N, but strong author/reader interaction is the one greatest privilege that fanfic authors get to enjoy over professionals, and I like to take full advantage of it. So. If you don't like long A/N be prepared because that's probably not going to change. At least I provide decently long chapters in exchange!
As always, thanks for taking the time to read Nux Historia and leave a review to tell me what you think of this latest chapter!
