Author's note: As promised, here's the next chapter! We're about half-way and that's also why things are gonna get pretty dirty, woops.

Thanks for the reviews, you fab people!

Warning: Heavy violence, blood and gore. Just a heads up!

Tokyo, Japan
September 21th, day 42, 5:27 pm

"Kaiba, I need to talk to you."

Said person turned to Ishizu with an annoyed look. "I don't have time for you right now. Yami's been missing for two days and we—"

"That's what I wanted to talk about," Ishizu interrupted him and urgently tugged at his arm. "It's important."

"Make it quick." Kaiba was unwillingly dragged to Ishizu's office and blinked when he saw the huge amount of papers on her desk. Most of them contained Yami's name or photos of him and he got a nasty feeling in the pit of his stomach. "You went through his files?"

"I had to. He wasn't telling me anything and I needed something to confirm my suspicions."

Ishizu closed the door behind her and leaned against it with her shoulders. The concern in her eyes was giving away her emotions and Kaiba merely stood there, not sure what to think. He knew damn well that something was wrong with Yami, but the way Ishizu was looking at him made him rather nervous.

"Did he tell you that his mother died fourteen years ago?"

"When his father was murdered, he mentioned something about him being his only parent, so I figured it out on my own," Kaiba answered, not liking where this was going.

"All right," Ishizu sighed and ran a hand through her straight hair. "He told me she just… died, but I could clearly see that he was lying. I decided to leave that matter alone until Sato-san reported to me that he had hit a bookcase exactly fourteen years ago. Don't you think that's odd?"

"Well, since you've called me here, I'm gonna go ahead and say yes," Kaiba retorted and folded his arms over his chest. "And so you went ahead and went through his files?"

"You wanted me to help him and this was the only way," Ishizu pointed out sharply and put her hands on her hips. "Those session with him aren't getting me anywhere. Most of the time he avoids my questions or gives half-assed answers and I can't work with that. If I'd seen something incredibly personal, I wouldn't have told you anyway. This, however, is crucial information that you need to know and, most importantly, answered all of my questions."

"Will you spit it out already?!" Kaiba raised his voice and slammed his hand on her desk. "So you've finally diagnosed him! Tell me."

"His mother was murdered fourteen years ago."

Kaiba's jaw dropped. The words were so casually thrown at him that he was completely taken aback. "… H-how? What—?"

"He suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder."

"Ishizu—"

"He willingly answered my questions when I casually asked about the symptoms. He suffers from insomnia, numbness, I can tell that he's worried all the time, he drifts off a lot, avoids my questions about his mother and told me they also moved when his mother died, experiences flashbacks unwillingly, and on top of that, he had a panic attack during our last meeting," Ishizu continued, ignoring him. Then, her eyes fell on the files. "Fourteen years ago, his mother was brutally murdered right in front of him. He tried to save her, but the murderer threw him against the bookcase, hence the scar on his back. The murder was reported to the police, but they never found the culprit. Why do you think he desperately wants this job, Kaiba?"

It was as if all the pieces of the puzzle he had wanted to put together so badly were finally put into place and he could see the whole picture now. Yami had always been quite jumpy, but the more he focused on this case, the more he started falling apart. It had been right in front of him all this time, and he hadn't even seen it.

"I…" he spoke lamely and stared at the files. "Shit."

"He wants to find the murderer and I don't think he will stop until he's found the man who ruined his life," Ishizu further explained and Kaiba wanted her to stop talking because he was starting to feel horrible. "He needs Yugi Mutou to be his suspect. Desperately. It's the only thing that's keeping him going at this very moment. He finally found someone — even though that person is probably innocent and doesn't have anything to do with the case — to blame."

It made a lot of sense, yet so very little. Kaiba gnawed on his lower lip and ran a hand through his messy bangs. "How come he didn't know? He studied these things for fuck's sake!"

"Or maybe he didn't care."

"That's beyond sick," Kaiba growled and for the first time, some emotion slipped into Ishizu's eyes. "That would mean he's trapping himself in some dark, twisted nightmare and keeping himself there while being fully aware of it. He's done some stupid things, but I don't think he'd let himself suffer like that."

"Well," Ishizu sighed and took a seat behind her desk. Keeping her eyes on the files, she started to shove them towards the middle so she could pile them up. "I personally think it's become worse because he has been working on this case. Maybe it hadn't bothered him that much until now, but now that he's surrounded by all kinds of triggers, it got worse."

"… Jesus Christ."

"I've talked to rape victims with the exact same symptoms," Ishizu said and there was a slight tremor in her voice. "They were completely fine, but the minute I slipped in the word "sex" or "rape" they'd be a complete mess. In Tanaka's case, he's been storing all those memories for fourteen years in the back of his head, locking them away so they wouldn't bother him. Because of his disorder, those memories are linked to heavy emotions, so it's only natural he doesn't want to talk about it."

Ishizu got up and placed her long fingers on the edge of her desk, looking up at him with a small frown. "He's not a idiot, Kaiba. I'm pretty sure Tanaka's fully aware of the fact that he needs all the help he can get and constantly makes sure he doesn't let anyone in."

Sensing the huge wave of guilt about the crash into him, Kaiba straightened up. "We have to find him."

Everything hurt. Yami was retching and coughing up more blood. His dry throat was aching for some water and his cracked lips were burning. He looked up at Yugi with nothing but hate and burning anger. Yugi, on the other hand, appeared to be more than satisfied with his actions and gently stroked the knuckles he had just used to punch Yami's jaw.

"Son of a bitch," Yami managed to breathe out.

Yugi smiled and brought their faces closer together. "I'm not the one who's accusing people here. Just trying to get some sense back into that cloudy head of yours."

Something wet was forced into his mouth and after that, a cloth was wrapped around his head, stretching his lips and cheeks to the point where Yami was sure it would tear. The more he struggled, the more it hurt and his breath hitched when a cold hand touched his neck for a moment, sending multiple shivers down his aching body. His eyes widened when he felt that Yugi was wrapping his very own tie around his neck. Before he could even stop himself, he started screaming uncontrollably, but his voice got cut off as the tie dug into his skin and prevented him from breathing.

His eyes nearly bulged out and he squirmed like a dry fish on land, wiggling his fingers and repeatedly hitting the chair with his back. Breathing was becoming impossible and it hurt so badly that he could feel the burning tears threatening to spill.

"Quiet," Yugi whispered harshly behind him and gave another rough pull. "If you continue to keep screaming like that, it'll annoy me. You don't want that."

Yami couldn't scream anymore even if he wanted to. The blood pounded in his ears, his head throbbed painfully and stars had started dancing in front of his eyes. Just when he thought he was going to lose consciousness, Yugi let go of the tie and Yami choked, trying to breathe as much through his nose as he could. His neck felt raw and it was as if he could still feel the tie there. He tried to hide his face when he felt the tears of panic starting to escape from his, but Yugi grabbed his sore jaw, making him yelp into the cloth and looked him dead in the eye.

"There's no blood on my hands. Got that?" Yugi's eyes sparkled for a moment and then his lips curled into a smirk. "Crybaby. You're not even half the man I thought you were."

"…!" The only sound Yami could produce was a small wheeze and he regretted it right away. His stomach did a few flips and he felt like he was going to throw up again.

"Now that I think about it, I'm actually glad we didn't end up together," Yugi continued and Yami looked up with a small frown. "Don't tell me you don't remember?"

Confusion took over and Yami blinked up at him, not sure where he was going with this. Nothing had ever happened between them, except for that kiss, and why the fuck was Yugi bringing it up now? Even in his current state, Yami couldn't help but be curious.

"That," Yugi began and Yami stiffened immediately when he saw Yugi raising his fist again. "hurts."

The hand collided with his jaw and this time, he heard a loud, echoing crack. The bone shifted and the horrible, sour taste of blood filled his mouth. The cloth was ripped out and he spit out the sticky liquid, feeling it dripping down his wet chin. He tried to swallow the remaining saliva and blood and licked his cracked lips with a shaky sigh. Talking had become a hard task and he didn't want to take another risk of throwing up again. His body was already trembling, in desperate need of food and water, and he was pretty sure that the amount of blood loss was causing enough damage already.

"High school, year two," Yugi put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed hard enough to make him wince slightly. "One week after our finals."

Yami slowly looked away as he tried to remember. One week after their finals must have been somewhere in May or June when he was hanging out with Anzu at the time and was probably somewhere in the locker hall. Letting himself go in the flashback, he saw himself leaning against the walls with his shoulder while talking to Anzu about their plans for the weekend. Anzu was telling him about an upcoming birthday party of her mother and Yami was about to tell her a story about Mana wanting to drag him to the swimming pool when someone approached them.

It was a guy from another class who was known to be quiet and a tad bit creepy because he always looked down and was sending off this awful vibe. For the first time, Yami noticed the guy was only a little bit shorter than him and had long, dark eyelashes.

Anzu had moved out of the way and was watching with caution as Yami was almost pressed against the lockers. The strange student merely stood in front of him and Yami blinked when he looked up for the first time.

"Can I talk to you?"

A big pair of haunting violet eyes stared up at him. Eyes that had seen way too much, just like his. The light had nearly died in them, but there was a small sparkle that was desperately trying to keep everything from collapsing.

"S-sure," Yami brought out with an awkward smile. "Everything okay?"

"Oh, yes," the other brought out with a shy chuckle. "But I was wondering if we could go somewhere more private?"

Quickly glancing over at Anzu and giving her a look, Yami tried not to appear too intimidated. Anzu shrugged and motioned for him to follow his fellow student to an empty classroom. Yami quietly shuffled behind him as they started walking towards the stairs, trying to think of reasons why "that weird kid from class 2-A" wanted to talk to him, of all people. He was nothing special, on the contrary, he was a pretty basic student who didn't cause any trouble and was always the one who barely passed his tests.

"This looks okay."

Yami almost jumped and looked up to see the guy pointing at a door that had been left open. He nodded and followed him inside, half-expecting the other to tackle him to the ground.

"So, what's up?" Yami inquired with a lopsided grin. For the first time, he looked at the student, really looked at him.

The kid was obviously very skinny, seeing that his uniform was way too big on him, his face was ghostly pale and he looked a little wobbly. His long, blond bangs did a good job on hiding his eyes whenever he looked down and Yami saw a small amount of freckles around his nose. A natural rosy color was on his round cheeks still, but his lips were awfully dry.

Violet eyes looked up at him again, almost catching him, and Yami felt the urge to run. "Do you, by any chance, know who I am?"

Oh no, Yami thought, shutting his eyes. Shit, shit, shit. "Sorry, I don't."

"Mutou, Yugi Mutou," the student said with a faint smile. "Jii-chan used to watch you and your sister."

"Oh…" Yami murmured absently and then his jaw dropped in realization. "Oh! You're the grandson he talked about all the time."

The smile on Yugi's face widened. "Yeah, I currently live at the Gameshop. My parents got divorced a while ago and he offered to take my mom and I in. So, we're sort of neighbors."

Shit, shit, shit, shit. "Ah. Right, right…"

"Anyway," Yugi waved it off and clasped his hands behind his back. "I thought you should at least know who I am before I tell you."

Still silently cursing himself, Yami managed to smile. Maybe Yugi was simply trying to make small talk and become friends, but Yami wasn't exactly sure what to do. Now that Yugi had finally talked, Yami could easily tell he was just a very shy and timid kid who probably didn't know how to talk to people. Then, much to his dismay, Yugi's cheeks became red.

"I know that this is very sudden and that we don't talk very often, hell, I don't think we've ever talked, and I'm not even sure if you'd be interested in the first place because you always hang out with Mazaki-san, but I've been watching you and… think you're really cool," Yugi started rambling and Yami's eyes widened, not liking where this was going. "I don't wanna pry or hurt you, but sometimes you look so sad and I wanna help you out or talk to you since I've also had my own experience with depression. Most people don't understand what it's like and avoid you because they think it's contagious or they simply don't know what to say. And I think that's unfair because I want you to happy— I-I mean, everyone deserves to be happy and so do you, because… because you look really handsome when you smile and your laugh is really great."

Yugi had never looked so happy. The usual dead look in his eyes was now replaced with euphoria and the exciting smile lit up his entire face. He looked so much younger, like a teenager, not like someone who had already lost faith in life. Even though Yami didn't even know him, it almost hurt to see him like this.

"So I guess what I'm trying to say is that…" Yugi mumbled, the blush on his face darkening, and Yami wanted nothing more than to drop off the face of the earth. "I like you, Tanaka-kun."

An involuntary sound came out of Yami's mouth and he felt the blood rushing to his face. "O-oh."

Yugi clenched his schoolbag and kept looking at his feet, like he had been ever since he started his confession. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have cornered you like this."

"No, no, it's fine!" Yami quickly spoke up, waving his hands in front of his face. "I just… Oh, wow."

This had never happened before. How was he supposed to react? They didn't even know each other. Yugi was patiently waiting for him to speak up while Yami was having a fight with himself because he had no idea what to say or do. He wasn't even sure if he could fall for another guy, let alone fall for Yugi. Plus, it was probably not a very good idea to be in a relationship since he had to take care of his father and Mana. He didn't have time to be running around, acting all lovey-dovey with someone he barely knew. Yugi would get hurt.

"I'm sorry," Yami lamely apologized and bowed his head, not daring to look Yugi in the eye. "I'm flattered…"

"It's okay." Yugi's voice had grown stoic again and Yami looked up in fear, feeling his heartbeat increasing when he saw that the little light in Yugi's eyes was now gone. Nonetheless, there was a smile on his face, even though it was far from genuine. "I understand."

"Yugi…" Yami clasped his hand over his mouth. He shouldn't have called him by his first name. "I mean, I'm sorry. I'm dealing with a lot right now and—"

"You don't have to explain." The words felt like knifes in his chest. "Like I said, I shouldn't have cornered you like this. I'm sorry. I gotta go."

Yugi slung his bag over his shoulder and Yami could merely watch him leave. Right at that moment, Anzu came running up the stairs and Yami turned around the corner to see Yugi walking in the opposite direction, his chin pressed to his chest. The guilt was already eating him alive, but it was better this way.

"Yami! I was starting to get worried," Anzu breathed when he was out of sight. "Are you okay? I thought he had kidnapped you, or something. He's so creepy, I don't trust him."

Yami frowned. "You don't even know him."

"Why are you defending him?" Anzu looked beyond confused.

He wasn't creepy, at all. Yugi was depressed and quiet and didn't know anyone here because he had to move when his parents got divorced. That was all Yami knew before he broke his heart.

"Yes, and the entire school knew by the end of summer break," a voice shook him out of his memories. "People laughed at me everyday."

The pain in his face, chest and everywhere returned and Yami shut his eyes. Anzu had told a friend who had been a stupid blabbermouth and told everyone. "Fuck."

"So you finally remembered."

Their eyes met and Yami found himself not able to grasp onto the fact that Yugi Mutou, the same shy, depressed teenager who had confessed his love to him in such a humble manner, was now standing in front of him with the most sickening grin he had ever seen. Not only had he crushed his heart six years ago, it had been completely wiped off his memory as well.

"I am so sorry," Yami barely whispered, hanging his head and feeling blood trickling down his lips. "I can't believe… that was you."

"Oh, right, now you feel sorry for me because you're scared of me," Yugi snarled and grabbed the back of his head, coming closer until their noses almost touched. Dark violet eyes shone with passion and anger. "Asshole."

"You have no idea what I was going through!" Yami yelled hoarsely and struggled against the ropes once again.

"Quit your whining." Yugi shoved his face back and Yami groaned in pain. "You know damn well that you didn't want me because you thought I wasn't good enough for you."

"I never thought that," Yami replied and it was the truth. "I didn't want to hurt you."

The illusionist narrowed his eyes and Yami felt his heart drop when a very sharp looking knife was pulled out of the other's pocket. The silver object was at least ten inches and Yami felt his body going stiff when Yugi teasingly ran an elegant finger across the edge. "Of course you didn't."

"Is this your revenge? Beating me up because I rejected you in high school?" Yami panted, trying to ignore his upset stomach. "Look, I'm sorry that I broke your heart but you gotta understand that I was in a very tight spot and couldn't afford to be in a relationship with someone at the time."

Talking hurt. It was as if there was an iron bar tightly wrapped around his chest and his breathing was completely out of control. If he didn't do something about it soon, he would probably start hyperventilating. More adrenaline pumped through his veins, causing his entire body to tremble and it got worse when he saw that Yugi was advancing towards him with that knife still in his hands. Every step echoed through the large room and Yami tried his best to stay as calm as possible, but his body wouldn't allow it.

Flex. Yami cried out in pain as the knife was planted into his thigh. The cold metal twisted and he could only scream as hot, burning pain shot through his entire body and made his head spin. Gritting his teeth and panting heavily, his body went limp and he bent over. It was as if the knife had sucked his last bit of energy out and as Yugi pulled it out, he could only groan and hiss. Warm blood oozed from the wound and seeped through his clothes. The pain was so intense that his upset stomach did a few more flips and this time, he couldn't keep it in anymore.

Acid matter made its way up to his throat, past his lips and with an uncontrollable yelp, Yami's body forced itself to bend over as he threw up whatever was still left in his empty stomach. Warm tears leaked out of his eyes while he could only watch the remaining content dripping onto the floor. He coughed a few more times and hung his head in defeat.

"The human body has its limits," Yugi's voice murmured above him and Yami managed to shakily raise his head. "I should get you some water."

Before Yami could stammer out a reply, Yugi turned on his heel and walked out the door. His body shuddered and he sighed when more tears streamed down his sweaty cheeks. Even though he was beyond exhausted, both mentally and psychically, Yami could still connect the dots. The door was slammed shut and he released the loud sob he had been holding in all along.

Yugi didn't want him dead yet.

Author's note: ... So yeah, there it is. Lots of info and other stuff. WE'RE GETTING SOMEWHERE.

Next chapter will be up next week~

Please review!