Anzu made her way down the hall with a spring in her step. She could barely contain her excitement about the meeting her class was going to have to discuss the school festival coming up in just a few days. She'd already drawn the best location for their stall in the lottery and all they needed was a good idea. They had a lot of work to get done and she was eager to get things going.

She rounded the corner and saw one of her teachers walking down the opposite way. Her excitement dwindled, giving way to nervousness. Chouno-sensei was nice enough on a good day, but she had a knack for finding even the smallest of infractions when the mood struck. Her nickname was the 'Expelling Witch' for a reason. It was best not to earn her attention.

"Mazaki, may we speak a moment?"

Dang it.

"Oh, hello, Chouno-sensei," Anzu said, coming to a stop and giving a polite bow. "Of course. I'm on my way to our class meeting for the festival, but I can stop for a moment."

Chouno-sensei's smile didn't fully meet her eyes. "This will only take a second. I wanted to reach out because I'm worried about you."

"Worried?"

"Yes, I've noticed a change in you and it's just got me so concerned."

"Oh," Anzu's brows drew together and she tried to think of anything she'd done differently over the past little while and coming up empty. "I'm sorry to have worried you. What changes should I be trying to fix?"

"Well," Chouno-sensei said with a glint in her eye, "you can start by trying to get along better with your classmates. Try not to get any more of them into trouble."

"Trouble—wait, is this about Kokurano?" Anzu asked. He was the only one she could think of who she could have gotten in trouble, and for a good reason. "All I did was report what he was doing and what I thought he was going to do next. If he got in trouble, it was his own fault."

"Ah, ah," Chouno-sensei admonished. "We're not here to play the blame game. We're here to discuss your wild claims and storytelling."

"I didn't make anything up!" Anzu insisted. She cleared her throat and tried to keep her temper in check. If she could deal with nightmare restaurant patrons with professionalism, she could deal with Chouno-sensei in the same way. "He confessed to setting the fire at that kid's house and to the bit about the chloroform once everything was taken to the police, and there was enough evidence for him to be expelled. I'm sorry for the misunderstanding, but I didn't do anything wrong."

"All I'm saying is that I find it hard to believe that someone like you could garner that kind of attention," Chouno-sensei said as she flipped back her long hair. "Besides, by your own admission, nothing happened to you anyway."

Anzu clenched her fists and swallowed past the lump forming in her throat. She could feel her façade of professionalism cracking. She wasn't a liar and she wasn't a troublemaker.

Chouno-sensei's grin seemed more genuine as she took in Anzu's state.

"If this pattern continues, I might have to look a little further into your activities and decide how well you fit in to our school community."

Anzu's breath caught in her chest. While she did her best to be a star student in school, if Chouno-sensei were to discover that she had a part-time job without an official exemption to the school rules…

"I'll do my best to avoid conflict from now on," Anzu said with her best customer service smile despite the roiling rage and hurt in her chest. "May I please get back to class?"

"Of course," Chouno-sensei nodded. "Enjoy the rest of your day."

The teacher's bright red high heels clacked as she made her way down the hall, but Anzu found herself frozen in place. Why was Chouno-sensei doing this? Kokurano was a creep who got what was coming to him.

Anzu couldn't help the few tears that fell, but she did her best to recover quickly. She wiped the wetness from her eyes and took a deep, calming breath. She could worry about Chouno-sensei later. Right now Class B needed their festival committee representative. She couldn't let them down.

Once she got her emotions back under control, she made her way to class.

-Line-

"Sorry I'm late everyone!"

As the class welcomed her, Yami looked up and smiled in greeting. His smile faded when he saw the redness of her eyes. It looked like she had been crying, but she seemed happy enough. Maybe he was imagining things.

"Alright!" Anzu said when she stopped in front of the chalkboard. "If we're all ready to start, let's get some ideas going for our attraction at the festival! If you have a suggestion, raise your hand."

Yami sketched a few cubes on a scrap piece of paper as his classmates raised their hands and made suggestions. Despite all the inane chatter, Yami found himself starting to feel a little excited as ideas were passed around. The haunted mansion Class C was hosting was sure to be fun, and the various food shop ideas that were brought up had Yami's mouth watering already.

Okay, maybe he was a lot excited. He was only human after all, and he could put up with large crowds of people for one day.

"No need to continue," Jounouchi said as he practically stood on one of the desks. "I've got the winning suggestion here. We steal guests away from the other classes and have what I like to call a 'Real Highschool Girl Cabaret'. Of course, sex appeal will decide the winner—"

"Shut the fuck up!" One of the girls shouted as she threw her book at Jounouchi. A few of the other girls joined in until Anzu demanded that everyone settle down, acting like she hadn't just thrown a chalkboard eraser at Jounouchi and told him to drop dead herself.

"Now, does anyone have anything else?" Anzu asked. "Anything at all?"

"Cosplay contest!"

"Student wrestling!"

"Takoyaki!"

"Okay, okay," Anzu laughed and waved one hand while frantically writing down ideas on the board with the other. "Slow down! I can only write so fast."

She turned back to the class, scanning the room before calling on Hanasaki, who had his hand hovering near his ear with a nervous energy.

"Uhm…" Hanasaki glanced around the room, his face turning red now that all the attention was on him. "Uh… a comedy manga dojo."

The rest of the class stared at him and Hanasaki's pale face turned scarlet as the silence grew.

"Not a bad idea," Anzu said, writing it up on the board. "I'll write it since it fits."

Yami gave a thumbs-up when Hanasaki looked his way, only for Hanasaki to startle like he'd been caught and avert his gaze.

Strange, Yami thought as he leaned back in his seat and fully faced the board again. Ever since the day with the TV crew, Hanasaki had been more than skittish around Yami, at times outright avoiding him. Yami had done his best to try to be a little nicer to the likely traumatized kid, but if anything, that just made things worse. Maybe he should go back to passively ignoring him.

"Yami?"

Yami looked up to see Anzu and the rest of the class staring at him. From Anzu's tone, she must have said his name a couple times already.

"Sorry, what is it?"

"Do you have any ideas for the festival?"

"Oh… yes, of course I do," Yami said, hoping to come up with an idea by the end of his sentence only to be disappointed… and people were staring. Shit.

"Are you going to tell her what it is," Honda piped up, his voice setting Yami on edge, "or are you just trying to build suspense?"

Yami turned in his seat with a glare and opened his mouth to make a snappy retort, stopping only when Jounouchi cleared his throat. Right, he was supposed to be civil with the clown. With more effort than it should have taken, Yami huffed and turned back around to the front.

Anzu shot Honda a warning look before turning back to Yami, an expectant look on her face. What the hell was he supposed to say? He rested a hand on his puzzle and weighed his options when something came to him. Not quite an idea of his own, but not quite an outside influence either. More like a whisper that hadn't been voiced, a mere suggestion of thought.

"We could… do carnival games? Like at an amusement park?"

The room was quiet until one by one, the rest of the class started to chatter excitedly about what games they could set up.

"Alright then!" Anzu smiled while Yami tried to blink away his confusion at the sudden approval from his classmates. "We'll build a carnival game!"

"Nice one," Jounouchi said, elbowing Yami jovially. "Not as good as what I came up with, but it is a crowd pleaser."

"Thanks," Yami rolled his eyes. Despite obviously being better that Jounouchi's cabaret, he couldn't quite believe that it was his idea they were going with. Or if it even was his idea in the first place. "Though I'm not sure why you thought any of the girls would go for the cabaret idea."

"You don't know if you don't try," Jounouchi shrugged, leaning back in his seat and stretching his arms over his head. "Besides, it's all in good fun."

"Right," Yami said sarcastically. "Speaking of fun, if you could keep that jerk—I mean, keep Honda from being a snarky asshole every chance he gets, we'll be golden."

"I'll talk to him," Jounouchi said, glancing over to Honda briefly. "He's not trying to be a jerk, I swear. It's just—we're like that with each other and I think it's his way of initiating you into the friend group."

It was an excuse, but one Yami supposed he had to accept. At least, he had to if he wanted to prove to himself how genuine this friendship really was. Despite their heart to heart, there was still too much he didn't understand about why Jounouchi had changed his tune, why they were friends now. If Yami was going to get to the bottom of this, he had to play the game.

"I suppose," Yami said, shaking his head of his line of thought before he fell down a rabbit hole. "At least he's accepted that I won't buy him his stupid books or carry his shit just to keep the peace."

"I think having to pick his bag up out of that puddle taught him you don't take 'playing catch' well."

"If he didn't want his crap on the ground, he shouldn't have passed it to me."

"If you two are done talking," Anzu interrupted, glancing between Yami and Jounouchi, "we still need to work out just we need for games set up."

In the end, they ended up choosing three ideas: a human pop-up pirate type of game, hit the bottles, and target practice. They would need to do a lot of work to get it all set up and get the prizes, but Yami was cautiously optimistic.

-Line-

The sound of hammering and voiced instructions filled the late afternoon air as everyone worked together to get their booths set up. Jounouchi was impressed by how good everything looked despite how fast it was being set up. They'd probably be done before the day was out and could just take the next day to relax before the festival.

"So, what did you want to talk about?" Honda asked, turning Jounouchi's attention back to him.

"It's nothing big," Jounouchi hedged. "Just, I thought you were trying to be friends with Yami but you're still being a dick."

"I'm not being a dick," Honda said with a bit too much defensiveness.

Jounouchi raised an eyebrow at him, earning a sigh in response.

"Look, I never said I'd be his friend," Honda said, avoiding eye contact. "Just that I'd be civil with him. And I am."

"Really? Because it seems more like you're 'building suspense'."

"Okay, I know you're trying to be clever and turn my own words on me, but that makes no sense in context."

"Dude, come on," Jounouchi crossed his arms. "Can you please just try harder? For my sake?"

Honda groaned and rolled his eyes. "Okay, fine. I'll do better."

"Thanks," Jounouchi uncrossed his arms. "I really do appreciate it."

"Yea, yea," Honda dismissed with a wave. "But you owe me."

"You get to hang out with me. What more could you possible want?"

"Don't push it."

"Um, J-Jounouchi?"

The two turned toward the voice to see Hanasaki standing close by. As soon as the focus was on him, Hanasaki shrunk into himself and his glasses fell down the bridge of his nose.

"Uh," Jounouchi said, glancing back at Honda briefly, who looked just as confused as he felt. "Hey, Hanasaki. What's up?"

"Um, I was just wondering…" Hanasaki mumbled the rest of his sentence.

"What was that?"

"Can we, uh, talk?"

"Uh… sure." Jounouchi looked back to Honda. "Do you mind?"

"Whatever," Honda said and shrugged his assent. "I should probably go find Yami and try to be civil at him. Plus, Anzu's starting to give us the stink eye for just standing around. Wish me luck."

"Good luck!" Jounouchi shouted after him, noticing that Anzu was in fact glaring in their direction. He turned back to Hanasaki.

"What's on your mind?"

Hanasaki took a deep breath and kicked the ground. Jounouchi considered just rolling his eyes and walking away to avoid the waste of time when Hanasaki finally spoke.

"Yami has a split personality, doesn't he?"

Jounouchi startled and looked around to see if anyone else heard Hanasaki's blunt accusation. Fortunately, it didn't seem like anyone had. Jounouchi tried to play off his reaction as stretching by throwing his arms over his head and laughing it off. With any luck, Hanasaki would be a gullible idiot.

"Whaaaaat? Where did you get an idea like that?"

"Uh," Hanasaki cleared his throat and shrugged. "One of my Zombire comics had a v-villain like that. The character was normal until the evil personality took over and started being, uh, well, a villain. The signs of a personality change matched with what I read anyway, so I thought maybe."

"Yuugi's not a villain," Jounouchi scoffed, realizing too late what he'd said.

Hanasaki's eyes widened as if he hadn't expected to be right. "Yami's split personality is called Yuugi?"

"Shh!" Jounouchi looked around again. Satisfied no one had heard or cared about what they were talking about, he motioned for Hanasaki to follow him. Once they were beyond the school gate and out of earshot of the general public, Jounouchi pointed a finger into the very alarmed Hanasaki's chest.

"Did you tell anyone about this?"

"N-No! I swear. I mean, I wanted to ask Yami about it, but I, well, he's… I didn't know how to bring it up, and well, you were there too so you probably knew."

Jounouchi sighed in relief and let himself relax, which seemed to also put Hanasaki at ease.

"Good," Jounouchi nodded. "You can't tell anyone about this. Not even Yami. Understand?"

"W-Why? He's not dangerous, is he? Uh, Yuugi, I mean. And Yami too, I guess."

"No," Jounouchi hedged, unsure how much he should say, "but it's complicated. Just—just keep it quiet, okay? If you tell anyone, I will find out."

"Okay," Hanasaki stared at his own shoes. "I won't say anything."

"Thanks," Jounouchi said, smiling when Hanasaki looked up again. "I appreciate it."

Hanasaki considered Jounouchi for a moment, the responded with a tentative smile of his own.

"I don't really understand what happened, but I can guess at how bad things would have gotten for me if you guys hadn't interfered. So, thank you. Both of you. All three of you."

"Don't sweat it," Jounouchi nodded, ignoring the pang in his chest that came with the reminder that Yuugi had all but disappeared. "I'll let them know when I see them."

"Thanks," Hanasaki nodded, still not looking up from his shoes. "Well, that's all. Thanks… again."

Hanasaki left pretty quickly and Jounouchi leaned back against the gate. He just needed to take a moment.

-Line-

Honda walked up to where Yami was working on a large papier-mâché pirate head. Yami hadn't noticed he was there yet, and Honda considered just going to work on something else. It was a lot more appealing.

No, Honda thought. Think of Jounouchi.

"Need a hand?" Honda asked before he could stop himself.

Yami startled, nearly dropping his paintbrush, and turned to glare at him. "You can start by not giving me a heart attack."

Oh, hell no.

"I'm just trying to lend a hand. If you want me to leave, I've got better things to do."

Yami took a deep breath and shook his head.

"I'm sorry for the outburst," he said, not sounding sorry at all. "If you're not too busy, I could use help setting up the barrels."

"Gladly," Honda said, not glad in the least. He picked up a hammer and nails, and got to work on setting up the inner mechanism. They worked in silence, speaking up only to ask for more nails or to pass the paint. Soon, Honda was confident the 'pirate' would pop up without causing injury and stood back to admire his work.

"Nice job," Yami said, setting the now finished head down and inspecting the barrel. "Do you do a lot of wood working?"

"I help the family out with home repairs every now and then," Honda shrugged. "Nothing too complicated, but it gave me a solid place to build on."

Yami hummed in acknowledgment and began cleaning up the paints and other materials. Honda gestured to the surprisingly cutesy-looking pirate head.

"That's pretty good too. You paint?"

"Not really," Yami shook his head and looked at his papier-mâché creation. "Just patient enough not to rush it."

"Who's going to be the pirate anyway?"

"I made it to fit Jounouchi's head," Yami said with a sly smile. "Anzu said he'd be perfect for the job."

Something about Jounouchi in a pirate head shooting out of a barrel filled Honda's heart with glee. He fought to contain his laughter.

"I don't know," he mused, considering the pirate head in front of him. "Jounouchi's pretty big headed. You might have made it too small for him."

Yami furrowed his brow a moment, then a wide grin spread across his face as he picked up the pirate head. "Maybe you're right. Wanna a try it on for size?"

"You're not getting that thing on me," Honda shook his head.

"Come on," Yami said, holding it out to him. "You never wanted to be a pirate?"

Honda grinned. "More of a toy soldier kind of kid."

"You two seem to be getting along," Anzu said, walking up with Miho in tow to inspect their work. "Great job guys!"

"Thanks, Anzu," Yami said as he put the head back down.

"You must have worked really hard!" Miho said with her sweet voice and the most dazzling smile Honda had ever seen.

"Yea," Honda laughed. "Really worked. Hard. Worked hard, I mean."

Oh god, Honda, stop talking.

Miho giggled and Honda felt a blush bloom across his cheeks. She was so pretty it made his chest ache, and she had the prettiest yellow ribbon tied neatly in her pretty hair. Sweet, tidy, and organized Ribbon-chan. She was the very picture of perfection.

"Um," Miho said, and Honda realized he was staring. "It really looks good."

Honda cleared his throat and looked back at their work. "Thank you."

Honda cursed his own awkwardness. Fights, he could deal with, but something about pretty girls just shut off every cell in his brain. Why couldn't the ground just swallow him up so that he couldn't embarrass himself further?

"What do you brats think you're doing here!?"

At the approach of the upperclassmen, Honda huffed. The universe had a really sick sense of humour sometimes.

"Preparing for the festival of course," Anzu answered. "Did you need help with some—"

"You're joking!" the leader, Inogashira, interrupted. "Every year for the past three years, Class D has used this spot for our festival event!"

"We've already marked it!" Anzu shouted back, standing on her tip-toes to stare Inogashira in the eye. The girl had guts, Honda would give her that. "We got this spot in the lottery fair and square!"

Inogashira burst into laughter as his gang snickered behind him. This was not looking good.

"Hey!" Jounouchi's voice shouted and Honda glanced over to see him running toward them from the school gate. "You heard her. We drew the lot fair and square, so get the hell out of here."

"Listen," Inogashira turned to him and did his best impression of a fortress wall. "Every year, we come to this spot to cook okonomiyaki. It's tradition! So take this stupid 'carnival game' trash somewhere else!"

"Or maybe you can take your iron plate and go to your own spot," Honda shouted, taking a protective stance in front of Miho in case things took a turn. "Get the hell out of here!"

"Yea," Jounouchi said, taking a step closer so that he was almost nose to nose with Inogashira. "Beat it."

"Go die!" Inogashira shouted and swung at Jounouchi, who twisted out of the way just in time.

"Stop it!" Yami shouted and inserted himself between Inogashira and Jounouchi, much like he had back when he'd defended them from Ushio. The righteous anger in Yami's sharp amethyst eyes struck something within Honda.

That's how he must have looked back then.

"This is our booth," Yami continued. "Leave now."

Inogashira snickered and grabbed Yami by the front of his jacket. "How are you going to make me?"

"Yami!" Jounouchi shouted as Inogashira threw Yami out of the way, causing Yami to smack his head off the iron plate the other upperclassmen were holding.

Miho gasped behind Honda. He took her hand and led her to a safer distance from the booth while Anzu rushed forward to check over Yami's unconscious form. Meanwhile, Jounouchi glared at Inogashira.

"You son of a—"

"I hope I'm not interrupting!"

Everyone stopped and looked over at Chouno-sensei's approach. Honda took a sharp intake of breath and let go of Miho's hand.

"Now, is this any way for students to behave?" Chouno-sensei's sickly sweet voice made Honda's flesh crawl. "And Anzu, I'm surprised at you. Getting involved in another situation after our talk just the other day."

Anzu's face grew red and she set her jaw defiantly. "With all due respect, Chouno-sensei, we drew this spot in the lottery. It rightfully belongs to Class B."

"Ladies shouldn't lose their tempers at others," Chouno-sensei admonished.

"Mazaki's right," Jounouchi said. "The spot belongs to our class. Can't you check the records or something?"

"This is a student matter," Chouno-sensei said with a smile like knives. "It would be inappropriate for a teacher to get involved. You need to come to a peaceful resolution through discussion yourselves. Remember, violence isn't the answer. You don't want to get expelled, do you?"

Jounouchi let out a long slow breath, but didn't dare say anything more.

Chouno-sensei hummed happily and turned her attention over to Honda. "You, take this one to the infirmary. I'll follow up to assess the situation. I have some activities to look into."

Chouno-sensei glanced meaningfully in Anzu and Yami's direction before she sauntered away. At her retreat, Honda moved to do as she said while Jounouchi turned back to Inogashira.

"This isn't over."

"Oh, I think it is," Inogashira grinned. "Unless anyone else wants to take a chance with the iron plate."

Inogashira snapped his fingers and the rest of the upperclassmen used the iron plate as a battering ram to knock down the carnival game.

"Shit!" Jounouchi shouted as the rest of their classmates rushed out of the way. "Shit!"

Honda carefully positioned his arms under Yami and did his best to pick him up without causing further damge. Anzu, for her part hovered by Yami's head, apparently making sure it didn't move around too much.

"How is he?" Jounouchi asked, having given up on cursing the upperclassmen out.

"Unconscious," Anzu said, looking frazzled. "We have to get him to the infirmary now. And our stall—"

"Don't worry about that," Miho said, sidling up to them. "I'll take care of this mess. I know you want to make sure Yami's okay."

"Thanks Miho," Anzu said with a grateful smile, Miho smiled back and went off to round up their classmates. Anzu turned back to Honda. "I'll help you bring him to the infirmary."

"Thanks," Honda said as he adjusted his grip on Yami. "The sooner we get him checked out, the better."

"While you do that," Jounouchi said as he looked back over his shoulder at the iron plate dominating the now destroyed carnival games, "I've gotta see a man about some okonomiyaki."

"Don't do anything stupid," Honda warned.

"Come on," Jounouchi scoffed. "When have I ever done anything stupid?"

Honda didn't bother answering, deciding it was more important to get Yami to the infirmary as soon as possible.

"Come on, Mazaki."

The two walked in an awkward silence. Honda, for his part, was thinking about how Yami had tried to stand up for Inogashira. For a brief moment, he wasn't looking at Yami, the stuck up holier than thou jerk he'd bullied. Instead, he'd seen Yami, the brave kid who had stuck up for them and made fast friends with Jounouchi.

He still didn't like the guy, but maybe he'd been wrong to write him off completely.

Anzu sniffed at his side and broke Honda out of his thoughts.

"You okay?"

"Huh?" Anzu glanced back at him and shook her head. "Yea, I'm fine."

Honda wasn't quite sure he believed her, but he didn't push the issue.

-Line-

The nurse had said that Yami seemed fine, but that she would have to look him over once he was awake before she would let him leave. Not wanting him to wake up alone, Anzu sat in the chair beside his bed and watched over him.

While she hated the circumstance that brought him here, Anzu couldn't help but notice how calm he looked now compared to when he was awake. He always had a kind of sharpness around his features, a focus that seemed a bit too intense at times, but now…

She carefully placed a cold cloth from the bowl on the bedside table onto the growing bruise on his forehead, carefully adjusting his golden fringe. He had been so brave back there, standing up for his friends. Like a knight in shining armor. Anzu felt the sudden urge to kiss his bruise as though the mere tender act could make it fade away.

No, she told herself, taking her hand away from Yami's face. Stop being ridiculous.

At that moment, Yami's eyes fluttered open and he met her gaze.

"Anzu?"

"Hey," Anzu scooted the chair forward so that she was closer to the bed. "How are you feeling?"

"Like I got hit in the head with a cold iron grill," Yami said, trying to sit up.

"Slow down," Anzu placed a gentle hand on his shoulder and guided him back into a reclined position. "You shouldn't move around too quickly."

Yami gave up with a sigh. "Fine. Is everyone okay? We don't have to move, do we?"

Anzu hesitated a moment, but that seemed enough for Yami to draw his own conclusions.

"Oh."

"Everyone's fine," Anzu assured. "You were the only one who got hurt. But the games… well, there's always next year."

Yami watched her carefully, and Anzu fidgeted under his gaze.

"Are you okay, Anzu?"

"Me? Yea, I'll be fine."

"That's not what I asked," Yami said as he sat up, removing the cold cloth and ignoring Anzu's plea for him to lie back down. "Are you really that upset about the games?"

"I…" Anzu's gaze dropped to her hands. "I am disappointed about the games. Everyone worked so hard to make this beautiful thing, and those— those complete jerks destroyed it."

Yami seemed to hesitate before he spoke again. "You looked like you had been crying before we came up with the games too."

Anzu tried to keep her feelings under control, but something broke inside her. She felt her face go red and she couldn't stop the tears from making their reprise. She hid her face in hands and just let herself cry. As her tears fell, she told Yami about her chance meeting with Chouno-sensei. How the teacher had threatened her and how it was only a matter of time until Chouno-sensei found out about her part time job and used it to get her expelled.

"I don't even know what I did to earn this kind of treatment," she finished, sniffling as she tired herself out. "I don't know why she'd do this."

"Anzu…"

She wiped away her tears and looked up to see Yami staring at her sadly, like he wasn't sure what to do. Anzu smiled and took the cold cloth from him and returned it to the bowl on the bedside table before picking up the bowl and bringing it to the sink across the room.

"I'm sorry for unloading on you like that," Anzu said, feeling embarrassed. "I should be comforting you since you're the one that's hurt. Speaking of, I should let the nurse know that…"

She turned around to see Yami had disappeared. She looked around and there was no sign of him apart from the disturbed bed sheets and the open window.

-Line-

Chouno hummed as she adjusted her hair in the mirror and assessed her make up situation. Maybe she should try a little more lipstick, just to complete the look. There, now that was a pretty face.

Still, there was a cross to bear when one had such a pretty face. It was up to her to keep everyone in their place. A job she enjoyed, sure, but it was a responsibility nonetheless., and not one she took lightly.

Whether it was men who thought they were worthy of her or women who dared think they could achieve the same level she had, Chouno delighted in breaking them down.

Speaking of, she had some more investigating to do on that Anzu girl. It wasn't that she didn't believe her about what Kokurano's plans were, despite what she may have told the girl. There was no doubt that that boy was a creep and a criminal who was rightly found out and disciplined, but that was hardly the issue. A plain, short haired girl like Anzu needed to be taken down a peg and Chouno couldn't stand by and allow her to form a false opinion of herself.

If that meant sending her away, well. So be it.

Chouno winked at herself in the mirror and left the lavatory with a spring in her step, reveling in the clacking her high heels made as she walked. She loved feeling powerful.

She stepped through the school doors and barely had a moment to appreciate the fresh evening air before someone shouted.

"Chouno-sensei!"

Chouno turned to see that Yami kid standing a little ways off, standing between her and the staff parking lot and silhouetted by the rapidly setting sun. She wondered if Anzu had told him about their little conversation. Maybe she could get rid of him too. Two birds with one stone.

"Hello, Yami," she greeted. As she neared him, she noticed that Yami didn't quite look like that angry little goth he was in class. He seemed… different somehow. Softer. Nervous. That suited her just fine. She preferred her students to fear her, and she could expel him either way.

"You shouldn't be sneaking around school grounds after hours. Who knows what kind of mischief you could be getting up to."

"You threatened my friend," Yami said and even his voice was different. Maybe Chouno had been mistaken? "I can't let you hurt her any more."

Chouno laughed. "I'm sure I don't know what you mean."

Yami took a deep calming breath and pointed a finger at her, the determination in his soft features contradicted by his trembling hand.

"It's game time."

-Line-

Jounouchi paced outside the destroyed booth, his nerves electrified and his hands itching to do something. He was in his element, the anticipation both soothing and agitating him in equal measure. It was always this way before a confrontation. He just hoped that Inogashira would get there soon. He was going to lose his mind if he had to wait any longer.

"Jounouchi."

Jounouchi turned to see Inogashira approaching and he couldn't help the grin that spread across his face. Fucking finally. He'd get to do something.

"Glad you could make it," Jounouchi said, crossing his arms.

"You've got guts calling me here after sundown," Inogashira said, stopping a little ways off from Jounouchi. "Well, what did you want?"

"You need to get your crap off our games. Your claim to the spot is bullshit and you know it."

"And how do you plan to convince me? I don't see your little bodyguard here to help you."

Bastard, Jounouchi thought as his hands balled into fists. This guy was so going down.

"You're going to pay for everything you did," Jounouchi said in as mystic a tone as he could. With a dramatic flourish, he pointed a finger at Inogashira and stared him down. "I challenge you to a game!"

Inogashira just stared at Jounouchi like he had three heads. As the moment silently stretched on, Jounouchi started growing more and more self-conscious. How the hell was Yuugi able to make this seem so intimidating? The guy was like a happy little elf. You'd think someone like Jounouchi would have the edge in this situation.

"I don't have time for this," Inogashira said and tuned to walk away.

"Get back here you son of a fuck!" Jounouchi shouted with indignation. "I'll fight you for the spot, alright?"

"I'm listening," Inogashira turned back to him and Jounouchi noticed his fist poised low at his side.

"If you win, you get to keep the spot. I'll even clear away the rest of our stuff so you don't have to. But if I win, you and your lackeys get this fucking iron thing off our booth."

"Fine by me," Inogashira shrugged and sprang toward him like lightning. Jounouchi dodged the sucker-punch and elbowed between Inogashira's shoulder blades.

Inogashira grunted and rounded on Jounouchi again, but Jounouchi ducked under Ingashira's incoming fist. Jounouchi swept his leg around and knocked Inogashira's legs out from under him, only for Inogashira to grab Jounouchi's leg and pull him to the ground along with him.

The breath was knocked out of Jounouchi's lungs and he wasn't able to avoid the strike his face. Inogashira pulled his fist back again, but was momentarily distracted by some wailing noise in the distance. Jounouchi took the opportunity to roll out of the way when Inogashira's fist came down again.

"YOU SON OF A BITCH!" Inogashira cried out as his knuckles met concrete.

Jounouchi kicked Inogashira in the face twice and sprang to his feet to deliver a punch of his own, knocking the upperclassman out cold.

Huffing out a breath, Jounouchi spit out a glob of blood and saliva. He probed the spot Inogashira had hit with his tongue, and while his teeth did cut the inside of his cheek, there didn't seem to be anything loose or missing. Jounouchi would could that as a win. He rolled his shoulders and winced at the twinge in his upper back. Hopefully that wouldn't be too annoying.

"Jounouchi-kun!"

Jounouchi wheeled around, a little off balance, but hardly caring. He had to make sure he wasn't hearing things. When he stopped, his heart clenched. There, running towards him from the direction of the staff parking lot was the last person Jounouchi had expected to see.

"Yuugi…"

"Jounouchi-kun," Yuugi rushed forward, his gaze locked on Jounouchi's injured cheek. "What happened? How badly are you hurt? Is there any more damage? What—"

"Whoa, slow down," Jounouchi raised his hands to try and calm Yuugi's frantic questions, still reeling from both the fight and the sight of his friend. "I'm okay, really. What are you doing here?"

Yuugi didn't seem completely convinced of Jounouchi's claims, but he let it go in favour of gesturing back the way he'd come.

"I was taking care of something back there when I heard a shout. I thought maybe someone was in trouble…"

"Oh," Jounouchi said, looking where Yuugi had gestured, but not seeing anything except the headlights of a car disappearing down the road. "Is everything… taken care of?"

Yuugi nodded, but didn't seem very interested in making eye contact.

"Well," he said, taking a step back from Jounouchi. "If you're okay, I should probably—"

"Oh, no," Jounouchi said, grasping Yuugi's elbow before he could get to far. "You're not going anywhere. Not until you've told me where the hell you've been. I've been worried sick about you! You can't just leave like that with no warning!"

Yuugi flinched and Jounouchi instinctively let go of him. The last thing we wanted to do was accidentally hurt him again.

"I… I'm sorry, Jounouchi-kun," Yuugi said, shuffling on his feet. "I didn't mean to worry you. I just—I needed some time to process everything that happened and—and what I am."

"What do you mean?"

"There's so much of myself that I don't know. I'm Yami, but I'm not Yami. The longer I'm awake, the more I realize how separate I am from him and I don't know what or who that makes me. I know the puzzle is what awakened me in the first place, but beyond that everything is a blank. I don't know what I'm capable of and… and I'm scared."

Jounouchi sighed and ran a hand through his hair, at a loss for how to help Yuugi. What could you even say at a time like this?

"You know," he began slowly, "it's okay for you to be scared. I mean, this is heavy stuff. If I were in your position, I don't know how I'd deal with it.."

Yuugi hummed in acknowledgment.

"But," Jounouchi said, finally making eye contact with Yuugi, "you don't have to deal with this alone."

Yuugi sighed. "I'm terrified every time I'm out now. I can't just lock myself away because I can't leave Yami to face danger by himself. Last time I did, he almost got crushed by falling bookshelves. But at the same time, I can't trust myself to control whatever powers I have. What if something goes wrong? What if I end up hurting Yami, or you, of one of the others?"

"That's dumb," Jounouchi blurted out, earning a stricken look from Yuugi. Jounouchi rushed to clarify. "What I mean is, think about all the people you've protected because you care. Hell, you ran over here because you thought someone who could have been a perfect stranger to you might need help. Doesn't that show you what kind of person you are?"

"But—"

"The fact that you care enough to lock yourself away or whatever shows just how seriously you take your power. Someone that concerned about hurting innocent people will make damn sure it'll never happen. You're a good person, Yuugi, and if you can't see that, then it's up to me to show you. That's what friendship is."

Yuugi's eyes grew misty and Jounouchi rested a hand on his shoulder.

"I know you're scared, but you've got support. I'm right here for you."

Yuugi smiled and wrapped his arms around Jounouchi in a tight embrace. Jounouchi, for his part hugged back and pretended like Yuugi wasn't aggravating the growing bruise on his back. It was worth a little pain to have his friend again.

"I missed you, buddy."

"I missed you too."

When Yuugi let go and stepped back, Jounouchi grinned. It was then he remembered what had happened earlier today.

"Uh, speaking of people being there, Hanasaki says thanks." When Yuugi just looked at him with confusion, Jounouchi cleared his throat and stared at the ground. "He, uh, he kind of figured out that you exist."

"What!?" Yuugi squeaked and Jounouchi did his best not to laugh at how silly he sounded.

"He promised not to say anything about you, but he did want to thank you for saving him back then."

"Oh," Yuugi nodded, seeming unsure if he should relax or not. "That's nice of him. I was happy to help."

Jounouchi smiled and mussed up Yuugi's hair, enjoying the indignant squawk Yuugi made in response. He'd missed that sound.

-Line-

Everyone in Class B worked hard to move the iron plate and re-do set up for the games. The festival was the next day and all the other classes had long since gone home, but it looked like they just might finish in time. Anzu was so proud of all of her classmates, especially (and surprisingly) Jounouchi. He hadn't said how he convinced Inogashira to give up the spot, but given that Inogashira was rumoured to be out sick and that Jounouchi was sporting a rather nasty looking bruise, Anzu could guess.

While she didn't approve of his methods, she couldn't deny their effectiveness.

"It's nice to see you smile," Yami said, startling Anzu out of her observations.

"Oh," she nodded and tried not to blush. "Yea, seeing everyone come together like this is really a mood lifter. I think we might actually pull this off. How are you feeling?"

"Fine," Yami said and touched a hand to his forehead. "It's is a little tender but it'll pass."

"Not if you keep poking at it," Anzu said, pulling his hand away from bruise. "I wish you hadn't run off yesterday. The nurse was pissed you left before she could examine you."

A strange look crossed Yami's face before he shrugged it off and looked back toward the booth. "I knew I was fine."

"I see," Anzu said, not fully convinced of his answer.

"I should go help Honda. It looks like he needs help convincing Jounouchi to be the pirate."

He walked off, not bother to wait for an answer.

Anzu huffed in frustration. She wanted to press the issue until she heard a familiar clacking sound. She looked toward the school gate and saw a figure in a wide brim hat, sunglasses, and a scarf covering most of their face walk past their booth. It was only by the bright red heels that Anzu recognized the figure.

"Chouno-sensei?"

Chouno-sensei stopped in her tracks and Anzu thought she was glaring at her, though it was hard to tell because of the overlarge sunglasses and scarf in the way. Even with these obscuring factors, Anzu was shocked to see that the bits of skin that were exposed were sickly grey and scaly.

"I won't be your sensei for much longer," Chouno-sensei snapped back. "I can't work here after—"

Chouno-sensei cut herself off and took a deep breath and muttered a reprimand under her breath. Anzu didn't catch more than "remember" and "beautiful again". When Chouno-sensei next spoke, it was in a tone both contrite and forced.

"I apologize, Mazaki. I was unfair to you, and let my desire for power guide my actions. You getting attention, good or bad, is not a threat to me."

"Oh," Anzu said, taken aback both by this sudden apology and that that the words themselves sounded nothing like Chouno-sensei. It was as though she were parroting someone else. Still, at least it was an apology. "Thank you, sensei."

Chouno-sensei harrumphed and started walking toward the school again.

"Sensei," Anzu said before she could stop herself. Chouno-sensei stopped and turned back around again.

"What?"

"I just… good luck. I wish you the best in your future."

Chouno-sensei just stared at Anzu, as though she wasn't sure what to say. When she finally did respond her skin looked warmer and a little less scaly.

"Thank you, Mazaki."

She started walking back toward the school again and Anzu returned her attention back to the stall. That was so strange. Just the day before Chouno-sensei seemed laser-focused on digging something up on her to get her expelled. It was like a switch was flipped and now Chouno-sensei was apparently leaving her job.

She looked over to where Yami stood with Jounouchi and Honda. Well, 'stood' wasn't quite accurate. Honda had Jounouchi's arms pinned to his sides while Yami tried to fit the pirate head over Jounouchi's head. Jounouchi, for his part, kicked out his legs and loudly protested the group decision to pirate him up.

Anzu vaguely wondered if Yami's disappearance the night before and Chouno-sensei's sudden decision to quit were connected. She couldn't see how, but her gut wasn't usually wrong.

Anzu shook her head. This was a coincidence, and nothing more.

Nothing more.

-Line-

The carnival games were a huge success. So many people had come through that they were quickly running low on prizes. Still, even with the huge crowd of people, Yami found himself having fun. Mostly because they had managed to convince Jounouchi to be the pirate and many of the girls from their class took this as an opportunity to get back at him for his cabaret suggestion.

"Damn," Jounouchi said as he took off the head and sat next to Yuugi. "I need a fucking break. How did you guys get me to agree to being a projectile?"

"Coercion, mostly," Yami shrugged. "You holding up okay?"

"Nothing I can't handle," Jounouchi stretched his arms up and winced. "But just for now, I should see if Honda will switch places with me. Maybe if I play the hero-who-got-our-booth-back card, he'll take pity on me."

"Good luck with that," Yami said, sincerely doubting that Honda would agree.

"Or," Jounouchi said as he glanced at Yami with a mischievous glint in his eye. "If we get this past the hair, I think you'll make a great pirate!"

"Don't you dare—"

Jounouchi sprang into action and tried to slide the pirate head over Yami's.

"Dammit, Jou!"