Erm. I have plenty of pretty good reasons for why this chapter is so late, but I'm sure you'd much rather just read than listen to me ramble. And as for why it's so short? Well, I dedicated it to Yuugi and his lack of height, of course!

…Alright, that's a lie. Mostly I just wanted to finally give you guys something, no matter how small it is.

Anyway, once again, here's a big thanks to all my lovely reviewers! You guys are the ones who help me stay motivated. Reading a nice, thoughtful review lets me know people really do like what I'm doing. Your comments make me so happy!

Ahem. But enough of that; like I said, I'm sure you'd rather just get to the story.

Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh.

Content warning(s): mentions of alcohol abuse

Chapter start!

Submersion

By: The Half-Blood Guardian

Chapter 7: Troubling Topics

Yuugi sat in his chair at school with his brow furrowed. Absently flicking a pencil back and forth across the top of his desk, he racked his brain in search of missing memories for what was probably the hundredth time in the last week and a half. As always, nothing came to him. He just couldn't remember anything between heading to class with Jounouchi-kun on the first day of school after Ushio's death and staring down at his bedroom floor hours later, the sky completely black outside his skylight window.

It was the second time that type of thing had happened, and in under a week, no less. Had he… hit his head harder than he'd thought in his last confrontation with Ushio? Before then, he had never suffered from blackouts. He nibbled on his bottom lip, fidgeting in his seat.

In an action that had somehow already become second nature to him, he reached for the Puzzle hanging around his neck. He gently took the artifact into his hands, and almost instantly, his mind became fuzzy. Although he made a half-hearted attempt to grasp the thoughts that were slipping from his brain, it only took a few seconds for him to completely forget the troubling topic he'd been pondering. The fog lifted from his mind, and he blinked, glancing around.

For a moment he was confused, but quickly came to the conclusion that he'd been daydreaming. He briefly tried recalling what he'd been thinking about before coming to the conclusion that it didn't really matter. The chances that he had been daydreaming about something important were very slim.

He turned his attention to the world outside the window, watching with mild interest as a small bird that he recognized as an Asian stubtail (where he'd learned that information he had no clue) hopped between the branches of a young kusunoki tree maybe fifteen feet from the school building. Those trees got pretty big, so it probably shouldn't have been planted so close. The branches facing the school would have to be repeatedly cut back as it got older, not to mention the root system might damage the building's foundation; when he was younger there had been a trio of kusunoki trees at a park a few blocks from his home, and the city had had to cut them down when their roots started tearing up the sidewalk and threatening to damage the road. He remembered feeling sorry for them as he walked past their stumps, since they hadn't meant to do any harm and if they'd just been planted further from the edge of the park they wouldn't have caused any problems.

"Mutou!"

Yuugi jumped, his attention snapping to the front of the classroom where the stern-looking Chono-sensei was scowling at the teen. All around him, the curious and amused eyes of his classmates stared at him as well. Yuugi slouched in his seat and ducked his head low between his shoulders, anxiety rising up inside him at all the attention he was receiving.

"Y-yes, Sensei?" He squeaked, causing several students to snicker. A blush of mortification colored his cheeks.

"Since you have obviously been paying such close attention, I think you should be able to answer my question easily." A deafening silence followed his teacher's statement, and it was all Yuugi could do not to shrivel under the hawklike gaze that continued to bore into his own. Seconds passed, and quiet giggles started to overtake the room until a quick glare in the direction of the offending parties silenced them. "Well? I'm waiting, Mutou." Yuugi swallowed convulsively.

"I'm… sorry Sensei, but… c-could you, um… please r-repeat the question?" He asked, barely above a whisper. A short wave of giggles rippled around the classroom again, quickly stifled to avoid the strict woman's wrath.

"See me after class, Mutou. We need to have a few words about your behavior."

"Yes, Sensei," he said quietly, sliding even lower in his seat. When the teacher turned back to the board, Yuugi glanced over at Jounouchi. The murderous glare his friend was directing at the back of the woman's head made Yuugi feel a little bit better.

Jounouchi waited for Yuugi after school, then walked with him all the way back to the Kame Game Shop. The blond smiled a bit awkwardly when Yuugi gave him a heartfelt thank you, and nodded when the smaller teen told him to get home safely.

Once Jounouchi started heading off, Yuugi finally noticed that the sign for the shop was flipped to CLOSED for the second school day in as many weeks. Curious, he unlocked the door and made his way up the stairs to the living quarters. Sugoroku was in the kitchen, and Yuugi headed towards him.

"Jii-chan? Why's the shop cl-?" He cut himself off when the old man looked over at him with a sorrowful expression, and he noticed the broom in his grandfather's hands. A slightly more in depth appraisal revealed broken pieces of glass scattered across the kitchen floor. The man must have been sweeping up the glass before Yuugi got home.

Yuugi recognized the type of bottle the glass was from even without the sharp smell of alcohol that hit his nose a second later.

"Yuugi. I didn't hear you come in," Sugoroku said, and the teen noticed the strain in his normally cheerful voice.

"Oh," Yuugi said awkwardly. "That's okay. Do you need help, Jii-chan?"

"No, no. I wouldn't want you to get cut on the glass. I'll manage just fine on my own."

Yuugi frowned. "It's just as likely for you to get cut as me. I'm gonna go get the other broom. If we both do it, at least we'll only get half the amount of cuts each."

Sugoroku opened his mouth to protest, then closed it again after a moment of silence. He sighed, a tired smile crossing his face. "You're much too kind for your own good, Yuugi. Alright, then. Go get that broom." Yuugi nodded and did so.

The silence in the kitchen was broken only by the tinkling of glass and the light scritching of the brooms as they worked to clean up the mess. Neither brought up the topic hanging heavily in the air, unspoken. Once the floor was clear of glass and the brooms were put away, grandfather and grandson sat down on the living room sofa and just leaned against each other.

A couple minutes passed before Sugoroku finally sighed. He and Yuugi had agreed a few years ago that the boy deserved to know about these things when they happened, so no matter how much the man wished he could stay quiet, he owed it to his grandson to tell him what had happened while he was at school.

"Your mother visited today. She lost her job last month and came here to ask me for money for… well, to ask for money."

Yuugi shifted minutely in his seat.

"And she wasn't all that happy when I refused." Sugoroku was quiet while he struggled to think of what to say next.

"I know she does things that we don't approve of, but… she still loves you, Yuugi. You know that, right?"

Yuugi nodded, but the way he glanced away and bit his lip lightly told Sugoroku the truth. The man furrowed his brow, then wrapped his arms around the boy. He took in a deep breath through his nose.

"And I love you too, Yuugi. Never forget that, you got it?"

When Yuugi looked back up at him, the sadness in his eyes had dissipated by a good amount. This time his nod was firm. "Got it."

Sugoroku smiled and squeezed the boy before releasing him and slowly standing up. Yuugi followed suit. Sugoroku looked at the empty kitchen table, then turned to face his grandson again. "I guess it's takeout for dinner, eh?" He said, winking.

A small grin lit Yuugi's face.

Alone in his room later that night, it didn't take long for thoughts of his mother to resurface, overshadowing the light, happy feeling Yuugi had shared with his grandpa during dinner. He remained awake in his bed for hours, missing the woman that Akako Mutou had been and pitying the woman she had become. He finally drifted off to sleep in the early hours of the morning.

The clock on Yuugi's nightstand read 1:37 when the spirit finally decided enough was enough and gently pushed Yuugi's mind into unconsciousness, leaving him alone to stew in his own thoughts. The topic was the same as the one Yuugi had been fixated on, but the spirit's musings were of a much darker variety.

When he had first felt Akako Mutou's heart, it had been warm with a modest light. He had begun to like her. Then Yuugi's father had died, and she'd started to drift. For a while, the spirit had felt nothing but sorrow for her as her light dimmed.

A few years after the accident, she had come home drunk, and little Yuugi, seeing his mother stumble, had rushed to help steady her. In return, she had snapped at him to leave her alone and shoved him away. Yuugi had tripped backwards and landed hard on his elbow on the kitchen floor. Tears had welled up in his eyes, and Akako finally seemed to realize what she'd done. Her face had crumpled and she had dropped to her knees and pulled the child into a tight embrace, trembling and sobbing apologies into Yuugi's hair.

Yuugi had forgiven her immediately and hugged back. The spirit was not so free with his forgiveness, and had stewed in an anger that only bubbled higher the longer Akako's behavior continued to upset her son.

Yuugi loved his mother dearly. He would be devastated if she were harmed.

That was the only reason she was spared the spirit's wrath.

(Two weeks later)

It was the last day of school for the week. Yuugi leaned against the window on the opposite side of the hall from the lockers and gingerly inspected a large bruise on his cheek with his fingertips. He knew from looking in the mirror earlier that morning that it was at the stage where it had faded from purple to a highly unflattering shade of vomit-green. But that wasn't what was on his mind at the moment.

Sozoji, a karaoke-obsessed upperclassman, wasn't in school that day, nor had he been for the previous four days. Yuugi had caught whispers about him having gone totally around the bend.

Theories and rumors abounded. Some students said he was just pretending to be insane to get attention. A few pale-faced individuals claimed they'd seen him covering his ears and begging for the "shadows to stop screaming". Others said he was probably just at home sick and that it was all made up. An older girl (one that Yuugi only recognized because of her infamy for her rather dark sense of humor) had joked that listening to his own awful music had finally driven Sozoji crazy.

Whatever the case, Yuugi was in a bit of a shock, knowing that he had been one of the last people to see the older teen before his sudden change for the worse. Just as he was beginning to wonder if there was any correlation between the two, a mist fell over his mind, and the thought slipped away as though it had never existed. Blinking and dropping his hand from his cheek, he pushed off the wall and headed for class.

After school let out, Yuugi glimpsed his classmate Hanasaki down the hall and called his name, waving to him and smiling when the small blond saw him and timidly waved back. Even with the broken lenses of the other boy's glasses causing distortion, Yuugi spotted a flash of gratitude in Hanasaki's eyes before he averted his gaze guiltily and turned, heading down the hall in the opposite direction.

Yuugi's smile dropped. He hadn't meant to make the Hanasaki feel guilty. He didn't blame his classmate for giving him those tickets; they'd both been scared, and when Hanasaki had shuffled timidly up to him and tried to sell him one, Yuugi had been the one to make the decision to take upon himself the responsibility of getting them all sold.

There was no way either of them would have been able to sell all the tickets, and there was no reason for both of them to suffer Sozoji's wrath. It wasn't anyone's fault that the older student had seen the exchange and decided they both needed punishment anyway.

Yuugi had to admit that he also felt bad for Hanasaki. As far as he knew, his classmate didn't have any friends, and seemed almost afraid of the idea of getting any. He reminded Yuugi of himself before Jounouchi-kun and Honda-kun had become his friends, and Yuugi knew all too well how unhappy being friendless could make a person. Hanasaki had already disappeared, and Yuugi suspected that if he tried going after the other student he wouldn't be able to find him, but he made a note to try offering the hand of friendship at a later date.

With his mind made up and nothing else to preoccupy it with, the headache that had been throbbing behind his eyes for the last few hours became more pronounced. Despite the lack of bullying, it had been a long day, and he was ready to return to the comfort of his own room to unwind. He hoisted a strap of his backpack over one of his shoulders and weaved his way through the crowded hall, intent on getting back home.