A new year and a new semester should mean new adventures, but Yumi doesn't feel up to any of it right now.
2017 was already off to a bad start.
Not because of Yumi's loss at the tournament. It was disappointing to be sure, but she accepted the results soon after they happened. If anything, it was a valuable learning experience since it taught her the kinds of things people in the professional world were willing to do to get ahead. Up until the somewhat anti-climactic ending, it was even a fun game.
No, 2017 was bad because of everything else. The first few days, at least. Ever since returning from Tokyo, Sakuya seemed to grow more and more distant during the small amount of time they had left to spend together. Even up to the moment Yumi saw her off at the train station, there seemed to be something upsetting her that she simply refused to talk about.
Was she disappointed in her for losing? That didn't sound like Sakuya, especially since she told her multiple times that that wasn't the case. Still, what else could it be? Did she do something else that might have upset her without realizing it?
Back at home, the old refrigerator finally decided it was time to give up on life. While that wasn't the kind of world-ending catastrophe it would have been just a few months ago, it was still an annoyance. It also seemed to be a major soar spot for Yumi's grandmother, understandably feeling some sense of shame for having to use her granddaughter's earnings to pay for the appliance. The constant apologies over this had the opposite of their intended effect, only shifting the guilt to Yumi.
If all that wasn't bad enough, there was now the issue of paparazzi. Aside from a few interviews, becoming the Champion of Chiba during the summer hadn't had a huge amount of impact on her life in terms of media attention. Her small-time fame had come and gone as one would expect, but things were different now.
Winning the silver medal in Tokyo was worlds apart. Now, she was officially one of the strongest duelists in the entirety of Japan, a fact that people were more than happy to make a big deal over.
Being recognized by fans wasn't too much of an issue for her right now, but the same couldn't be said for the men with cameras. They would swarm her whenever they noticed her, asking all sorts of strange and invasive things to try and find some kind of scoop on the up-and-coming duelist. School, family, friends, what she ate for breakfast, and seemingly anything else they could think of was all on the table, the reporters' questions coming almost in time with the snapping of their cameras. Some even seemed to be staking out her house now.
To say it was becoming overwhelming was an understatement. The worst part was how hard it made it to simply exist, the chance of meeting a roaming pack of these tabloid writers seemingly up to a coin flip whenever she left the house. As a result, most of the end of her break was spent at home with movements in and out requiring some level of subtlety by everyone.
And now school had begun. She wasn't exactly excited to go back but was at least hopeful enough to see it as a much-needed change of routine. Sitting around the house with the windows covered so that no one could take pictures through them wasn't what she needed right now, so at least this would occupy her time in a more constructive way.
Plus, she might get to talk to Rio about this. If anyone could sympathize with her situation, it would be her. Maybe she'd even have some suggestions for how to get this to stop. Miss Fukukado had offered to have the company send bodyguards to chase people off, but Yumi was hoping there would be a less extreme way to deal with this problem. None of the people hounding her seemed to be dangerous, so she'd rather not escalate things and make a scene.
As she approached school, Yumi slammed the brakes on her bike, riding behind the corner of a nearby building. At least a dozen reporters were at the entrance to the school, cameras clicking as a few of the staff tried to shoo them off.
"Get off school grounds now!" she heard Mr. Harada shout, putting his temper to good use for a change and doing his best to get these interlopers to leave. That said, Yumi was able to sense that he was blaming her for all of this. Math would probably not be pleasant today.
Thankfully for both the school and Yumi's attempt to sneak inside without being spotted, a black limousine pulled up in front of the gates, several men in dark suits emerging from the car to quickly form a barrier between the paparazzi and the right-side door at the end. Only one person could be so shamelessly excessive as to do something like that when arriving at a public school.
Rio herself seemed almost entirely unfazed by the cameras as she stepped out, smile plastered on her face as was standard for her public appearances. Though they hounded her with questions, she didn't respond save to wave to them. Was that the trick for dealing with this kind of thing?
Now was the time to act. "Act" here meant attempt to hop the school fence from the side, something she'd daydreamed about doing many times before but never attempted. This was as good an excuse as any to make her dreams come true.
With the paparazzi being pushed back by Rio's security, Yumi took her chance and rolled up beside the school perimeter. First, she had to toss her bike over. While she wasn't exactly weak (in fact, she'd noticed she was a bit less skinny than normal as of late), it still proved to be troublesome, several failed attempts and near-misses straight to the face being required before it finally came crashing down on the other side.
No one seemed to notice the noise, so that was good. Now all that was left was herself. Gripping the chains hard enough to turn her knuckles white, Yumi attempted the climb. It took a few tries to get the hang of where and how to use her feet, but she managed to get a good ways up despite how hard her arms were shaking from the strain. Maybe this was a sign to try lifting weights one of these days.
In the end, climbing up didn't prove to be such a huge issue. After she got used to it, it was almost easy. The real problem came when it was time to climb down. She hooked one leg over the top of the fence, stuck there while desperately trying to conceal her presence like she'd seen in an anime after realizing just how exposed she'd become in that position.
The descent was swift and painful, Yumi slipping over the edge as she tried to get her other leg across. She fell face-first onto the concrete, spared a busted chin only by virtue of still wearing her bike helmet, the protective gear hitting the ground first before the rest of her and absorbing most of the impact.
Despite the headache, at least she was officially on school grounds now. Wasting no time, she went to park her bike with the others before sneaking into the school building, managing to avoid the cameras for the time being. Foolishly, she assumed that would lead to a normal first day back at school that would take her mind off all this stress.
She was wrong. While Yumi managed to make it through the halls without an issue, she was swarmed the moment she entered her classroom. The response following her first tournament appearance was barely an appetizer compared to this main course of overbearing adoration.
Unable to get to her seat, most of the class gathered around Yumi to exclaim something or other at her, be it words of praise, condolences for such a close loss, or just challenges to duel then and there. It was far too intense for her to deal with this early in the morning and made her regret not staying home after all.
It was Rio to the rescue once again, however, as the crowd's attention turned towards her as she finally came through the door. While she might have come in at a lower ranking and lost to Yumi herself, it was an undeniable and (at this moment) comforting fact that she was still several magnitudes more popular. As a result, much of the group changed over to hounding Rio who seemed all too happy to continue receiving attention.
Finally free, Yumi slumped into her chair and sighed. How was she going to make it through all of school today? All she wanted to do right now was go back to sleep. She couldn't even fathom how she was supposed to pay attention to class.
"Yumi!" Before she could even register who had just called out to her, Suzy had pounced onto her and pulled her into a hug. Normally, she'd welcome something like that, but all the stress had left her with little in the way of endurance for being touched.
"I still can't believe how good you did!" she said, releasing her from the hug and plopping into her chair. "It was amazing!"
"You already said all this," Yumi pointed out.
"Yeah, and I can still barely believe I got to see it," Suzy replied. "You were just so...amazing!"
"Was it as good in person as it was on TV?" Ami asked as she walked up, hugging Yumi for the first time since the winter break. "I'm so proud of you," she said, not noticing Yumi going limp in resigned acceptance of all this contact.
"I can't even tell you how cool it was," Suzy said. "All of the duels were really great, but Yumi's were just on a completely other level. Especially the last one."
They heard a nasally scoff from behind, Kaguya walking up. "Yeah, he really got her good. But I guess it was still pretty impressive to get that far. So good job, I guess." That was her best attempt at a compliment.
"Thanks, everyone," Yumi said weakly, still sprawled out on top of her desk.
"Are you feeling okay?" Ami asked. "You didn't get sick in Tokyo, right?"
"No, I'm just...tired." She sighed again.
"Bet it's all those people from the media," Kaguya commented, most of her attention focused on the handheld game she was playing.
Suzy nodded. "Yeah, we had to fight our way in earlier. They just won't let up."
"I guess that's what happens when you go to school with two celebrities," Ami added. "Still, shouldn't someone stop them? You're a minor. They can't just keep following you like this, right?"
"I'm hoping they just decide to stop soon," Yumi admitted. "I don't want to cause problems."
"But they're causing you problems," Suzy argued. "You can't learn and live your life if there's always a bunch of people following you everywhere."
"Media people," Kaguya muttered, seeming to ignore everything in the conversation after her initial remarks. "Hey, any of them ask you to do some of that gravure modeling yet? I heard lots of girls end up doing it at some point." She was unable to say anything more as Suzy pulled her into a choke hold.
Class began shortly after that, thankfully quieting things down for an increasingly overstimulated Yumi. For the most part, the teachers seemed to be leaving her be throughout the day. Mr. Harada was the obvious exception, but even he decided to back down after her curt and apologetic admittance that she straight up had no idea what the answer was for the question on the board and tenuously grasped what was even going on at that moment. He almost seemed sympathetic as he sent her to stand in the hall.
Lunch wasn't much better, Yumi's appetite for food and socialization hitting an all time low. For the most part, she just stuck to her phone, sending another few messages to Sakuya with no response and scrolling through different websites to try and occupy her mind. She didn't hear the others as they tried to engage with her and make sure she was okay, only snapping back to reality when a hot dog octopus entered her periphery near her mouth.
She jumped back in her seat, phone flying straight up into the ceiling and falling back down. Though it took a few juggles, she actually managed to catch it before it could hit the ground. "Sorry!" Ami apologized. "I didn't mean to scare you like that."
"It's fine," Yumi said, forcing a laugh as she checked to make sure her phone wasn't broken. "Sorry for not talking."
"Are you sure you're just tired?" Suzy asked. "It seems like you've got a lot on your mind. Not just the paparazzi stuff, either."
As true as that may have been, Yumi was reluctant to share that with her friends. How would she even go about doing that? Trying to untangle what her relationship with Sakuya had become since Christmas would be complicated enough without trying to explain everything to other people. Besides, she was probably blowing all of this out of proportion to begin with. Of course Sakuya had a good explanation for not replying, and when she found out what that was, she'd just look like a needy loser for whining about it to everyone.
"I think I just need a nap," Yumi lied. "I'm sure things will be better soon. Don't worry about me."
"I've been worrying about you since we were kids," Ami said, nudging her shoulder. "You should eat something, too. Don't you have to go to training after school?"
Yumi shook her head, reluctantly taking her lunch out of her backpack to poke at her food. "No, we're not going in for another week. We kind of want to wait for everything to calm down a little."
"That's probably for the best," Suzy agreed.
Ami frowned, chewing through a piece of egg before saying, "I don't know why they can't at least take you to and from places. They know you don't have a car or anything."
"It is what it is," Yumi sighed, still more focused on her phone than lunch. In between checking for new messages, she began to reconsider the offer for security. She hated the idea of having people following her around like that, but the more she thought on it, the more she started to feel it wouldn't be much of a change from how things were at the moment. It hopefully wouldn't be permanent; just until they left her alone.
It was a bit strange, though. She couldn't remember her parents ever having to deal with something like this. Maybe she was just too young to recall at the time, but she definitely had the feeling she'd remember her family being hounded by reporters like this if it had happened. Was it just a difference in the times? It must be considering how much more accomplished her parents were compared to where she was now.
Like always, she had a long way to go before she reached her parents' level. Normally, this thought would be exciting and a motivator to keep pushing forward and improving. Now, though, it was starting to fill her with dread. The more famous she got, the more these people would harass her. That's what she assumed, at least. She was still determined to stick to the path and continue on to achieving her dreams, but this was really starting to wear on her. Why did dueling have to involve so many things that weren't dueling?
The rest of the school day passed by more or less as it had before lunch, Yumi keeping her head down and trying to rest her mind while checking her phone. Other than Kazuhiko starting a spirited debate in the group chat about what might have caused a weird rash he got on the inside of one of his arms, nothing much of interest happened until the bell rang.
Saying goodbye to her friends, Yumi ducked out of class while pretending not to hear a few other students calling to her. It made her feel pretty terrible to ignore people like that, but she just couldn't handle more interactions right now. She felt that same sense of panic that always came before one of her attacks creeping up on her now. Getting trapped in a conversation would probably just lead to a breakdown.
Though she managed to avoid the other students, there was still the issue of making it home from school. Evidently, Mr. Harada and the rest of the school staff had managed to repel the paparazzi earlier, though she could already see them creeping around a few buildings away. It didn't look like they'd managed to see her (her uniform probably helping her to blend in), though they'd for sure start following her if she tried to leave on her bike.
Before she could plan her escape, someone called out to her. "If you want to avoid them, you could always come with me." Once again, Rio was helping her today. While she wouldn't normally want to impose herself like this, Yumi didn't seem to have much choice right now.
"Oh." Even so, she still struggled to accept the offer. "I...okay. Thank you."
"Great!" Rio said, smiling ear to ear. "The car will be here in a minute. We'll put your bicycle in the trunk." Yumi nodded, the two not saying anything until the limousine arrived. As awkward as this made Yumi feel, Rio seemed perfectly content just to stand beside her.
Photographers managed to snap a few pictures as the girls were shuttled into the car. Thankfully, this was all they'd get before the it sped off, decidedly leaving them in the dust. Hopefully, that would be the end of it for today.
Inside the quiet, tinted interior of the vehicle and the security it provided, Yumi was finally beginning to relax. "Thank you," she said again, Rio still smiling across from her. Who could have imagined the two of them would be peacefully riding in a car together like this just a few months back?
"It's no problem at all," Rio said, still acting as cheerful as she did in public. "It's the least I can do for you."
"Do they ever leave you alone?" Yumi asked, wanting to take advantage of this opportunity to its fullest. Like she'd thought before, Rio seemed like the best source of advice for these situations.
"Well...yes and no," she replied. "They'll be pretty annoying for a little while since everything just happened. In a few weeks, though, they should settle down as long as you don't do anything to get their attention." It sounded a lot like what happened last time. "And I know your trainer has already talked to you about it, but you should really let us get you a security detail."
"So there really isn't another way," Yumi sighed.
"Not that I know about," Rio said, sounding entirely unfazed by all of this. Must have been a byproduct of growing up in the spotlight. "It's not as scary as it sounds, though," she added. "For you, we'll probably just have a few people pick you up and drive you places when you need to go somewhere. Like what we're doing now."
"I guess I have to," Yumi relented. She sighed again, slumping into the dark leather of the car seat. Considering her compromised state the last time she'd ridden in this car, this was the first time she noticed how comfortable it actually was in here.
"Fame has its ups and downs," Rio said with a shrug. "It's just something you have to get used to, especially if you're planning to become the World Champion at some point."
"I know," she said, jolting up when she felt something cold and wet touch her knee. Apparently, the middle seat next to Rio actually doubled as a cooler, several bottles of water and orange juice sticking out of it.
"Here," Rio said, shaking the juice box in front of Yumi. "Unless you don't like orange juice. Then you can have water. It's from Finland. Really tasty."
"Juice is fine," Yumi said, taking the bottle and twisting off the cap to take a drink. "Thank you," she repeated.
"If you like to drink anything, I could have them start bringing that, too. It wouldn't be any trouble." This seemed to be Rio's way of 'subtly' suggesting they ride to school together from now on.
Yumi shook her head. "This is fine, but thanks." If she was really honest, what she'd like most right now would be to lay down and go to sleep, the smoothness of the car ride threatening to take her out were it not for the fact she was talking to another person at the moment.
All of this was starting to make her feel guilty. Rio was being so helpful to her right now and all she could think about was herself. It wasn't her fault everything was feeling so hard right now. She shouldn't be bothering her with her problems, especially when she couldn't even offer up anything in the way of conversation in return.
Yumi cleared her throat, sitting upright again to try and force her brain to work right. "Sorry I forgot to tell you before now, but I listened to the songs you gave me."
As expected, Rio's entire face lit up before cautiously dialing things back. "Oh, did you like them? I picked out the ones I thought were my best work so far, but I don't know if they were up to your standard."
"No, I liked them," Yumi reassured her. "I didn't think I would at first, but it kind of started to grow on me the more I listened. I like how weird all the sounds are and the stuff that's, like, taken from TV shows and movies, I think. It's not like most music I've heard before."
Rio laughed, nodding. "That's how a lot of people get into this style. If you haven't yet, you can see more of my stuff on my channel. But only if you want to listen to more. There's no pressure."
"Which channel?" Yumi asked. "Is it local?"
This caused Rio to pause, processing what she'd said before stifling another laugh. "No, no. I mean on the internet." She took out her phone and opened up the channel in question – a vaporwave music producer by the name of MaboPower with an expansive catalog of songs.
"Oh, sorry. I misunderstood." Strangely, Rio shook her head at this, prompting Yumi to ask what that was supposed to mean.
"You're apologizing a lot," she pointed out, "but there's no need. It was just a little mistake."
"Oh," Yumi said, nodding. "I'm sor- wait, uh…"
Rio tilted her head to the side. "Are you okay? If it's the media bothering you, we can get you some protection right away. You and your grandma could come live in my family's building if you wanted, too."
"No, no," Yumi said, waving her hands in front of her face. "I'm just kind of out of it right now. A lot of stuff is happening right now and it's...a lot."
"Okay, that makes sense." Rio tapped her chin, asking, "Did you find a hobby yet? Like we talked about before?"
"Not really," Yumi admitted. "Nothing really fits. I can't think of anything I would like as much as Duel Monsters, and definitely nothing that could distract me from it."
"It's going to be important that you find something eventually," Rio said. "I'm serious. You already know it's a lot of work to succeed in what we do, so you need to find something that can help you relax. And right now you kind of seem like you could really use something."
"Yeah, probably." In terms of a hobby, the closest thing she'd found so far was her nightly phone calls with Sakuya. Talking with her after school and training always made the stress ease at least a little. Speaking with other people helped, too, but with her it was just...different. She couldn't explain how, though now it didn't seem like it mattered much to try and figure it out.
"You know, I could try to help with that if you want," Rio suggested. "It took me a while to figure out I had a talent for music. Maybe you might want to...I don't know, come over one day after school. I have a lot of neat stuff at my family's building. I'm sure you could find something fun."
Yumi had to think about that for a moment. It didn't sound like a bad time, per se, but she wasn't sure she was comfortable enough to just be hanging out with Rio like they're best friends. While it was true that a lot of their bad blood was behind them, some things were still a little too much at the moment.
"Maybe," she finally replied. "If I can't think of anything soon, I'll let you help. I don't want to bother you over nothing."
"It wouldn't be a bother at all," Rio reassured her quickly. "I'm always happy to help you. It's the least I can do after everything. The very least."
Yumi nodded to acknowledge what she'd said, about to hit her limit when it came to talking. Though it didn't happen often, she'd begun to experience short periods where she felt as though she physically couldn't talk when she was stressed. According to Hideo, it was a thing people like them would do sometimes as a weird way of protecting themselves, though Yumi certainly didn't feel all that protected when it happened. She mostly just felt confused and a little scared.
She undid her hair ties and snapped them to her wrists, pulling her goggles down around her neck and brushing out her hair as it fell around her shoulders. Closing her eyes, she let out a long sigh, running a hand through her hair to try and calm herself down. There wasn't much room inside the vehicle to do her usual hopping or flapping, so this would have to suffice for now.
When she opened her eyes, Rio looked to be fighting some kind of silent battle with an unseen assailant. Yumi's puzzled look seemed to prompt her to say something, though it definitely wasn't an explanation. "Huh? Oh, well, it's nothing. I was just thinking about some things. And...thinking that you look...nice with your hair like that." She laughed a bit too loudly, shifting back to her sunny persona and shouting, "Well, looks like we're at your house now! It was really nice to talk to you, Yumi! See you at school!"
Rio nearly dove out of the car after saying that, realizing a moment later that it was supposed to be the other way around. "Oh, my mistake," she muttered, hopping back in as Yumi got out. "See you tomorrow."
"Thanks for the ride," Yumi forced out, trying to keep her voice as natural as possible as she waved goodbye. She watched as the limousine exited the dirt path leading back to the road. More accurately, it just about peeled out with a full-fledged dust cloud behind it, the car disappearing in only a few seconds. It was only then that she realized Rio drove off with her bike still in the trunk.
Oh well. That was a problem for tomorrow's Yumi, a Yumi with hopefully more mental fortitude stored up than the present one. Entering the house, Yumi greeted her grandmother as she watched TV, the two talking (mostly her grandmother) about the day before she left to go to her room.
Once in there, Yumi dropped like a ton of bricks face first into the floor. She at least had the sense to catch herself with her hands this time, though she still landed with a fairly loud thud. She let out another sigh, then began rolling back and forth on the floor.
Somehow, this helped to calm her down. For all her wanting to flap or hop around, she found she didn't have the energy to go through with it after actually getting home. This seemed like the next best thing for the time being.
She managed to burn a good ten minutes like this, slowly rolling on her side from one end of the bedroom to the other, barely deviating course even when it meant rolling over some clothes or a mechanical pencil she'd dropped. When she was finally done, she laid on her back and stared up at the ceiling, doing her best to clear her mind completely before figuring out what to do next.
Checking her phone, there still weren't any new messages from Sakuya. Blankly looking at the screen, she sat up and shook her hair out before taking a picture of herself. She sent it to her with a note about how someone had said she looked good this way and wondered if she might keep her hair like this in the future. Still nothing.
Another few minutes of no reply passed by, Yumi finally deciding to call her. She'd tried before to no avail, but maybe this time it would be different. Pressing Sakuya's icon, she placed the phone up to her ear and waited. And waited. And waited. And waited.
Just as she thought, it went to voicemail. Her heart dropped immediately as the default instructions played. The tone sounded for her to record a message, Yumi swallowing hard before speaking. "Uh, hi," she began. "I guess you're still really busy. That's okay. I'm sorry if I'm bothering you. I'm just...uh, I just want to talk to you. So I hope you call me back soon. I miss you a lot."
She went quiet, swallowing again as she felt the corners of her eyes sting. Why was she about to cry? Ridiculous. "So, anyway, I'll stop talking now. Sorry. Call me back soon, okay? I miss you. I...uh, I miss you. Bye."
Sakuya bit her lip as the message played, her grip tightening around her phone. Why was she doing this? Why was she hurting Yumi like this? Hearing all that pain in her voice made her feel like she was about to vomit. And it was all her fault. Wasn't it always, though?
Why couldn't she just act normal? Why did it have to get so complicated? And why did she have to react like this when it did?
Everything in her told her to call Yumi back instantly and apologize. She wanted to talk to her so badly. But she couldn't do it. She had to hold back, she told herself. Even if she hurt her now, it would be better than hurting her worse later.
She couldn't face her after what happened. She knew it was wrong when she did it, but she couldn't hold back then. She had no right to kiss Yumi, no right to lead her on, no right to start having feelings like that about her. She wasn't good enough, just broken and selfish and awful.
Until she could fix herself, she couldn't talk to Yumi again. If she did, she'd lose control like last time and just end up hurting her worse. She had to stop herself until then. When she was fixed, she could see her friend again, but not a moment before then.
Another message appeared on her screen, though this one wasn't from any of her usual contacts. It was Toshikazu, one of the upperclassmen at her school. She'd found him staring at her recently, one thing leading to another and the two becoming "friends" ever since. Truthfully, she didn't have strong feelings for him one way or the other, though he was certainly enthusiastic about getting to know her.
Frankly, he was just a distraction. She couldn't break and talk to Yumi if she had him occupying her time. Just more selfishness on her part. Then again, his reasons for talking to her seemed equally selfish. Maybe this is the kind of person she deserved. Either way, it's the kind of person she had now. Hopefully it would be enough for the time being.
It's been a while.
This chapter marking the start of 2017 in the story really reminds you of how much and how little has changed since then. For me, it's been a pretty steady decline in just about every sense as I struggle to try and get this story finished before it's too late without compromising the core of it, this chapter also serving as a pretty good encapsulation of all of that. I started this up around the time I ended the last full chapter but never had the ability to finish it until now. I still don't know if it's very good, but maybe things can move forward again.
That all sounds pretty dire and all, but I also think it's important to mention that the world and stuff didn't influence the contents of this chapter in planning. I had all of this planned to go this way from way back, so Yumi and Sakuya aren't backsliding and suffering because I'm backsliding and suffering in real life. I try not to do that kind of thing to fictional characters just because I'm sad. There is a point to their hurt and it will make itself known sooner or later.
While it would be nice to make a triumphant comeback with tons of hot dueling action, that wasn't in the cards. This and the next set of chapters were intended to decompress after the intensity of the tournament so there's not all that much planned in terms of cards. If you're in it for the drama, though, you'll eat this shit up.
There's more I could say about a lot of things, but I think this is about all that needs saying at the moment. Thanks for reading. Share if you're enjoying or just not upset that we're back. Always remember to be kind to others.