Lightning-Dono: Yup, I'm back again with another Yuugiou/Yu-Gi-Oh! one-shot. If you love me so, then don't bed for a sequal or another chapter ;)

I can still remember that summer day. It was warm, humid, and it carried the promise of ruining my life. Of course, my life had never been that great to begin with, but the events that occured just couldn't go on being ignored. Every time I searched the very back of my unfathomable mind for these memories, I either ended up wondering how I was even still alive. But then looking forward, I remembered a short boy sporting a porcupine haircut teaching me what it meant to love and have friends.

But I didn't need the lesson about love. I knew how to, but it was the matter of having somehow to express it to that I found myself lost.

Shizuka and I had been together for so long. Nothing could've broken us up until our father suddenly became addicted to a certain beverage - beer.

I still can recall the reassuring words my mother spoke to me whenever she saw him drinking beer. We asked her what would happen to him whenever he became completely insane. She always told us that it was just a temporary aspect of life; she supposed that he just wanted to enjoy himself.

But now that I look upon it, everything she told me was a naive lie. A mask that she forced on just to comfort her children. But that disguise couldn't veil what was actually going on.

My father began to drink so heavily that he could no longer go to work. Mom took up a job, resulting in the fact that she was hardly ever home to put him under control. Sometimes I wonder why she never used a leash on him. The more she was gone, the longer I had endure the pain inflicted by my cruel father. Even at myage of six he would beat on me and acting violent. Threats followed whenever I failed to disobey him due to physical injuries.

And my poor sister had to watch it all from the shadowed corner, crying silently. I didn't draw any attention to her in fear that he would start beating her up and I knew I had to go through this so she wouldn't get hurt in turn.

A year passed and finally our mother just couldn't stand him any more. She filed a divorce in court while he stood up there like a complete idiot, swaying back and forth and struggling to get the words out of his mouth. Shizuka and I were brought forth many times, but we were to young to actually understand the judge's words. Now that I actually know what they're saying, I felt like a fool. The judge had said, "The child Jounouchi Katsuya steps up. Child, have you made your decision about who you wish to live with?"

Instead, I had, with my seven-year vocabulary range, thought he had questioned about who had been the one drunk, as if he couldn't perfectly tell who.

That was how I was landed with my father. Watching Shizuka get taken away, it struck something in my heart. I felt so confused, yet there was room for a pure and burning hatred for my mother. I thought that she had decided to take my sister away.

But all along, it was my fault.

There were occasional phone calls exchanged between us, but the last one I recieved from her claimed that she was being forced to study hard and mother won't let us talk to each other any longer, thinking I was growing up to be the man that my father was. It had ended in her crying so hard that she couldn't even explain everything. Something that day had forced me to become tough for Shizuka...And myself.

Day after day I gained more bruises. By the time I was in high school, my scars and bruises ranged from anything as small as a button on a dress shirt to something as large as a size five in the women's shoe section.

I gained a new friend and ally - Honda Hiroto. He never told me anything about his childhood, but I didn't want to ask out of tact and experience. Fairly soon, we were known throught the whole tenth grade for being the most formidable bullies anyone could meet walking out of school and in the halls. Somehow I felt content roughing up people. To feel my fist connect against them. Knowing that I had left a mark that would last, just like the ones on my back, arms, and legs.

But outside of school, I stood alone against my father. Except, it was different. I was growing to be his size, and after managing to read the letters sent home by displeased teachers, he drew back. That was until he got into a tragic car accident and never returned home. He had been rushed into the ER and I recieved a few ominous phone calls asking whether it was the Jounouchi residence or not. I knew it was about his condition, and I didn't want to have anything to do with him, so I always hung up. Then again, there was only so long someone could take having the phone ring over ten times a day, so I eventually picked it up and listened to what the person said. With great difficulty they told me that he had passed away.

And despite myself, I wasn't bothered by this information.

The following weeks were all the same. I was sent bills from various companies that I had to dig into my dad's bank account to pay. Then, it happened.

There was a new kid with a highly noticeable hair style that was in most of my classes. Stealing a piece of an unknown object he was putting together, I tossed it into a pool to be forgotten. He seemed intimidated by my actions, but he didn't dare speak up for himself as I had told him visciously that I would beat him up if he ever ratted me out.

Oh, how I regret those bitter words.

Honda and I were beaten by Ushio, a very large student with a tendency to corner other students after school if they messed with him during the day.

We had gotten into the wrong position - at the recieving end of those punches. I thought that if this fight had even continued I would've ended up in the hospital with internal bleeding and no hope for survival. A death not too different from my father's.

But the spike-haired boy protected us from the storm of punches, trying to reason with Ushio. Through eyes that I could hardly open I watched as he took the kicks and punches that would've been mine for the taking.

I soon learned that this self-less boy's name was Yuugi Mutou. His grandfather owned a game shop that I couldn't have even known about had he not shown me. It was in another part of the city that I wasn't familiar with. After this brave act of friendship, I displayed my kindness by retrieving the piece of puzzle that I had thrown earilier into a pool. He also told me that he was trying to complete a puzzle that his jii-chan had bought for him in Egypt.

He also accepted my apology and Honda's thanks. We then joined up with him and Anzu, his childhood friend, to go to school together.

We embarked on a journey for Duelist Kingdom and I managed to get the prize money from Yuugi for Shizuka to get the eye surgery required for her to have her sight back. Soon after, she came to live with me in my messy apartment and I found myself enjoying every moment.

The rest of the days after that were mostly laughs, but even though we went through sorrow and anger, we were always together. That's when I realized how good it was to have friends like them to just help me through.

I managed to give Shizuka and I a good life with what I had. But everything else was supplied by our friends, who stood strong by our sides for what I hope will be for an eternity.

Even then, it wasn't just our friends that helped. I fought to make us pull out of poverty and misery because I still remember when had happened in the past.

But no matter what happens, I'll never be able to get a certain image out of my heart. Nor will I will be able to forget the small, innoncent voice that called, "Onii-chan!" through a car window.

It's funny how one's life can be changed on just one summer day...