Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh.
Entry 8
Trust: n. A firm belief in the reliability, truth, ability or strength of someone or something. Like finding pure diamonds in the middle of a desert.
Honesty: adj. Telling or expressing the truth. Like a chicken that lays golden eggs.
Loyalty: n. the state of being loyal. A strong feeling of support. Like winning the lottery.
Respect: n. a feeling of admiration for someone because of their qualities or achievements. Like crossing the finish line before 40 million others.
Friend: n. a person that one likes and knows well. A familiar or helpful thing. A person who supports a particular cause or organization. Like a needle in a haystack.
Impossible: adj. not able to occur, exist, or be done. Nothing is impossible.
There are times when you feel you're at the peak of the world, high up on the mountain tops without a care for anything. You can do anything and you did everything so you have the security and comfort of lying back to watch those below. The shields are down, the armour is dropped and the sword is sitting in a corner somewhere collecting dust. No worries here. But of course, there are risks to being at such an elevation. When an avalanche strikes, it comes at you unexpectedly and usually hits you with full force. Your shield can't help you now because you've let go of it long ago. So you are sent tumbling down into the plains (if you are lucky enough not to be buried by snow) where the high just isn't quite there.
Just a moment ago, you were on easy-street, high up where you struggled in nothing. Down here in the plains is where all your troubles come back for a visit, or even, to stay. You're in a wide, open field where you are vulnerable to anything and yet you look down further into the chasms of the world. Perhaps it could be worst, better to be on flat, sturdy ground than helplessly lying in a ditch. It's still tough though, but it's manageable.
Now take a close look at the Earth's topography. There are much fewer mountains than there are plains and chasms combined. Those mountaintop experiences of yours aren't likely to come up as many times as your struggles down in the plains. But at least you know they're there. The Earth isn't completely flat.
Mine was though.
At least I thought it was. Well flat with a couple of chasms in it. Probably because I've never really experienced a mountaintop view of the world so didn't know they existed. It's not like I won the lottery or somehow got hold of a chicken that produced golden eggs, you might even say it's nothing at all, but it does mean something to me. Why? Well, when you've never really been exposed to something like this, what you take for granted becomes one of the most important things in your life. The unusual part of this is that I found it in the last place I ever expected to.
School
In a sense it isn't really the last place expected but in a sense it is. You see, school is a place full of people. Expected. School is a place full of people that don't like me. Unexpected. I never really wronged anyone at school. Expected. I don't make an effort to speak to them either. Unexpected. See the contrasts?
It's been months now; I think about four, that I've attended a Japanese school. Within these past few months I've run into hard times with the school bully (yes it was the same guy) and have had trouble keeping up. I'm basically not used to being in a school much, less one as fast paste as this one. My classmates seem to scorn the fact that I have a difficult time doing what they find easiest, so my best way out of that was to ignore them. But ignoring people doesn't really mean that I can't hear them, so their comments have been wearing me down slowly but surely.
Amidst all the negative messages I've been receiving from school and the students there; it's obvious that I'd ignore any minuscule sign of people actually reaching out to me. My barriers are pretty thick by now, and with good reason too, so it blocks out everything coming at me, be they good or bad.
It was the card-loving group that grabbed my attention.
The first couple of signs were the glances they gave me every so often. Some of them were just to say 'hey there' others were 'geez, I feel kind of sorry for you' while others just acknowledged that I was there.
I never noticed those.
But it was the note that did the trick. I thought it was just a joke at first but it turned out that they were actually quite serious about it.
Hey there,
Looks like you can use someone to hang with. Don't think that we're trying to bother you or anything, but hey, come on over anytime you want. Do you play?
Folded within the note was a Duel Monster card called 'Celtic Guardian."
I must admit, I had to ask omaasan to help me read it since I still wasn't too sure how to read Japanese. I did, however learn a few of the cuss words going around so now I realise what I really said to the bully that day. I was pretty lucky to get out of there alive and with most of my bones intact. I can't imagine being so bold (or stupid, depending on which you think it is) as to swear at someone that can basically snap me in half.
But I digress; I waved the note off as a joke and just tossed it in the trash can, along with the card. It may seem kind of mean at first but I really thought they were messing around with me on that whole 'come join us' invitation. It was something to get angry over.
I walked home that day in a mood worse than the other days. I felt like punching or screaming at the next person who crossed my path. It was bad enough that people either picked on or isolated me but putting a false note on my desk to embarrass me was going even further. There was no way I was going to let myself be had by people who think it's a funny joke. Now I had to be even more careful.
I was seething in anger and embarrassment (didn't really know why I was embarrassed since no one knew about the note but me) and kicked the rocks on the sidewalk all the way home. I should have been looking at where I was going because....
"Oooph!"
I looked up and there he was. That was the absolute worse time to run into him. Not that the others were particularly pleasant.
"Sorry," I mumbled
"Sorry? Is that all you got to say to me, Baka?"
'Baka' was his patented nickname for me ever since my first run-in with him.
/sigh/ "Yes."
"Well you should think of something better than just 'sorry' when you bump into someone superior to you."
He thought he was superior to me. That little comment just pissed me off even more.
"Look, I don't have time to deal with you right now."
"What was that you said?"
I looked up and stared him straight in the eyes. At that moment, I didn't care about the consequences for my actions, all I could think of was the fact that I was extremely angry and needed to take it out on someone, anyone.
"I. Need. To. Get. Home. So. Move. Out. Of. My. Way." I said through clenched teeth.
The bully actually blinked a little in surprise. He never expected me to stand my ground after all those times of backing down to him. That brief little moment actually gave me a bit of satisfaction. But it was soon over and he glared at me with one of the meanest looks I've ever seen on him.
"Are you actually trying to scare me, Baka or are you too stupid to learn from your first lesson?" He growled
"Hmm? Oh sorry, guess I'm too stupid to answer that question. It might be hard but maybe you should try to figure that out for yourself." I retorted.
What was I thinking?
He grabbed me by the collar. Oh what a familiar position that was.
"So the loner of the school has finally decided to commit suicide, well, I'll be glad to put you out of your misery."
I swear I felt like knocking his teeth out at that moment even if I didn't really have much of a chance in doing so.
"Suicide? Buddy if I was you, I'd be buried 6 feet under a looooong time ago."
That did it.
He said nothing but his actions spoke much louder than his words. He punched me once across the right cheek, sending me sprawling onto the ground. He was on me before I could recover and started pounding his fists into me, all of the punches either aimed for my head or chest. He stopped just before I felt I was going to pass out from the pain and dizziness.
I barely cracked open my eyes to see him sitting on top of me, panting heavily and grinning like a maniac. He had beads of sweat pouring down his face like he'd just poured water all over his head. How could he sweat that much already? Maybe the heat had to do with it or maybe he was just so bug and bulky that a tiny bit of a work out forced that much sweat out of him. Or maybe he was a smoker, there were many possibilities.
With the small ounce of strength I had left, I tried to figure out why he kept on grinning like that. He was probably happy to get me back for those comments I gave him but that would have been only a brief bit of satisfaction. Hmm....
His grin became a light chuckle, and then it became a louder chuckle until he really did sound like he was insane. He glared at me once more before he reached into his uniform jacket and pulled out a switch blade. No I wasn't mistaken, it was a switch blade. My eyes widened at the site of the knife. Was he really going to kill me? Had he been serious about it before or was he just trying to intimidate me? He just sat there, on top of me, knife in hand and grinning like crazy. He wasn't making any movement. This guy was cruel enough to make me suffer from the torture of just seeing the blade there. Maybe to him, it was more fun to kill me with the look of total terror frozen on my face. I don't know, but whatever it was, he was had me completely under his mercy.
I internally prayed for someone to help me since my mouth was too afraid to open up so I could scream. But it obviously didn't help. I squeezed my eye shut, hoping for him to, if not leave me alone, just get it over with as quickly as possible. I was thinking in panic mode at the moment so only worried about the searing pain about to be inflicted onto my body rather than on dying itself.
I waited for the pain in my gut, in my head, in my chest, anywhere I thought he would strike me first. And waited.....
and waited.....
I peeked out from under my eyelids a bit to see what he was doing. If he really wanted to kill me wouldn't he have done so already? I mean, if I wasn't looking at him than how could he intimidate me? Well, I opened my eyes just enough to hear a
"What the hell?"
"Don't you get in my way!"
Huh?
"Mind your own damn business!"
What?
A small group of people were standing behind him now, one of them holding onto the blade. But wait, how did he get that? He must have grabbed it from the bully while he had his attention focused on me.
The guy held the knife, pointing it straight at the bully's throat as if challenging him. It surprised me to see the look of.....whoa it actually was....fear in the bully's face. The bully didn't move and inch, though I wish he'd get off me because he was really getting heaving, but he stood, uh sat his ground.
"You wouldn't dare!"
"I'd dare as much as you would."
"Then try it."
The guy narrowed his eyes and slightly pressed the point of the blade into the bully's throat, drawing a drop of blood. It was as if the guy was going to do it. Was he really? I couldn't believe it. What is wrong with this town! Everyone's so gutsy and no one was afraid of killing someone. And if the bully died, he'd fall right on top of....me!
I just laid there and stared. What else could I have done? The guy pressed deeper and he bully moved his head back with every passing second until finally he couldn't take it anymore and stood up.
Thank goodness!
I rubbed my stomach and sat up a little, still staring at the scene. The knife had left the bully's throat now but the guy was still glaring at him with that look of warning.
"Alright fine! You win this round, but watch out, I'll be back and your weakling friend there is going to pay for what YOU did."
And with that, the bully turned heel and left.
Wow! He actually left! But wait, there's another scary guy here who might target me, and I know for sure he's not afraid to.....take it 'till the end. I sort of shuffled away from the guy, keeping my eye close on him. If he was going to strike, I would be ready to jump to my feet and bolt it out of there, that is if I'm not to afraid to.
"Hey, dere's nothing ta worry 'bout anymore, da guy's gone."
"Uh...."
"Oh dis?" he looked at the blade and put it in his jacket pocket, "na, dun worry I'm not gonna hurt ya with it."
"Y-you were really g-going t-to....."
"No, course not, what ya think I was, crazy?"
O.o
"N-no, but you really, really looked like you were going to..."
"Na, I was just, ya know, scarin him like dat, he's not so tough when you got da upper hand."
Yes of course I knew that, of course.
He extended his hand and I grabbed it, standing to my feet. He helped me brush off some of the dirt and grass of my clothes and shook my hand.
"Da name's Joey (A/N yes I am using the dub names) and these are my friends Tea, and Tristan. We have another but he's not here right now."
"Uh, hey, I'm-"
A rather loud semi truck just had to drive by at the moment.
"Huh, what was dat? Eh, never mind. But hey, whatcha think ya doing with dat guy? You could've gotten yourself killed. He's a nasty one."
"You mean to say that he was actually going to kill me?"
"Well, not kill, kill ya but you'd end up in the hospital in critical condition."
My blood ran cold for that one second when he said that.
"But hey," he patted me playfully on the back, "he's not gonna hurt ya, ya got us ta help ya now."
"Oh....thanks, but why are you helping me?"
"What? Why are we helping ya? Didn't ya get the note?"
"Note?
Oh yeah...............
"Ya know, the one we left on your desk.....that was your desk right?"
"Um, yeah I got it, just hehe forgot is all."
"Well?"
"Well what?"
"Ya wanna hang with us? Dun have to be so shy all da time ya know."
"Well....sure, why not, I'll 'hang' with you guys."
"Awesome, we'll see ya tomorrow den."
"Bye."
And with that, all three of them takes off in the opposite direction. I felt ashamed for taking their invitation so negatively when they, well at least Joey, practically saved my life. But you know what? It's weird; I just can't wipe this smile off my face. Even with all the sores and cuts with blood running from them on my body, I feel pretty good, kind of lie being on a mountaintop.
Just hope they don't ask about the Celtic Guardian card tomorrow.
End Entry
A/N: Definitions for words were found in: Oxford Dictionary of Current English Third Edition
Replies:Fushicho Hime: You have a good point there; Ishizu would have said those things when she was younger. Yes, I know, lots of people change their mind about this hikari mainly because all the chapters seem so inconsistent and all. Glad you like the story, thanks for the review!
Dark Magician Girl / Hikaru: Yeah, the lady was pretty pushy, she probably thought that he knew all those words already and wanted to start trouble with the student. She didn't really give him a chance to explain so that's why. Don't worry, he hears you and says thanks. Thanks for the review!
Da Squeakz: It's alright if you don't notice the humour parts. The humour is a bit dark and it's somewhat associated to the hikari's personality (at least in this fic). Basically just incorporated in what he says and how he explains things. It makes him seem kind of weird as well. Thanks for the review!
Saiyan Jedi: Good to know that you read it before and you like it. Thanks for the review, and read on!
inuyasha0001: Thanks for liking this, it took me awhile to update because of school and the other fic but I've gotten it up somehow. Thanks for the review and I'm sure whoever you guess it is is probably right there's not much left to hide in this fic.
Molly-chan the Anime/Game fan: Well, let's just day that you brought up some stuff that I didn't really notice until you said so, so maybe you were thinking a bit too hard this time, lol. Yeah, it's hard to tell how much you're supposed to cue in on in this fic but it's not as complicated as you might think. Thanks for the review!
Amber Eyes: The treasure I mentioned sounded like a box? Hmmm, well it came in a box but it actually being in the shape of a box is an interesting thought. And yeah, the puzzled is the only one that remotely resembles a box you so have a good point there. Thanks for the review!
Angel in Disguise8: Good, you got your comp fixed, now all you need to do is clear out all the stories you need reading in it, including some of mine, lol. Thanks for the review and keep guessing. See ya Sasha!
