Wow, so has it been like freaking forever since I updated this? Or anything else? I'll not bore you with long notes, then.

Disclaimer: The characters of Ryou, Bakura, Yûgi, Yami, Jounouchi, and Honda do not belong to me. I am borrowing them from the YuGiOh! universe, and I promise to return them with minimal amounts of damage. All other characters belong to me. So does the story. I don't mind if you borrow them, but I'd like to know about it first, and I would also like to receive them back mostly undamaged. Thank you.

Warnings: Okay, I don't understand the new rating system. Whatever. This is an R-rated piece. This chapter contains abusive and offensive language, behavior, jokes, and imagery. Really, this chapter ain't bad. Look for worse in upcoming chapters.

Chapter 3: Why Me?

I woke up face down on the kitchen floor at exactly 6:30 a.m., as I always did on schooldays. Well, I didn't always wake up face down on the kitchen floor. I stood up, grumbling to myself and stretching muscles made sore by lying all night on the cold, hard floor. It's a good thing I've never needed an alarm to wake up on time; who knows when I might actually wake up near one? Bakura leaves our body all over the place, just drops it wherever we're standing and goes to sleep. I once woke up in the middle of the woods, five miles away from home.

I cursed him as I stumbled towards the bathroom. I railed against him as I dressed myself for school. I muttered under my breath as I cooked breakfast. I thought dark thoughts as I ate. I fumed as I brushed my teeth.

My morning ritual complete, I threw on my coat, grabbed my backpack, and headed for the door.

"Knife?" inquired Bakura.

Bloody hell, I wish he wouldn't pop up silently like that. "In my pocket, like it always is, every single day." I glared.

He shrugged and vanished. Freak. I don't know why he always insists on us carrying the stupid pocket knife everywhere. If the teachers ever find out I'm carrying it, they'll kill me.

I walked the route to school on automatic, going over what I had to do today. Chemistry, Japanese, Japanese History... I've got an exam in Algebra today, I should probably study a bit more during lunch...

"Vessel."

Damn it! "What, Bakura?"

"Have you got English today?"

I blinked at him. "Um... yes..."

The spirit nodded. "Ah. Thought so. You might want to go back and get your book then."

I stopped abruptly. "What!"

"Well, you might need it."

I glared at him. "Why isn't it in my backpack?"

"I borrowed it last night."

I turned around and started walking hastily back to the apartment. "And why exactly did you need to borrow my English textbook?"

He rolled his eyes. "I needed something to draw in."

"Argh!" I exclaimed, ignoring the looks I was getting from passersby. "I don't even want to know what it was you desperately needed to draw in my English textbook!"

"Good."

"Good? Why 'good'- oh, never mind!"

I dashed up the stairs, retrieved the textbook, and dashed back down again. Hell. Now I'm running late. If I'm even going to have a ghost of a chance of getting to school on time, I'm going to have to take the short cut through the park.

Well, maybe they won't be there today.

I hurried through the small park, glancing into the trees nervously. The park is basically just a small patch of woods with a few paths through it. Sometimes I see a jogger or two, but almost always there's no one there. Except for them. Who knows, maybe today they're off fighting some-

"Hey, it's the girl."

Damnation.

From out of the vegetation ahead of me stepped a large ape in a school uniform, blocking the path. Three smaller baboons appeared behind me.

The ape grinned. "Good morning, girly-boy."

"Yabusaki," I acknowledged.

"Yabusaki?" growled the oaf, narrowing his eyes.

"Yabusaki-san," I amended, hastily. This wasn't looking good. He was in a bad mood.

"Boss, sounds like the fairy's forgotten what good manners are," whined Baboon #1, shoving me roughly.

"I think the little faggot needs to be reminded," piped up Baboon #2.

"With our fists!" added Baboon #3, punching his hand. The baboons closed in.

"Ay, who's the boss here!" shouted Yabusaki.

The baboons froze.

"Nobody does nothing until I say so!" he shouted. "Nobody touches him, nobody says nothing, nobody does nothing, got it?" The baboons nodded quickly.

Yabusaki eyed them, then grinned. "Good," he said, and punched me in the stomach, hard.

All the air left my lungs, and I dropped to my knees. Yabusaki knelt down, grabbing my chin in his meaty hand, and holding my face close to his red, puffy, sweaty one. I gasped for breath, choking. He smelled like fish.

"Listen, Bakura-chan," he said, squeezing my chin, "I'm kinda in a hurry, see? I've gotta go teach the Kurohara gang a lesson in ten minutes. They think they can show their ugly faces in my territory..." His eyes lost focus and he growled for a few seconds. Then he blinked and returned his focus to me. "So anyways, I don't got the time to beat you properly. Maybe today I'll let you off easy. Maybe... if I received some kinda compensation?" He grinned at me, revealing several gaps in his teeth.

I stared at him, incredulously. "You're kidding. You expect me to pay you not to beat me up?"

Yabusaki's grin faded, and his eyes narrowed.

"You're not kidding. I-I think I 've got a little bit of cash on me, s-somewhere," I stuttered, hastily digging through my bookbag. I shoved a few slips of paper money at him.

He released my chin and snatched the cash, peering at the numbers. "What's this?" he growled.

"You... you wanted... money,"I gasped.

"That's all!"

"That's all I've got!" I protested.

The ape let out a roar and, grasping me by the collar, hauled me to my feet. "YOU BETTER NOT BE HOLDING OUT ON ME, BAKURA!" he yelled in my face.

"I swear, I don't have any more, I don't carry much money, I can give you something else!"

"Watcha got?" he asked, shaking me as if to shake some loose change out of my pockets.

I thought rapidly. "Uh, um, Pocky?"

He considered. "Chocolate?"

"Strawberry."

He curled a lip. "Strawberry's for fairies." He sighed. "Guess I don't got no choice. Gonna have to let you go. Until next time, Bakura-chan," he leered, making kissy noises at me. Then he threw me to the ground and stalked off.

The baboons took turns kicking me, then ran off to follow their leader.

"Pansy!"

"Girly-boy!"

"Fag!"

As their laughter faded into the distance, I coughed and got shakily to my feet. Brushing my clothes off, I picked up my bookbag. I glared at Bakura, who was leaning against a tree, examining his nails.

"Well I hope you're happy!" I spat.

His dark eyes flicked up towards me, his expression unreadable.

"It's you're fault I had to cut through the park!" My watch beeped. "And now I'm late for school!" I groaned.

"Stop bitching," growled Bakura. "If you weren't such a wuss, things like this wouldn't happen."

I gritted my teeth and marched toward school, fuming. The spirit drifted along behind me, humming tunelessly. As I entered school grounds, my anger turned into anxiety. Aw man, this is the third time I've been late to homeroom so far this month. Takemoto-sensei is going to kill me! Maybe I can sneak in the back without anyone noticing...

I opened the door to the classroom, and everyone turned and looked at me. I could feel sweat break out on my forehead.

Takemoto-sensei cleared his throat. "So nice of you to join us, Bakura-san."

I swallowed. "Eheh... sorry..."

He jerked his head at my desk. I nodded, hurrying to sit down, avoiding everyone's eyes. I could feel my cheeks flush.

The teacher went back to reading the morning bulletin. Yûgi, across the aisle, leaned over to whisper to me. "Hey, Ryou... you've been late a lot recently. Is everything okay?" I could see the concern in his eyes.

I flashed a smile. "Oh, you know, I just overslept again, that's all."

He frowned, opening his mouth to say more. I glanced at the teacher. He looked at Takemoto-sensei, nodded, and settled back in his seat to listen to the bulletin. I breathed a sigh of relief. Yûgi's sweet to worry about me, but the last thing I need is for him to find out that Yabusaki's been bullying me. He'd probably try to intervene and get himself hurt...

I shook my head, fixing my eyes on Takemoto-sensei at the front of the classroom. Now is not the time to be thinking about this stuff. I've got too much school stuff to deal with today. Like that test...

o o o

Boring boring boring boring boring boring boring. Why am I even here? Why don't I just take the twit's body and go do something more interesting?

Oh yeah. Because there's nothing else to do. Everywhere else is boring, too. Boring boring boring boring boring boring boring.

I was lying on my back, draped across some kid's desk, staring at the world upside-down. I flipped over. Nope, it's just as boring right-side up. I turned and looked at the kid who was busily taking notes through the small of my back. I poked my fingers through his eyes, imagining him screaming and bleeding all over the place. I showed my fangs. Now there's a nice thought. My thoughts changed to the image of the pharoah screaming and bleeding from empty eye sockets. Even better. I turned and looked at the teacher.

"...rhyme will help you to remember spelling rules. 'I before E, except after C, or sounding like A, as in neighbor or weigh.' There are, of course, a few exceptions to this rule, like 'weird' and..."

I stuck out my tongue. Ecch. English. What a vulgar language. I turned my attentions to the twit, sitting at the desk next to me and studiously taking notes. His brow was furrowed in a thoughtful expression. I shook my head. I swear, I think this kid actually likes this learning stuff. Who needs to read or write or speak in foreign tongues? Everything I ever needed to know I learned in the back alleys of Cairo.

Well, anyway, I was bored, and the twit was going to entertain me. I hopped off the desk and stood peering into his face, only a few inches away. He gave no sign of having noticed me.

I stared at him for a second. "Hey, vessel, I've got a riddle for you. Wanna hear it?" He frowned slightly, but continued to take notes. I bared my fangs. "How do you titillate an ocelot?" No reaction. I wiggled my eyebrows. "You oscillate his tits alot."

The twit choked violently, dropping his pencil on the ground. Several students sitting near to him gave him strange looks. The pharoah's brat looked concerned. The twit hurriedly retrieved his pencil and scribbled furiously, ducking his head low in an attempt to hide his face, which had become a quite interesting shade of red. Like azuki bean paste. No, not that dark. More like a tomato. A slightly squishy one.

Heh, well that was an interesting reaction. Must have been a good riddle. Hell, I don't even know what it means. I should ask Malik sometime...

o o o

Wonderful. Now everyone in class thinks I'm a freak. As if the ocelot incident wasn't bad enough, I opened up my English textbook to find the reading for the day completely obliterated by Bakura's detailed lifelike drawing in red Sharpie of himself conducting a vivisection of Yami. I must have made some sort of strangled gurgling noise because Kawabata-sensei picked me to read first. So of course I had to explain that I couldn't read the text because someone had drawn in my textbook. Sensei walked over to look, gave a start, and picked it up to look more closely. Half the class saw. Yûgi looked traumatized but at least he understands. I mumbled something about "Just wait 'til I find out who did it..." so sensei let me go with just a few startled glances, but I swear he looked like he was going to send me to the counselor. Luckily class ended a few minutes after that and I was able to escape up to the roof for lunch.

I stared fixedly at my bento lunch. Or rather, I stared fixedly not at Bakura, who was leaning idly against the wall, his unreadable eyes resting upon me. Bloody bastard. Thanks to him, I won't be able to show my face for weeks. I can just imagine the rumors spreading about "that psycho-boy, Bakura Ryou"; I can just see the looks they'll give me in class–– Blast! I've got Algebra next! I've gotta study!

I pulled out my Algebra book and began hastily crunching numbers. I skimmed over the chapter, working sample problems and occasionally checking my watch. Curses! Lunch is almost over! I forgot about eating, concentrating solely on the math.

I was in the middle of a similar-triangles problem when Bakura started humming. I completely lost my ability to concentrate. Something about the timbre of his voice was very irritating.

"Bakura, would you stop humming!" I snapped. He stopped, glaring at me. I turned back to the problem. A few seconds later, he began singing loudly to the same tune. I slammed my book shut.

"Bakura, SHUT UP! I'm trying to study for my bloody Algebra test! You're going to make me fail! AARGH, you do this EVERY TIME! Everywhere I go, everything I do, you're always there, messing things up! Why don't you just go away? Just get out of my hair, would you!"

The spirit stalked over to me, yelling in my face. "IF I COULD LEAVE, I WOULD! Do you think I want to hang around all the time, picking my nose while you waste your life away in this miserable purgatory you call a school? I am bored out of my mind, watching you and your pitiful, pimple-faced classmates licking the feet of these so-called teachers so you can grow up to become just another slave-drone in that fucked up torture chamber of a society! If I can think of a worse punishment for having been born, I'll let you know! Meanwhile, I HOPE YOU FAIL!"

He vanished into the ring, just as the school bell announced the end of lunch period. Cursing, I shoved my books into my bag and, tossing the remains of my bento lunch into a trash can, I hurried to class. What does he want from me? It's not my job to entertain him. Let him sulk in a corner; at least this way he's quiet.

I fumed my way through the math test. If I got any sort of acceptable grade on it, as distracted as I was, it'll be some kind of miracle. I didn't even care. I just wanted to get out of school and go home. This was turning into the worst day ever.

Class ended as I was staring at the last problem on the test. I hastily scribbled down an answer and turned it in. I grabbed my stuff and followed the rest of my classmates downstairs. P.E. Hell. Can life get any better? I thought briefly about skipping and just going home. I shook off the thought. I can't afford to start skipping class! I'll just have to bear with it.

On top of everything else, we were playing basketball. I don't even like sports, and basketball is my least favorite sport on the planet. Oh, and Yabusaki and his goons, who hadn't deigned to show up for classes all day, decided to make an appearance for P.E. They spent the entire time "accidentally" knocking me down. And they were on my team. Between them and oni on the opposing team, I got a fair number of bruises.

When I was about ready to collapse, class ended and I limped my way back to the locker room. Finally. I can go home. I tried to change hurriedly, but I was so tired... I thought ahead to my classes the next day. No tests... wow, I actually did all my work for tomorrow ahead of time! That means I can go to sleep as soon as I get-

"Gaaaaaaaacccccckkk!" I exclaimed, spinning around to see Yabusaki's ugly, leering face. He just grabbed my ass!

"Nice playing, pretty boy," he sneered. Then he shoved me backwards into the locker, hard. I yelped as the back of my head smacked against metal.

"Ay, get da hell outta here, ya punk!" Jounouchi appeared out of nowhere, shoving Yabusaki roughly.

"Hey, Ryou, you all right?" There was a hand on my shoulder. It was Honda. I nodded. "Hey Yabusaki, you need someone to shove around, why don't you try it on me, 'uh?" he shouted.

"I'll take you two momma's boys on any day!" he shouted back.

Jounouchi got right in his face. "Well come on den, Yabusaki, I got nothin' better ta do dis afternoon den pound yer ugly face into da ground. I'll beat yer ass right now, come on!"

Yabusaki's gaze flickered between the scowling faces of Jounouchi and Honda. "Screw it," he exclaimed, "you two losers ain't worth my time. I'm outta here!" He gave Jounouchi a push, shooting me a dirty look before turning and stalking away.

"Yeah dat's right, and don't come back!" shouted Jounouchi, shaking his fist. He spat, then turned to me, concern softening his features. "Are ya okay, Ryou buddy?"

I rubbed the back of my head. "Yeah, I'm fine, Jou. Thanks you guys." I smiled weakly.

"No problem, bud," said Honda. "If he bothers you again, you just let us know, okay?"

"Yeah, I'll punch 'im so hard he'll wake up las' Tuesday!" agreed Jou, punching the air.

I smiled again, grabbing my stuff. "Thanks. See you later, okay?" I rushed out the door, hurrying home. Aw man, why'd they have to see that? I didn't want them to know he was picking on me. And they're probably going to tell Yûgi, and he'll start worrying... What did Yabusaki have to show up for anyway? That was absolutely the last thing I needed today! I growled in frustration. "What does he want from me? Why can't he just leave me alone?"

"I know why he hates you, vessel," said Bakura.

I almost jumped out of my skin. I swear, out of nowhere, every time. "Why?" I asked.

He turned and looked at me through half-lidded, unreadable eyes. "He hates you because he's attracted to you."

I choked. "You've got to be kidding." He stared at me. "Yabusaki? Gay? He's got to be the most homophobic person I know!"

The spirit blinked slowly. "It's the typical virile male thing. He can't afford to appear gay in front of his friends, so he puts up an anti-gay front. He actually begins to hate homosexuals. He hates himself for being gay. He's in denial, so he takes it out on you to avoid examining himself."

I stared at him. "You've gone completely mad. Since when are you a psychologist?"

"A whatagist?"

"Never mind. You're crazy. I don't buy it. No way is Yabusaki attracted to me." I shuddered at the thought.

There was silence for a moment. Then, "You shouldn't let scum like him mess with you. You're better than him and his scum-sucking cronies. You shouldn't have to take that kind of crap."

I turned and looked at him. He really has gone mad. "Excuse me? You bother me all the time."

"That's different."

"I fail to see how!" I exclaimed, incredulous.

He flashed his fangs. "The difference is, vessel, you can't stop me." He narrowed his eyes. "The oaf is a weakling. A slimy leech like him shouldn't be allowed to speak to you, much less put his grubby hands on you."

Okay, now I am thoroughly confused. Since when does he care what the hell happens to me? I glanced at his face, but, like a mask, it gave nothing away.

I stared at the sidewalk. Bloody ridiculous. Someone else wants to abuse me and he gets all territorial. Whatever. I just want to go to sleep.

Notes:

Wow, an original character! Can't say I'm proud to have invented him. I had difficulty with his name. I know a lot of Japanese people so it's difficult to come up with a name that does not have associations along with it. So I had to think of someone that I disliked enough to give their name to this character. If you are reading this and your last name is Yabusaki, you may have been a real bitch to me and my yami in 9th grade. Congratulations, hope you like your namesake.

Heh, the joke you can blame on my yami. Or actually, her mom. I just decided it needed to be in the story. Yami apologizes.

P.E. was such a horrible class. I enjoy sports, but P.E. was just stupid. We played basketball all the time, and it's my least favorite sport. And there were some nasty people that were out to get me, I swear. By the by, an oni is a Japanese demon or ogre. Big hairy beasts. Appropriate, I thought.

I know that Jounouchi doesn't actually speak with a New York accent like he does in the dub. I just think he would speak in some sort of rough Japanese accent (Kansai mebbe?) and this is the best American English equivalent. And Ryou doesn't actually speak like a Brit. I just enjoy the bloody hell's way too much.

Erm, I hope the psychologist Bakura wasn't way too extremely OOC. I just really wanted to stick that in there. And he strikes me as someone who has a lot of those kinds of random surprises.