Judging by my appalling Japanese translation skills, 'Manako' means 'Eye' in Japanese. Jou's Yami isn't terribly imaginative.

Phase Three

Jounouchi awoke on Monday morning and was initially confused by the weight on the left side of his face. It all came rushing back however, when he touched the metal again. He wasn't going to get used to that.

A few moments after waking, he realised he was late. If he ran, he would probably get there just over five minutes late. He pulled on his uniform, stumbled out of the door, and began to run, not bothering to keep his head down to hide the Eye.

'Everyone's going to stare at you,' his Yami told him. Jounouchi groaned at the reappearance of the pessimistic voice. 'Keep your head down.'

"Busy…running…" Jounouchi replied. He hit the classroom door and was suddenly overcome by panic. "Oh, shit," he whispered. The Eye."

'Well done, genius,' Manako murmured as Jounouchi opened the door, running his hand through his hair to cover the Eye.

"Sorry I'm late," he muttered, hurrying to the back of the class. He avoided looking at any of his friends, but could feel their gazes on him. A flash in front of his eyes told him that they all looked very concerned.

'And they will be, until they see this,' Jounouchi and Manako thought at the same time. As he looked at the work the teacher had set, he was thankful that his friends could not see the left hand side of his face. He glanced over and flashed a quick don't-worry-about-me-I-can-take-care-of-myself smile at them, then looked back to the work.

"Jounouchi!"

The blonde's head shot up instinctively, a motion he instantly regretted.

"Oh my god, Jou, what happened?"

"What's in your eye?"

Jounouchi winced and turned his face away, his cheeks burning.

"Isn't that Pegasus' eye?" Yuugi was a little too observant for Jounouchi's liking.

"No…it's just…I've got to…it's not my fault…no…" Jounouchi muttered replies to questions from around the class as he stood up and hurried out of the room.

'So much for keeping it hidden,' Manako said.

"Oh, will you shut up?" Jounouchi hissed. "Stop being sarcastic, just shut up, just…" his rant trailed off as he saw Seto Kaiba staring at him. He too was late for class, as usual.

Seto watched him for a moment. "I assume your talking to yourself is something to do with the Eye?" he asked, torn between pity and revulsion. Jounouchi turned on his heel and walked away.

He could hear Seto following him, and felt his hand on his arm a full three seconds before it happened.

"Jounouchi, I want to help you."

"No you don't. You're just freaked out by this." Jounouchi jabbed a thumb in the direction of the Eye.

Seto looked at him with an unreadable expression. "Jou, I'll admit that it bothers me to see Pegasus' old eye again, but that doesn't mean I won't -"

"Yes it does!" Jou growled. "It means that nobody can look at me any more without being distracted by this thing. I am going to be stuck with this for the rest of my life, because if I try and take it out, I will die."

As Jou spoke, he could see the Shadow Tendrils creeping up behind Seto. He made a swiping motion with his hand and dispelled the Tendrils. "Leave us," he snarled at them, causing the brunette to look around him, confused.

"What was -"

"See? This thing means that nobody is going to understand why I'm talking to myself, or why these Shadow Tendrils are listening to me, because nobody is going to believe me!" With the last words, Tendrils had wrapped around Seto's ankles.

Jou glared at them and they slunk away. "Just go, Seto. You're not wanted." Seto stepped back, unsure. "Go!" A burst of Shadow magic pushed the brunette away from Jounouchi. Seto turned and, attempting to keep as much dignity as possible, fled.

Jounouchi leant against the wall, breathing heavily. "What did I…what did I just do?" he whispered to Manako.

'You just lost your first lifeline,' Manako replied.