A/N: Sorry for the late update! I completely forgot to do it Monday night, and by the time I remembered today I was already at work. Also, regarding the exchange rate for yen: *At the time of the anime, that was $1600. In the manga it's listed as $2000. As of writing, it is $1846.20.
"Yuugi!" There was a firm rap on the door. "Are you awake?"
Yuugi started, then stretched and yawned. "I'm up, Kaa-san," he called. "I'll be right down!"
"Hurry, or you'll be late for school," his mother, Kimiko, scolded through the door.
Yuugi blinked, looked at the clock, and yelped. What happened to his alarm?! He shot out of his chair so hard it fell and hit the ground with a loud bang. He had to leave in fifteen minutes! Where was his other school uniform? He had fallen asleep without changing yesterday, he would need to switch…he pulled the set from his dresser, then turned and paused.
His puzzle was sitting on the desk, glinting innocently at him. He had made quite a bit of progress on it, more than he had managed before—a line of pieces extended down and ended with a small triangular piece that looked like the only other pieces that would fit would extend back up. There were two shorter lines of pieces across the top (or maybe the bottom, but from where he set it, it was the top). Together they seemed to form edges of the puzzle. Maybe not all of them, but enough to suggest a shape. He drifted over. Maybe…
"Yuugi!"
His mother's shriek jolted him from his thoughts. He quickly pulled the pieces apart and scooped them into the box, then tucked the box into his bag. Then he raced out of his room and down the stairs. "Coming!"
Maybe if he had woken up earlier he could have kept working on the puzzle. As it was, he barely had time to grab some toast before he had to run off to school.
Yuugi slowed to a walk as he reached the school, gasping for breath. He wasn't exactly out of shape, per se, but he had run pretty fast to get here on time. Actually, maybe a little early, he thought; there were still students lounging in groups in front. The bell hadn't even rung yet.
"Yuugi."
He cringed at Ushio's voice, then fixed his face into something approaching his normal cheer. Why couldn't Ushio just leave him be? "Yes, Ushio-san?"
"Follow me," the older teen commanded. He didn't wait for a response, just turned and walked away. Yuugi didn't dare not follow—even if Ushio wasn't physically dragging him, one did not defy the president of the Disciplinary Committee, especially not when said president had the teachers so far under his thumb they implemented whatever rules he told them to.
Ushio led him through the grass-covered area around the side of the school until they got to a quiet little alcove in the back, away from the view of the students out front and with no windows the teachers might watch through.
Jounouchi and Honda were laid against the wall. Honda seemed entirely unconscious. Jounouchi groaned in pain, blood streaking down the front of his face from his lip and nose, one eye swollen shut.
Yuugi froze, his stomach twisting sickeningly. "Ushio-san, what happened to them?"
"They were bullying you, so I decided the Disciplinary Committee should teach them a lesson of what happens to bullies." Ushio looked inordinately pleased. Yuugi was reminded of a half-feral stray that used to hang around the shop—he had fed it a few times, and it started bringing him dead birds. It had a very similar look then, too. "I sent the rest of the Committee away. I thought you would want to see them."
"M-Mutou," Jounouchi coughed, twitching. "You bastard…you asked for this…?"
Yuugi flinched, then ran over to him. "No! Jounouchi-kun, no, you have to believe me, I never would have asked for this—!"
"Move, runt." Ushio grabbed Yuugi roughly by the arm and shoved him away. "I'm not done punishing them yet." He aimed a hard kick at Jounouchi's stomach.
"Stop it!" Yuugi forced himself between Jounouchi and Ushio, holding his arms out like he could shield them. "Leave them alone! I didn't ask you for this, I never wanted this…they're my friends, Ushio-san, I want you to leave them alone!"
"Friends?" Ushio blinked, then roared with laughter. "Friends, you call them…you're strange, you know that, Yuugi? They've spent the entire year picking on you—friends don't do that!" Ushio's face took a more serious note and he gestured to the two victims. "You should want to hurt them! Kick them, punch them—now is your chance to get even!"
Yuugi shook his head. "Honda-kun has never picked on me, not once. And Jounouchi-kun only wanted to help teach me to be a man. They were trying to help me, and that's exactly what friends do. Please, Ushio-san," he begged, "leave them alone."
Ushio snorted. "If that's what you want, then fine, I'll leave them alone."
"Thank y—"
"However."
Yuugi paused, looking at Ushio, trepidation turning his stomach into a sluggish pit. Ushio gave him an almost light-hearted grin. "You still owe me the bodyguard fee."
"B-bodyguard fee—?" Yuugi pulled away slightly. "But I never agreed to have you as a bodyguard! I told you I didn't need one!"
"Then call it protection money, I don't really care." Ushio leaned over him, and Yuugi was suddenly very aware of how much larger than him the other student was. "You owe me 200,000 yen*."
Yuugi gasped, his heart racing in his chest. "Ushio-san, I can't, where would I even get that much money?"
"Don't know, don't care."
"If you're upset about not being able to beat up Jounouchi-kun and Honda-kun, then you can beat me up in their place! But I can't get that much money." Yuugi never though he would ask to be beaten up, but what choice did he have?
"I'm not going to beat you up like these two, Yuugi," Ushio said softly. He grabbed Yuugi by the collar, lifting him easily. "I don't pick on people like that. I'm not a bully." He gave Yuugi a serious look. "This is a warning, and a reminder—this could have been avoided." He threw Yuugi to the ground and kicked him in the stomach.
Yuugi gasped and fought down the urge to revisit breakfast. Ushio crouched next to him and grabbed him by the hair, lifting his head up so Yuugi was forced to face him and making him cry out softly.
"Consider this to also be a warning." Ushio pulled a knife from his pocket, holding it in front of Yuugi's face. "You will bring me 200,000 yen tomorrow, or your next lesson will be with this. Am I clear?" He didn't give Yuugi a chance to do more than whimper in response. He dropped the teen back down and left.
Some time later—it felt like forever, and he knew the bell had certainly rung, but he knew it couldn't have been more than an hour—Yuugi finally forced himself to his feet. Jounouchi and Honda were out cold, finally passing out from the pain. They needed to go to the nurse's office, he thought dimly. Yuugi wanted to make sure Ushio hadn't done any permanent damage to them. But through all that, the thought beat around his head, leaving him feeling sicker than Ushio's kick could ever manage.
How was he going to come up with 200,000 yen?
No matter how much he thought about it, Yuugi couldn't come up with an answer. The question plagued him all day. How would he get Ushio's money? The only solution Yuugi could see was to ask his grandfather, but he didn't want to have to explain what happened. Sugoroku had been worried enough when Yuugi had come home early, clearly having "fought" with someone.
Of course, he could also steal it from the till in the shop, but that didn't even bear consideration. Yuugi was in dire straights, but he hadn't sunk that low, or at least he liked to think so.
So what to do?
As always when he had a problem, his hands searched for something to fiddle with. He couldn't seem to ever sit still, and he knew that was why he had some problems in school—he was tapping his pencil while he tried to remember some fact or figure (which disturbed other students), playing with some toy while he studied, and whenever he had an issue to think over, his hands inevitably found themselves reaching for a puzzle of some kind.
So it wasn't entirely surprising when he found himself opening the box to the Millennium Puzzle. He plucked the first couple pieces out almost unconsciously, working to see if they could fit together. They didn't, so he placed one on his desk and picked another from the box.
What was he even doing, he thought glumly. He should be finding a solution, not playing a game!
Click.
How was he supposed to get Ushio's money?
Click.
The Puzzle seemed to be coming together much more easily than before, he noted distantly. He had already reached the point he had last night, and he had only started on it a few minutes ago.
Click. Click click.
Should he ask his grandfather after all? Or maybe Anzu? No, he thought firmly, shaking his head. Telling Anzu would be beyond mortifying, and Sugoroku would want to go to the police. And while Yuugi could acknowledge that would technically be the "right" move, it stung.
Click click click.
It stung that he was even in this position.
Click click click—
He hated it. Despair choked him, making him gasp. He had always had bullies, true, but he had always kept his head down, done what they asked, and they didn't bother him too much. He was a boring target.
Click click—
Now he had been placed in an untenable position and he had no idea what to do. He was unable to do what the bully wanted. The "right" solution was too humiliating. But if he did nothing he would end up in even worse shape, probably in the hospital, if Ushio's threat with the knife wasn't just a bluff.
Click click click click—
He needed a different solution, a different angle. There had to be a way to beat Ushio at his own game—what the hell was he thinking, that wasn't even a possibility either. Ushio was too big for Yuugi to fight head on. He needed…
Click click click—
…he needed a friend, a true friend who would be able to help him and wouldn't judge him or humiliate him for needing it.
Click.
Yuugi broke from his thoughts with a start. The Puzzle almost seemed to stare up at him, and he stared back in awe.
It was almost complete. The shape of it was revealed—a pyramid with a loop on the top. There was just one space left, dead center of the front-facing surface. It was the only design on the pyramid besides the lines of the puzzle pieces. He couldn't wait to see what it was! He reached into the box, and excited grin breaking over his face, and for a moment Ushio was forgotten—
—only for his fingers to meet the bottom of the empty box.
"What?" He looked over at it. Empty. "No!"
It was almost done! Where was the last piece? He couldn't have lost it! He lifted the Puzzle, the box, his notebooks, searched his entire desktop, but it wasn't there. He checked his drawers in case it fell when he picked up the pieces that morning, under the desk in case it fell there, but it wasn't either of those places.
"It has to be here," he wailed, diving to the floor to check under his bed. Had he kicked it there? He threw the covers back to get some light, climbed as far under as he could, but nothing there either. His dresser? He checked under it, behind it, in the drawers, where could it be?
"Yuugi?"
Yuugi tried to stand and yelped when his head connected to the bottom of his desk. He had been searching there again, because where else could it be? "Jii-chan?"
"Your room's even more of a mess than usual," Sugoroku commented, eyeing the mess warily. "Have you lost something?"
To Yuugi's utter mortification, the question was enough to bring tears to his eyes. Later, he figured it was too much—losing the last piece of the Puzzle on top of Ushio's demands and threats. But in that moment, he was so embarrassed by his crying that he wished he could sink into the floor. Jounouchi was right, he thought bitterly, he acted way too much like a girl.
"Yuugi, what's wrong?" Sugoroku asked, alarmed. He crossed the room and knelt down next to him. "What's happened?"
"I l-lost the l-las-t piece o-of the Puzzle," he managed to sob. "I-it's gone, I c-can't fin-nd it, I-I-I'll never s-solve it no-ow!"
Sugoroku blinked, then looked up at the desk. "Ah, you solved it! How wonderful!"
Yuugi wiped his wrist across his face, trying to rub the tears away. "No, the l-last piece is m-mis-sing. I-I can't s-solve it. I'll n-ne-ver solve i-it."
"Yuugi, my boy," Sugoroku said gently, "have a little more faith, will you?" Yuugi looked up at him, sniffling. His grandfather pulled something from his pocket, giving it to Yuugi with a gentle smile. "You've spent the last eight years pouring your heart and soul into this puzzle. I don't think it's going to ignore that."
Yuugi gasped, his breath hitching. It was the last piece of the Puzzle! "W-where…? Was i-it downst-airs?"
"A young man with long blond hair stopped by just now," Sugoroku explained. "It was strange, though—it wasn't cloudy and it hasn't rained all day, but he was soaking wet! He said he was a friend of yours, a tall fellow, looked a little roughed up."
"Jou-Jounouchi-kun?" Yuugi asked, his tears finally slowing to a stop.
"Ah yes, that's his name!" Sugoroku smiled and wiped a few traces of tears from Yuugi's face. "See, it's not so bad now, is it?"
"Thank you, Jii-chan," Yuugi said, smiling softly.
"You're welcome." The older man sighed and got up from the floor with a groan. "Now, I'd best go finish cleaning up the shop for the day." He paused at the door, then looked back. "Yuugi? You would tell me if something was wrong, wouldn't you?"
Yuugi blinked at him. For a moment, the words rose up his throat like a tidal wave. He wanted nothing more than to tell his grandfather everything.
But he couldn't.
"Yeah, Jii-chan. Of course."
His grandfather smiled sadly at him. "Of course."
Yuugi turned away, guilt gnawing at his insides. There was a brief movement from the corner of his eye, and he half-turned, but his grandfather was already gone, and the only thing he could see was his school bag.
Yuugi sat back at his desk. If he couldn't think of anything, he decided, he would tell his grandfather. He didn't think he could hold out much longer anyway.
But at least he could complete the Puzzle. If nothing else, he had accomplished that much with his life—completing an ancient puzzle no one else could. He smiled faintly and pressed the final piece into place.