Many of you have probably heard of the following. But in case you haven't, here is a brief description of some of the things mentioned in this chapter:-

Yuzu – a citrus fruit grown in Japan that is a little bit like a lemon.

Wagyu – is a Japanese cow, that produces prime beef steaks. Depending on the quality of the marbling, it can be very expensive. The cows are pampered and actually live better than most humans! Kobe/Matsusaka beef are probably the most well known. It is becoming popular in the UK at high end restaurants and farmers here are now rearing herds.

Red-Crowned Crane - is an iconic, but endangered species of wading bird (with long legs) that lives on Hokkaido, the northern island of Japan.


Chapter 13

Introspection.

When Katsu screamed, Anzu and Mai flinched and covered their ears.

Almost hyperventilating, she screamed again and started tugging at her hair in frustration. "I can't do this! I can't, I can't! I've fucking had enough!"

"Wh... what did I say?" Mai could not understand how such an innocent comment might have triggered such a catastrophic meltdown. She was not trying to be insensitive. She was trying to help!

Anzu leaned between the seats and placed a calming hand over Katsu's shoulder. "It's okay Katsu. Breathe... in through your nose, out through your mouth.." She shot Mai a warning glare.

"Look! I'm sorry if what I said came over as unsympathetic," said Mai, defensively. "But you know me! I always speak my mind. I actually thought it was a compliment."

"Well, sometimes it's better to not say anything," Anzu irritably replied.

"It's okay Anzu. Don't blame Mai. It's been building up for a while," Katsu muttered, in a small, weak voice. "None of this mess is your fault."

"If it will help to talk? I'm all ears. I won't judge." Mai smiled sheepishly and reached out to take Katsu's hand, giving it a gentle squeeze. It was amazing how delicate and soft the hand was. She remembered from a handshake with Jonouchi, that his grip had been strong and the knuckles bony and hard like a bare knuckle boxer.

"I thought I was doing great, but I've just realised something." Katsu swallowed harshly and sighed. "I ain't cut out for this crap! I thought I could manage having tits and no balls. But my hormones, or whatever, are all over the place! One minute I feel all girly and find myself liking pretty dresses and shit! The next, I'm thinking like a dude and wondering why the fuck I think Seto Kaiba is sexy!"

Anzu gave her shoulder a gentle squeeze. "You only have to survive for three and bit more weeks and you will be back to normal." She was trying to be sympathetic, but each time Katsu had her little meltdowns, it was getting harder to know what to say.

Meanwhile, Mai's eyebrows had shot up and her mouth was flapping open in surprise "D... Did you just say you thought Kaiba was sexy?!" She could not resist snickering.

"Yeah! What's so funny?" Katsu yanked her hand away from Mai's grip. "Stop laughing at me!"

"Oh... hon! I'm not laughing at you. I'm laughing because you said Seto Kaiba was sexy! From what I've seen, the guy has got a rod up his arse and always has a face like a squeezed yuzu!"

Anzu could not stop herself giggling at that. And even Katsu almost managed a smile. She glanced at Mai. "You mean you don't find him just a little bit sexy?" She teased.

"Hell no! I mean, he's filthy rich and has a decent upper body, but he has legs like a red-crowned crane and no personality. If he smiled and was nice to people, he might just pass for a sex god. But little Yugi – no disrespect Anzu – but even little Yugi is hot in comparison."

"Yeah, but Yugi's my best pal!" Katsu protested. "I would never look at him like that!"

"But you and Kaiba hate each other!" Mai almost shrieked in exasperation.

"Yeah, which makes it all the more fun dating him and letting him buy me Wagyu beef steaks and expensive champagne," she grinned.

Mai was a little concerned. "But what if he finds out?"

"It's okay Mai," Anzu interrupted. "We've already had this conversation." She let out a tired sounding sigh. "I'm afraid Katsu is as bull headed as Jonouchi when it comes to doing stupid things."

Katsu was offended at the remark, but couldn't argue; they were both right about her playing a dangerous game. But she was going to be stuck like this for a few more weeks. And although she still believed that she could breeze through it and stay in touch with her male brain, it was proving far more difficult and complicated than she imagined – hence the constant emotional roller coaster and random meltdowns.

There was no escaping the fact that her outlook wasbecoming more female than male. She no longer fancied girls and kept looking at boys. And that was worrying!

She looked at Mai and Anzu and smiled sadly. They were the best friends a girl – and a guy – could ever have. They were sticking by her, helping her and even tolerating her when she screamed and cried at them. "Thanks you two. I dunno what I would do without you. Especially you Anzu; for letting me stay at your house, lending me clothes and stuff, and helping me come to terms with myself."

"It's okay Katsu. When I drew that smiley face on our hands at Death-T, and said it was to symbolise our friendship, I meant it sincerely. No matter what obstacles are thrown in our way we will always stick together and face those obstacles in the way that best friends should."

"Yeah, ta...," Katsu twisted round to grasp Anzu's hand, giving it a squeeze of gratitude. "I think I've calmed down again now. Just sorry you both had to witness me going all hysterical," she grimaced sheepishly. "Bumping into those morons from school earlier brings it home to me just what a knife edge I'm on. All it takes is one slip up; like me swearing and beating the crap outta some dude for coming on to me, or if one of you guys accidentally calls me Jonouchi, I'm totally screwed."

"Well, none of us have slipped up so far. Your secret is safe with us," Anzu stated, resolutely.

Seeing the close friendship shared between the two, caused Mai to wonder if they really needed her here.

As much as she admired their strong bond of friendship, she was also perturbed by it. She would always feel like an outsider, no matter how hard she tried not to be. Her first instinct was to shove them out of the car and tell them that if they did not want her as a friend, they could get lost.

But then she checked herself. This was not a moment for her to be jealous and start reflecting on her own deep seated bitterness. She needed to show them the kindness that they had showed her. Perhaps then, she would no longer feel like an outsider.

"Look! I know I wasn't around when you did the smiley face thing, but... you guys still treat me like a friend. I'm sticking around town for a while. So if you want me to? I will help you get through this."

"Thanks Mai," Katsu sighed. "But... nah, never mind. I just want you to promise me, that once I'm back to normal, you won't ever talk about me being a girl. I want to forget Katsu ever existed. You both got that?"

Over the last week or so, Anzu had grown fond of Katsu. She thought it sad that Katsu wanted them all to forget about her after she has gone. "If that's your wish, then we will honour it," she reluctantly agreed. But deep down, she knew she would never be able to forget their newest friend. It was a shame that the Millennium Items could not separate out the new personality that had grown from Jonouchi's soul, into two different people. But if they were able do that, then wouldn't the other Yugi would have had his own body by now? It was something she could only wish for.

Not wishing to dwell on the fact that Katsu would, in effect, die, Mai changed the subject. "You mentioned your sister in your cover story earlier. How is she doing? I admire you for the way you fought so hard for her at Duelist Kingdom." Mai smiled at the memory. Despite his limited duelling experience, Jonouchi had shown so much determination and courage. At the time, she had been angry about losing to such an amateur. However, the circumstances under which he had defeated her and exposed her 'aromatics' strategy, no longer made her angry. It had actually taught her a valuable lesson about her own insecurities and why she had felt the need to cheat in the first place! She had grown to rather like the excitable young man to the point where she almost had a bit of a soft spot for him.

"My little sis... Shizuka." Katsu smiled reflectively at the thought of her younger sister "She's doing fine at the moment. Like I said at Yugi's place earlier: The doc says he won't operate yet because she still has some sight. Yugi is keeping the money safe in his account for me until I need it. I can't risk putting it in my account because the bank will take it to pay me and my dad's debts."

"Well, wish her all the best from me. I take it your family don't know about you becoming Katsu?" Mai asked.

"Shit! No way! My dad would call me a queer, a tranny and just about any other insult he could come up with. Mum would freak out and not understand at all. Only Shizuka would be understanding. She loves me and... I guess she might be a bit sad at first, but she is such a sweet, kind person. She would tell me it doesn't matter what I am and would be cool with me like this because she loves me. But I still don't want none of them to know."

Feeling an emotional lump well up in her throat, Anzu smiled. "Well, you can trust us, can't she Mai?"

"You bet, hon." Mai checked the time. "Well, it's getting late. You've got school and I'm still a bit jet lagged." She winked at them both.

Katsu grimaced. "Can we not mention school?" She pleaded.

Anzu rolled her eyes. "You can't keep avoiding it."

"Yeah, I can and I will," She snapped, with more than a hint of finality. "Anyway, thanks for the pep talk you two. " Chatting to them had certainly helped her to calm down, but there was no way she wanted to think about school.

::::::::::::

The following morning, Anzu overslept and was running late. She messaged Yugi to say that her mother was giving her a lift and that she would meet him at school.

Her mother waited for Anzu to fasten her seatbelt and then reversed off the driveway. "Why has Katsu not been attending school?" She suddenly asked. Her main issues were that her daughter had told her Katsu was an exchange student, and had chosen to come here because she was Jonouchi's cousin. Her mother was not familiar with Jonouchi because he had never been to the house before, but it seemed strange that he had still not been near, even with his cousin here!

"Huh?!" Anzu yawned, trying to deflect her mother's questioning. It did not work.

"You should go to bed earlier. Eleven pm on a school night is too late. I heard you come in. Katsu's got a loud voice."

Anzu could not help chuckle at that. "Yes, it must run in the family. Jonouchi can be loud too."

"Strange that he has not been around, don't you think? Your other friends have been over, but I would have thought that since he and Katsu are cousins, they would want to spend some time together."

Anzu nearly gulped, but managed to stop herself from floundering at the question. "Mum! What's with the inquisition? Jonouchi has a few problems at home. That's why Katsu can't stay at the flat. I know it's inconvenient, but Jonouchi has had to go and see his sister because she's in hospital. While he was away his dad got arrested again and Jonouchi is having to work extra hours to pay his fine. He was there when we went to the arcade last night though." She was getting too good at lying!

"Oh, okay. I was going to suggest that you invite all your friends round at the weekend, if you like? It would be nice to get to know the boys you spent a weekend on a tropical island with, a little better."

Anzu startled. Oh, no! Did that mean her mother had found out that the weekend they spent on Pegasus' Island was not a camping trip with Miho and her family? Is that why she had offered her a lift to school this morning? So she could reprimand her? "About that.. I can explain... Erm... how did you find out?"

"I bumped into Mrs Nosaka in the supermarket. She knew nothing about a weekend camping trip, but did say something about Yugi winning a world title at some card game, during the weekend you were away."

"Yeah... About that!" Anzu cringed. "Yugi and Jonouchi were competing in a Duel Monsters tournament, on an island owned by Pegasus – he created the game. I'm really sorry I lied, but I really wanted to go and I knew that if I said I was going with Yugi and three other boys, Dad would stop me. Have you told Dad yet?"

Her mother shook her head. "No, not yet. I wanted to give you a chance to tell me the truth first."

They were silent for a moment, before Anzu muttered that she was sorry.

"Is there anything going on that I should know about?" Her mother said, glancing at her as they waited for the traffic lights to change.

"No! We're all just friends! I'm closest to Yugi, but we're not involved romantically. It's against school rules. You do trust me, don't you?"

"Yes, of course I do sweetheart. But please don't lie to us again."

"Will you tell Dad?"

"Not this time. Tell Yugi, congratulations on his title. I have to say, I'm quite surprised! I always thought he seemed so... I'm not sure how to say it since he's your friend, but he doesn't seem confident enough!"

"Mum..!" Anzu felt protective towards Yugi and didn't like it when anyone insulted him. "There's a lot more to Yugi than you think. He's a good friend and he's fun to be around. He's also extremely talented at games. You should see him when he plays! He really comes out of his shell and is amazing. He's also the kindest person I know. He even gave his winnings to Jonouchi; so he could pay for his sister to have an operation that will save her eyesight."

As she turned left into the road opposite the school, Mrs Mazaki glanced at her daughter and smiled. There was always a keen fondness in her daughter's voice when she spoke of the boy she had known since her first day at school. "It's okay darling. I wasn't being disrespectful towards him. I'm just surprised! Because he always seems so shy. But he's a nice boy and I have always found him very polite. I like him. You could do a lot worse you know," she winked and Anzu blushed with embarrassment at what her mother was implying.

Relieved they had arrived at the school so that she could escape further inquisition, she kissed her mother on the cheek. "Bye Mum!" She leaped out of the car so quickly that she almost shut her book bag in the door.

Having arrived at school with enough time to spare, she made her way to the shoe racks to change into her indoor shoes. Yugi was there, changing into his indoor shoes.

She called his name and waved. He looked up and gave her a tired, worried smile. "Did you hear the news?" He said. Anzu gave him a confused look.

"No! What news?"

"Three students from this school were found unconscious near to the arcade by a dog walker early this morning. They didn't release names, but I'm guessing it might be Goro and his friends."

Anzu bit her lip thoughtfully. "Are you sure? What makes you think that?"

"Just after they left the arcade, Bakura also left. The other Me thinks he may have followed them and taken their souls."

"Do you think we should investigate? I wouldn't like to accuse Bakura and then find out he hasn't done anything."

"I already checked. Goro and his friends usually hang out near the bicycle shed and take money off the kids in return for not stealing their bikes. There was no sign of them when I came in. Their indoor shoes are still here too." He pointed at the numbered cubby holes set within the wooden storage units along the walls, where all the students placed their outdoor shoes when they changed into their indoor ones.

Anzu was still slightly sceptical. "Those guys often don't bother changing their shoes anyway. We should check their classroom to make sure." Quickly changing her footwear, she dragged him off to investigate further.

Stopping outside senior class B, she deliberately dropped her bag, spilling the contents on the floor.

Horrified at the risk she was taking, Yugi gasped. "Anzu!"

Trying to be as quiet as possible, he knelt down and hurriedly started to pick up her stuff before one of the seniors caught them. She knocked the book out of his hand.

"What are you doing?" He hissed, looking around nervously.

"Take your time Yugi," she said. "See if you can look into the classroom and check if they're there."

"Is that a good idea? If they see..." His sentence was cut short when a shadow suddenly loomed over them.

Gulping, Yugi looked up to see Ushio glowering over him. The thug had been avoiding Yugi, and had also been much quieter since returning to school after his 'episode'. But right now, the look on Ushio's face told Yugi that the thug would like to kill him.

"Hi! Ushio," Yugi gulped, scrabbling to his feet with Anzu's bag in his hand. "We were just on the way to our classroom when Anzu dropped her bag." Just to emphasise his point, he waved the bag at the towering bully.

"I can see that!" Ushio ground his teeth menacingly. "Your classroom is upstairs, isn't it?" He pointed to where they had just come from. They had no reason for being in this corridor when the stairs to their classroom was next to the entranceway in which they had entered the building.

Grabbing the bag from Yugi's hand, Anzu put her hand inside the side pocket. "Ah! Found it! I wanted to hand this letter in to matron," she said, clutching a plain envelope. "I was rummaging in my bag for it when I dropped all my stuff. Silly me!" She shot Ushio a fake grin.

Not believing them, Ushio held his hand out. "Give it to me? I will see that matron gets it."

"No! It's private.. " she protested. "You know, ladies stuff. I don't want you reading it." She was squaring up to him and Yugi wandered if they would be better off making a run for it and then deal with the consequences later.

At the mention of 'ladies stuff' Ushio blushed and backed down. With a grunt, he told them to hurry up, before pulling the door open and stomping into the classroom.

While the door to the classroom was still fully open, Yugi took the opportunity to quickly glance inside. There was no sign of Goro or his friends.

Gathering up the rest of the contents from Anzu's bag, the pair hurried along to where matron's office and small infirmary were situated was. They glanced over their shoulders to see Ushio craning his neck around the door frame, his beady eyes still watching them.

"Geez! That guy should get his eyebrows waxed," Anzu huffed, making Yugi erupt with laughter. He could even feel his other self laughing.

As soon as Ushio stopped watching them and went back into his classroom, the pair legged it back down the corridor and up to their own classroom.

They made it just in the knick of time, darting into their classroom at the same time their teacher arrived.

"Cutting it fine this morning, Miss Mazaki, Mister Mutou! Hurry up and take your seats," their teacher ordered.

"Yes Sensei!" They both answered, rushing to sit down.

They were both quick to notice Ryou Bakura's empty seat and were worried that something might have happened to him last night.

Yugi was starting to become even more concerned about what might have happened after Bakura sloped off from the arcade last night.

He glanced at Anzu and then at Honda. Having caught Honda's attention, he gestured at Ryou's empty seat. Honda shrugged and mouthed, "No idea."

"Mister Mutou!" The teacher's abrupt voice made him jump. "Face front!"

"Yes Sir!" Yugi quickly swivelled round to face the front of the class. When the other students started snickering and muttering the teacher told them to be quiet.

"Mister Honda! Would you like to share your conversation with Mister Mutou with the rest of us?"

"We were just concerned that Bakura is not here, Sensei."

The teacher nodded. He had no idea where Ryou Bakura was as the boy had not called in to say why he was absent.
However, not wanting his class of pupils to be disrupted further, he began the lesson.

::::::::::::

News that Goro and his pals had been admitted to hospital, suffering from unexplained comas, had quickly spread around the school and an assembly had been called just before the lunch break, to try and reassure everyone that it was not some kind of infectious disease that had been befalling both staff and pupils, but was more likely to be the result of them taking drugs. A lecture on the dangers of drug abuse followed.

But many were sceptical of this explanation and questions were being asked. The list of staff and pupils who had either gone into comas or had suffered unexplained breakdowns seemed to be growing.

Apart from Imori, most had recovered, but none of them seemed to have any recollection of how and why they had collapsed, or why they had suffered strange hallucinations. Many were saying it was witchcraft and that a curse had been placed on the school.

Throughout the assembly,Yugi and his friends stayed quiet.

Listening to the headmaster and his deputy head, struggling to come up with answers to the questions the students were throwing at them, made Yugi feel uncomfortable. He felt a sense of guilt over knowing that he and Bakura were responsible.

As soon as the assembly was over, he was relieved to get outside for some much needed fresh air.

His other Self materialised next to him. "I'm sorry you had to go through that Aibou. You should not be made to feel guilty for my actions."

"It's okay Other Me. I could never be angry with you for punishing them. You were trapped in the darkness for three thousand years and you were lost and confused. You didn't know what else you were supposed to do."

"Thank you. If it helps, I do feel bad about punishing them so severely."

"Don't feel bad. It wasn't all your fault. You were only acting on my thoughts."

"Yes, but I now know that while you might wish that someone would go and jump in the canal, go blind, deaf, or think rubbish was money, it does not necessarily mean you actually want that to happen to them."

"Yeah, well... let's just forget about it, shall we?" Sometimes, talking about dark thoughts was a little too disturbing.

Yami Yugi nodded with a wry smile. He knew Yugi felt bad that his own thoughts had prompted him to punish those wrongdoers. Even if they deserved it, in this world, it was not acceptable. "Suits me Aibou," he grinned.

Yugi had zoned out for a few moments and had only been half aware that they were heading for the roof. It always amazed him how he did not fall over or bump into things when he and his other Self were talking.

Since phones were not allowed to be turned on during lessons, they had been forced to wait until lunch break to contact Bakura. As soon as they reached the roof, Yugi tried ringing him. Bakura did not answer so he sent a message asking him to call as soon as possible.

Anzu was quite worried about him. The Ring often forced Ryou to do some pretty bad things, and it had no qualms about hurting him in its attempts to get what it wanted. The spirit inside the Ring was not friendly like the other Yugi. It was cruel, cynical and unstable. She had no doubt that it had wanted to kill them when it had sealed their souls into those game pieces – that had been made to look disturbingly like them! Luckily, with the help of the other Yugi, they had been able to defeat the 'Game Master' and his horrible looking demon, avatar thing that had been called 'Lord Zorc'. She shuddered at the thought of what might have happened to them that day if they had not managed to win.

"I think we should all go round to see him after school," she suggested, sending Bakura a message to inform him of their intentions.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Honda reasoned. "We can't risk another showdown like the one Yugi had with him the other day." He did not want to say too much in front of Anzu, but he was certain that if he had not been there, Yugi's alter ego would have killed Bakura.

"But shouldn't we make sure our Bakura is alright? I'm worried about him," she replied.

"Anzu's right. We have to make sure he is okay," Yugi stated, firmly. "And don't worry Honda, the other Me doesn't think he will try anything. The other Bakura knows he can't defeat the Puzzle." While wary of Bakura's motives, his other Self certainly did not fear him. And if his other Self was not afraid, then neither was Yugi.

::::::::::::

Ryou Bakura had been too afraid to go to school today. He had locked himself inside his apartment and had no intention of going near another person, ever again. He was going to stay indoors and when his food supply ran out he would wither away and die. It was a far better that he was dead than risk hurting anyone else.

The whole school must know what he had done to Goro and his friends by now. And even if they did not yet suspect him, he was sure they soon would. All they needed to do was go over his school records from the last four years and they would quickly correlate all of the unexplained comas that occurred at those other schools, with the ones that were now happening at Domino. It would not take a genius to work out that he was the cause.

His phone rang and he peered over at the screen. Yugi was ringing him. Yugi must be calling to tell him that the school were expelling him. They knew – they must. And if they had not worked it out, he would not blame Yugi and his friends for ratting on him after the things he had done to them since meeting them.

He sat there, watching it ring, waiting until it went to voicemail. Moments later, a message from Anzu popped up. The message said that they would come and see him after school. He decided that he would pretend he was not in.

He made himself a pot of earl grey and spent the rest of the afternoon curled up on his sofa, staring at the three cards on the coffee table. Each one was a soul prison for Goro and his two thugs.

Someone must have seen what he did to them! He was almost expecting a visit from the police and school counsellor, but no one came. It was like this every time he hurt someone and he hated it.

The door bell broke him from his trance. He had lost all track of time! How long had he been sat here in the same position? At least three hours, he realised.

"Answer the door." A voice in his head instructed. A shiver ran through his pale frame as he shook his head, making his head movements seem erratically animated.

"How can you be so unkind to your friends?" The voice was gentle and coaxing, but still held an undercurrent of malice. "They are concerned about you. If you don't let them in, I will!"

Ryou knew what the implications of that were. He would most likely challenge them to another shadow game, with souls on the line – again.

"Are you thinking ill of me again my host? I promise, if you let them in, I will behave. Scouts honour."

Ryou stood so abruptly, he saw stars. "What do you know about Scouts?!" He angrily spat, enraged.

"You made me befriend that mentally ill man and inspired him to become 'Choppy'! You told him to kill those poor kids in my Scout group! They were my friends!"

Knowing he had pushed him too far again, the spirit withdrew back inside the Ring. He still needed his host to co-operate, and aggravating him too much was counter productive and a waste of energy.

Reluctantly, Bakura answered the door to find his friends standing there, with a mixture of concern and apprehension.

He ha no choice but to let them in.


For those of you who are not familiar with the manga: Death-T was a series of life or death games Seto designed, specifically for Yugi to face. Choppy, was the serial killer he hired to man one of the games.

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