| Kids (Season 0; Chapter 24)

"Get your dirty hands off the Puzzle! Goddamn brats!"

He never had much patience for arrogant people. It was a fact that most of the people he had killed or gave punishments to were very arrogant people. He could handle pride, for he too had a lot of pride in himself and his powers and in his other self. He understood why someone can come to be prideful of themself and their talents. He felt that there was nothing wrong with that.

Arrogance was another matter entirely. Arrogance bred ignorance and ultimately, disrespect and dishonor in his opinion. He could not stand those three qualities on their own - but these kids were really pushing it.

The day had been going well, in both his and Yuugi's opinions. School had went fine with only a few scoldings from the teachers. The fact that Yuugi gets such scoldings on his wavering attention on the lesson often leaves him feeling a little disgruntled. The shadow mourned that Yuugi had little interest in anything that was not presented to him as a game. It made focusing on the outside world in general difficult for Yuugi. Luckily, Honda, Jounouchi, and Anzu are always able to pull him back in.

After school had ended, Yuugi had went by a store to buy more "capsule monsters". It seemed to be the game that had caught his other self's eye lately.

The game was fascinating and he had studiously watched Yuugi play it with himself and Sugoroku in order to learn the rules and strategies. While the shadow could not see himself playing it on a regular basis like Duel Monsters (he admits he's become very fanatical of that game), there was no doubt that he enjoyed the game nonetheless.

It was also interesting to see just how far their bond had come. Yuugi's awareness of his presence had given him the strength to tap into parts of the puzzle he had not been able to access before - extra energy and magic stores he's come to realize. He has been able to take over for longer than he usually does - just enough time to resolve the problem and take their body somewhere safe. While they still could not communicate in a conventional way, Yuugi seemed to respond appropriately when he hinted towards small clues and reached out with his energy. It was quite far from his own personal dream to play a friendly game with Yuugi - to finally be able to talk to his other self, but he appreciated what it has come to.

Everything started to go downhill when he approached the strange machine surrounded by kids that would give out a capsule monster when given money.

Normally, he drifted on a thin line of consciousness and sleep to conserve energy as the Shadow Games have been sapping at his energy stores. Overtaking Yuugi's consciousness with his own and making sure not to smother his other's mind while carrying out his games kept his mind in a harried frenzy. It took a lot focus and power from him and would require time and rest to recuperate from. But that didn't mean he didn't pay attention to Yuugi's emotions - they were his gateway into taking over Yuugi without harming the other if the situation called for it.

In this half-way state, he'd blearily watch Yuugi go about his day, occasionally waking up slightly when Yuugi's emotions caused alarm, be they positive or negative. He only woke up fully when Yuugi was experiencing extreme negative emotions that he found it necessary to take care of it himself.

He had felt Yuugi's unease at the cheekiness of the grade school kids and then his irritation when it seemed that his money was loss to the strange machine and then his later embarrassment at being lectured vehemently by the store owner. The shadow felt for Yuugi (even though his feelings didn't reach Yuugi as easily as Yuugi's reached him). Such an event was definitely humiliating; he agreed with Yuugi's stray thoughts.

Yuugi's premonition of the day going bad was proven correct a few moments later. Yuugi's growing trepidation and worry pushed at him when Mokuba Kaiba and his gang of little ruffians appeared and proceeded to talk down of him. That had woken him up enough to be aware of their words and energies. While he doubted that they'd bring much physical of harm to his other self, they were sure doing a good at harming his partner emotionally. Then, Yuugi was practically threatened to follow the small Kaiba and his gang to their "hideout" where they continued with their mocking words (which he was getting quite sick of hearing).

The final straw had definitely been when one of those twats had tried to lay hands on the Puzzle. The Puzzle had been stolen away from Yuugi far too many times for him or Yuugi's comfort and it was getting increasingly aggravating that people believed they could simply take someone else's belongings. If not for the often swift recovery of the Millennium Puzzle, the shadow was positive that he would not have let the thieves rest in peace. 'Rest in hell' would be a more accurate phrase.

The Puzzle was valuable to the both of them (though Yuugi saw it mostly as a piece of jewelry). It served as a physical bridge between him and Yuugi, provided a prison-like home for him, and made it easy for his powers to manifest.

He may not have come to like the Puzzle in its recent years, but damn it the Puzzle was his and Yuugi's!

Between demeaning Yuugi as a Capmon player and a person, those twats with their grabby hands trying to take the Millennium Puzzle, and the smaller Kaiba's annoying and arrogant smirk, the shadow could easily state that: He really couldn't stand these goddamn brats.

Chapter 24 is a gem for that one line. (the chapter itself is fun, but that line took the cake)

If anyone is wondering about what to expect in terms of updates, I have a prompt called "Change" (20% done) which takes place during Death-T, another prompt called "Shadi" (15% done) that will take place in Season 1 (I currently have this one on hold because I want to know if its the manga is the same as the anime when it comes to this episode/chapter), and have the following prompts as plot bunny form:

Anzu (bomb park), Kaiba/Kaiba II (1st duel + another for Death-T), Dream/Gratitude (probably directly after the last chapter of "Season 0" YGO), and an unnamed prompt based off the chapter with monsters fighting on disks. The main reason I want to write about that is because I nearly lost my shit when Yami took off his shirt to reveal himself to be blinged out underneath. The names aren't final - though prompts regarding a specific character will use roman numerals for multiples. It's easier that way.