4.
Grandma went into remission, and the family threw her a gigantic party toasting her good health. At the party, she hugged Yuugi very fiercely.
"My precious girl," she whispered, kissing the top of her head. "You saved my life."
That was the moment when Yuugi became truly determined to become a nurse.
She continued work on the Puzzle - it held a special significance for her now - but from there her social life flourished. She threw herself back into getting good grades for medicine, and also into school friendships with gusto, and people were glad to have her back. Yuugi expanded her repertoire of hobbies, first by hanging out with and getting recommendations from other people, then later by trying adventurous things herself.
If there was one thing watching her grandmother had taught Yuugi, it was to live her life to the fullest and never take it for granted. Anzu explored hobbies with her, ever up for an adventure, and they tried new things together.
Yuugi slowly grew into being a teenager - a popular teenager on top of that, with a constantly full social calendar. She became small and slim, pixie-like and graceful, delicate, with long straight black hair and big violet eyes, a heart-shaped face and pale skin. However she also tried rainbow sand art inspired hair dye, experimenting with different wild colors, usually either wearing her hair up in a hair clip or straight down, and she formed a love for beanies and for cutesy stuff - a panda bear backpack, Hello Kitty keychains, the Neko Atsume app and tee, ladybug notebooks, soot sprite and Ghibli summer dresses, a pink phone case decorated in cute little yukionna snow fairy stickers. Her typical fashion became little skirts, leggings or tights, and big boots.
She retained her love for lemonades, iced teas, and smoothies, and for electronic and pop dance music.
She continued her massage classes, and began volunteering at a local animal shelter, finding a natural gentleness and affinity toward animals. In addition to gaming and puzzles, she started crafting her own jewelry and other accessories, and doing calligraphy, origami, and ikebana flower arrangement. She still loved drawing. She enjoyed visiting theme parks and Go Karting, and she was a little obsessed with the Pokemon Go app.
She visited other people's parties, but she also often went to movies, museums and art galleries, and readings and open mic nights. She liked binge streaming TV and reading books.
She tried rock climbing, went on road trips with Anzu during summers (saving up allowance money to rent a car and a driver), did breakfast for dinner and brunch events, went picnicking, and visited onsen. She liked skiing during wintertime and on vacations.
On the note of her determination to live life to the fullest, she started doing lots of socially driven photography and street art - the street art left on walls, as she snuck there and back in the dark at night. She took a photo of each and every piece of socially driven street art she ever did, and hid them underneath her bed in her bedroom. But she also took pictures during the day, of things she saw on road trips or around Domino City.
She loved thunderstorms. Her favorite thing to do was to curl up inside with a cup of hot tea and watch the rain slant and the lightning streak across the sky, listening in fascination as the wind howled.
She started using social media. Most of her usernames involved snow, because "Yuugi" was one sound away from "Yuki." She loved snowdrop accessories and decorations, such as in earrings, and yukionna (snow fairies). Most of her profile pictures were of yukionna, and she had cute little yukionna stickers plastered over everything.
She also redecorated her bedroom, painting over her childhood walls and going through a total artistic redecoration. Her new bedroom involved bright colors with ivory, gold, and black, mixed patterns, a low-set bed, artwork on the walls and a Thai-inspired door. It was eclectic, quirky, and adventurous.
She and Anzu did adventures together, went on shopping trips together, confided in each other about hopes and fears and dreams - most of Yuugi's other friendships were distant or fell by the wayside, but her friendship with Anzu just grew closer as the years passed. Anzu and Yuugi had an affinity. In so many ways they were different - one quiet and calm, the other fiery and loud - but they shared the same innate knowledge that people and adventure, love and life experience, were what was truly important.
They supported each other when no one else did.
Author's Notes: This is the end of Yuugi's pre-canon days. Next chapter we get to high school and the beginning of canon.