"Oof." Yuya grunted in pain as he was tossed against the wall. Varsch, Nathan and his friends snickered as he struggled to get back up. "Can we stop now? Please?" Yuya begged.

"Aw, had enough already loser?" Robin laughed, giving him another kick.

"You just keep getting more and more pathetic." Devin said, looking at Yuya as if he was the most disgusting thing on the planet. Something Yuya had been telling himself a lot at the moment. One his way home from school and his regular beating, he could feel the gazes of everyone boring into him. Strangers gave him questioning and odd looks, obviously directed at his cuts and scraps. But to Yuya, it was like they could see he was worthless, like their stares were telling him to get lost because no one wanted him around. He looked down at his feet, and was surprised to see them running. When had he broken into a sprint? Now he wasn't even paying attention to himself. All he knew in his head was that he wanted to get away, away from everyones' judgmental stares, their cruel whispers, their sickening laughter. He just wanted things to be how they were before. He wished more than anything he could turn back time to a month ago, when everything was fine. He wished he could turn back time so he never went to Varsch's house that evening, or invited him to his place, or even said hello to him when he first came here. So that he could once again train to be a dueltainer alongside his friends. His friends… Oh how he wished he could go to them, beg their forgiveness, plead their help. However, not only would what little pride he had left not allow him, but if he said anything to anyone, all his and his friends' secrets would become, well, not so secret.

I really am useless. He thought sadly as he entered his house. He came in the back door so he could avoid his mom, the last thing he wanted was for her to learn what was going on. Not only was he sworn to secrecy, but he didn't want her getting involved.

"Yuya? Is that you?" Yuko called from the kitchen. Yuya froze, took a deep breath, and put on the best happy tone he could.

"Yeah mom, sorry I'm late again."

"That's okay, dinners in an hour."

"Okay!"

He quickly went upstairs to the bathroom to work on covering up his new bruises before anyone noticed. He turned of the tap and splashed the cool water over his face. He looked up at himself in the mirror, and sadly, wasn't surprised by what he saw. Ugly purple bruises had formed all over his cheeks and eyes, and large red scratches were dotted all over his face. Guess I'm just as disgusting outside as I am inside. He thought sady, placing a hand to the mirror, forlornly. He tried to fight it but eventually big fat tears began rolling down his face. Why am I so pathetic…?

The next day…

Today was like any other for Yuya. He was pushed around, bullied, humiliated, beaten etc. Except for when it came time for Varsch and his mates to beat Yuya up.

"Wait please!" Yuya cried, placing his hands in front of his face as Varsch was about to bring his foot down onto it.

"What is it now…" He sighed angrily.

"I can't take this anymore, there must be something I can do so you'll stop." Yuya begged. Varsch was about to beat his face in anyway, when he was suddenly struck with a brilliant idea.

"Actually." He said, "There might be."

"Really?" Yuya asked, looking incredibly hopeful.

"Mmhm." He nodded, as the rest of the gang looked on in confusion. He then surprised everyone even more by chucking a hoard of cards at Yuya. Yuya picked a few up to examin them, and was shocked to discover they were his cards. He burst into tears of joy at seeing his precious preformapals and pendulum monsters again.

"What?" Devin said, now completely lost. "I thought you destroyed those things."

"His pendulum cards intrigued me, so I kept them and destroyed some copies I made." Varsch explained.

"Oh thank you." Yuya cried, hugging his deck, so thrilled to have it back again. For maybe the first time in weeks he was actually feeling happy.

"Not so fast Yuya." Varsch continued. "I said we'd leave you alone if you did something, and that thing is beat me in a duel."

"Yeah? Shouldn't be hard, I already beat you before."

As soon as those words left his lips, Yuya realised his mistake. He got kicked square in the face, causing blood to come squirting out his nose. He clutched at his face and tried to stem the flow.

"Well now I want a rematch. Tomorrow at lunch, in front of the whole school," Varsch said. "Oh and I have some conditions."

"Like what?"

"I will be duelling to get revenge on you for the way you've treated Zuzu. That way she'll fall even more in love with me."

And hate you even more. He added in his head.

Yuya wasn't sure about the conditions, but he really wanted these jerks to leave him alone, so he reluctantly agreed to the duel.

"Good, now get out of here." Varsch said, tossing Yuya to the ground one more time, and spitting in his direction. Yuya hastily scrambled to his feet and took off, clutching his deck protectively.

"Why'd you go and do that?" Carter asked.

"Simple, not only will it widen the gap between Yuya and Zuzu, but it'll destroy his confidence in himself to loose in such a big way. And in front of everyone to."

"How can you be sure he'll loose, he did defeat you before." Nathan pointed out.

Surprisingly, Varsch remained calm this time around. "Because that was before we crushed his soul." He replied. "And we're going to make a few extra arrangements to make certain I win."

Realisation dawned on the faces of his four companions, realisation that quickly turned to smugness.

Yuya was in big trouble now…