Sunday came about. Ryou rolled out of bed around half-past noon, made himself lunch, and then sat down on the couch to watch TV. At first he intended to watch cartoons, but he happened to come across a channel that was showing reruns of the Battle City Tournament, so he decided to watch that.
He had been unconscious for most of the Battle City tournament, so he missed out on most of the action. Now that it was all over, he could watch reruns of it from the safety of his home. At first the show wasn't too interesting. They focused a lot on Yugi's journey because he was the champion, as well as other prominent duelists such as Kaiba, Jounouchi, and Mai who had already been famous before the tournament took place. The three Ishtar siblings hadn't been well-known before Battle City took place, so not too many of their duels had been filmed before the finals. Ryou too was an obscure figure, so none of his early duels had been filmed at all.
The world only ever got to see Ryou duel once, and it wasn't even him. It was the Spirit of the Millennium Ring possessing him and dueling in his stead. As Ryou watched Yami Bakura duel on TV, he was horrified by what he saw. The Spirit's presentation was very loud and bombastic. He was constantly laughing like a maniac and taunting his opponent as if he were some kind of crazy villain in a children's cartoon show.
"Is this how you always act when you're in control?" Ryou said, horrified.
With a flash of magical energy, the transparent figure of the Ring Spirit appeared next to Ryou on the couch. He had been there the whole time watching the show since it started. He just didn't want to reveal himself until Ryou said something.
"Yeah, I'm always like that. What about it?" the Spirit said.
"You make me look like a lunatic! It's embarrassing!" Ryou said, covering his eyes. "This is not the type of image I want to present to the public."
As the Spirit watched himself on TV, he couldn't help but smile as he relished in how awesome he looked. "God, I'm so hot," he said. "I'd totally fuck a clone of myself."
"EWWWW!" Ryou's face scrunched up in disgust. "Do you have any idea what you just implied? We look exactly alike!"
"Yep we sure do," the Spirit said with a flirtatious wink in Ryou's direction.
"ARRRGGG! You are so embarrassing!" Ryou buried his face in his hands, his cheeks flushed red, and the Spirit fell over laughing.
On the TV, Yami Bakura had his Destiny Board set up and was about to win the next turn. Then Yami Yugi summoned the Winged Dragon of Ra. That's when Ryou suddenly regained control of his body, scared and in pain. He fell to the floor, clutched his bleeding arm and pleaded for someone to come help him. After a few minutes the Ring Spirit retook control of Ryou's body and welcomed his opponent to attack him. Yami Yugi attacked with Ra's thunder force and the duel was finished. Then Ryou was carried inside to receive proper medical care. Then the show moved on to the next duel.
"Thank god that's over," Ryou said, turning off the TV. He was too emotionally exhausted to watch anymore. He lay on the couch and covered his face with his hands, and sighed. "Why'd you have to act like that on live television? Now the whole world thinks I'm crazy."
"I have a reputation to maintain," the Spirit said. "How else am I supposed to make Yugi think I'm evil?"
"There are ways to maintain your reputation without sabotaging my reputation. I'm fine with you being like that in front of my friends because they know it's you and not me acting that way, but the rest of the world doesn't know you exist. This is the way the public is going to view me for the rest of my life. You made a really bad first impression."
The Spirit hmphed. "Does it really matter that much how the world views you?"
Ryou stayed quiet for the next couple of minutes, thinking about possible future job interviews that could be sabotaged by the awful first impression of him on live international television. Eventually he decided he should stop wallowing in self-pity and get some work done.
The Millennium Items have the ability to allow access into soulrooms. Inside each person's mind is a room that reflects the personality of the individual, and this is what is called a soulroom. Because Ryou and the Ring Spirit shared the same body, there were two soulrooms inside their shared headspace, divided by a hallway.
Ryou's soulroom had lots of activity inside. There were tons of things to do, such as video games, TV shows, and books that he had entertained himself with over his entire lifetime. There were hobbies and games too; plenty of art supplies, a few musical instruments, baking and cooking supplies, and lots and lots of games. Because Ryou's soul room was so lively, the Spirit liked to spend a lot of time in Ryou's room rather than his own room. Ryou didn't mind.
Ryou entered his soulroom that evening and found the Spirit in there, sitting alone and watching TV. It was strange how even though this was Ryou's room, the Spirit seemed to spend more time here than Ryou did.
Not a word was spoken as Ryou sat down on the ground and picked up a video gaming device, which he started playing quietly. Ryou did his own thing and the Spirit did his thing. The silence was comfortable; they didn't need to talk to each other. They just hung around in the same room together, each absorbed in his own activity, alone but not alone. This was how they socialized.
Out of the corner of his eye, Ryou saw the Spirit holding a knife covered with blood. Ryou paused in his gaming, suddenly concerned. "Why do you have that?"
The Spirit looked up. "Hm?"
"Why do you have that knife?" Ryou repeated.
The Spirit shrugged and went back to watching whatever show he was watching. Ryou got up to get a closer look at what the Spirit was doing. There was blood trickling down the Spirit's arm.
"Spirit, have you been cutting yourself?" Ryou asked quietly.
"Yeah," the Spirit said very casually, as if talking about something mundane. He lifted his knife, licked the blood off, and swallowed the blood.
Ryou stared in alarm. He couldn't believe what he was seeing. And the way the Spirit admitted to self-harming was so casual, as if this was normal everyday routine.
"How often do you cut yourself?"
"Like, two or three times a day, sometimes more," the Spirit shrugged. He was still looking at the TV, partially distracted, not really paying Ryou any mind.
A moment passed without either of them speaking a word, and the only sound was the dialogue coming from the TV. Once the Spirit had finished licking the blood off the knife, he set the knife down on the ground next to him and started licking the wound on his arm.
With as much subtlety as he could, Ryou reached out and grabbed the knife, and then moved away from the Spirit once it was in his grasp.
It only took a split second for the Spirit to react. "Wha - hey! That's mine!" He got up and took several steps towards Ryou's direction, and Ryou took several steps backwards in response.
"Give it back!" said the Spirit.
Ryou shook his head. "Spirit, you need help. I think you need to go see a therapist."
"What? Absolutely not. You can't be serious."
"I am serious. There's something wrong with you."
The Spirit crossed his arms and scowled. "I'm not doing that."
"But Spirit - "
"I'm not seeing a fucking therapist. There's nothing wrong with me."
"You cut your arm, and then licked the blood off the knife. That's an indication that something is wrong. Why were you self-harming?"
The Spirit shrugged. "I enjoy it. I love wounds and watching them heal and scar over."
"Is that the only reason or are there other reasons as well?"
"Sometimes I do it because I'm bored."
"How often are you bored?"
"Pretty much always."
"Then something is wrong. If you're always bored, then something must be wrong. You need to see a mental healthcare professional about this."
The Spirit sneered. "Alright you know what? Keep the knife. I'll just get another one." He turned and walked towards the exit. "I'm going back to my room."
"Wait, hold on!" Ryou quickly ran forward and put a hand on the Spirit's shoulder in an attempt to stop him from leaving. The Spirit immediately froze in his tracks, brushed the hand off and said, "Don't touch me! I don't like being touched!"
"Sorry! Sorry!" Ryou backed away.
The Spirit sauntered out of the room and into the hallway that divided their soulrooms apart. Ryou followed close behind.
"There's nothing shameful about going to therapy! Plenty of people do it these days. It's normal," Ryou said.
"Can we not talk about this?" the Spirit grunted annoyedly as he started to unlock the chains that bound the door to his room. "And you know the rules. Stay far away from my door."
Ryou did as he was told and stood a safe distance away from the Spirit's door. Ryou was never allowed inside the Spirit's room; in fact Ryou wasn't even allowed near the door while the Spirit was opening it.
"It's not just the self-harming that concerns me," Ryou continued to plead. "You spend almost all your time in my room playing games and watching shows. You hardly ever go outside and you have nobody to talk to except me. I'm worried about you. I really think it would do you some good to talk to someone other than me."
"Talk to an outsider? You really think that's a good idea? I stay inside the soulrooms for good reason, landlord. If I come out and talk to someone, how am I going to explain the change in personality? You and I are much too different. I can't pretend I'm you. For me to see a therapist we would have to tell them about the existence of the Millennium Items and magic. That's not something we can risk."
"That..I...well, you make a good point," Ryou relented.
"Anyways, I'm not interested." The Spirit went inside his soul room and quickly shut the door behind him, and the magical chains once again wound themselves around the door, locking it up tight.
If there was one class Ryou disliked more than any other class, it was gym class. Ryou was well aware that he didn't fit in with the other boys. He was very feminine, with long white hair and a thin physique, and he wasn't the athletic type. His physical health wasn't in good shape and he got tired easily from physical activity. However he had another reason to dislike gym class, and that was because it was difficult to hide the Millennium Ring when he was in it.
There was stigma attached to using the changing rooms. In general, boys who used the changing rooms were thought to be those who had low confidence about their bodies. Ryou didn't have low confidence about how his body looked; in fact he loved his body. He was happy with the way he looked. But because he constantly wore the Millennium Ring underneath his shirt, it meant he couldn't take his shirt off in front of other people.
Ryou was one of the few boys in Domino High who changed his shirt privately in the changing room of the boy's locker room. Most other boys weren't shy about taking their shirts off in front of others. In fact, the only other boy who actively used the changing room, and that was Otogi Ryuji.
Otogi was a feminine boy too, with long silky black hair and dark eyeliner. He was pretty damn proud of who he was, not afraid to strut his blend of masculine and feminine beauty. However he never took his shirt off in front of the other boys.
Ryou heard the taunts and laughter of several bullies while heading towards the changing rooms that morning. "Using the changing rooms again huh? Haha sissy."
Ryou strode past them and ignored them as best as he could. Truthfully he was less afraid for himself and more afraid of what a certain vengeful spirit would do to them if they continued to taunt and tease him.
"If you want, I could make it so that they'd never bother you again," the Ring Spirit said to Ryou through the mind-link.
"No, absolutely not. Don't do anything to them."
Luckily, someone else came to Ryou's offense; someone with less extreme means of dealing with harassers.
"Why don't you guys mind your own business?" Otogi said as he stepped in front of Ryou. "There's nothing wrong with having modesty."
Otogi took Ryou's hand and walked over to the changing rooms.
"Go on, you go first," Otogi said.
"Thanks," said Ryou as he went into the changing rooms and change into his gym clothes. When he was done, Otogi went in and changed his clothes.
Ryou often wondered why. Otogi radiated self-confidence. He was fawned over by half the girls in the school, and maybe some of the boys too. So what did he have to hide? Maybe he was just modest.
When Ryou was done changing, Otogi took his turn. Ryou waited for Otogi to finish before heading to class, because he didn't want to walk out of the locker room alone.
Otogi came out of the changing room, saw Ryou standing there, and smiled. "Ready to go to class?"
Ryou nodded. "Of course."
On their way to class, Otogi said, "I was just thinking, it's so ridiculous that we have to do four hours of gym class every day. I mean the girls only have to do two hours, and they also get to do two hours of home economics. It's not fair."
"I agree. I would much rather take home economics than gym class," Ryou said.
"Me too," Otogi agreed.
Ryou thought for a moment, and came up with an idea. "Hey, maybe we can ask the principal if we can take home economics with the girls!"
"Are you sure he'd let us?" Otogi asked.
"It couldn't hurt to ask. Maybe the only reason there are no boys in the home economics classes is because no one's ever tried to ask before."
"All right then, let's try it."
And so, after two hours of gym class was over, Ryou and Otogi excused themselves to go to the principal's office where they asked the principal if they could take home economics with the girls. Luckily for them the principal was a very laid-back and friendly person, and he was perfectly fine with letting the two boys take home economics.
From that day forward, Ryou and Otogi became the first boys in the history of Domino High School to take home economics. The entire school found out about it. Some of the more judgmental students whispered about it, and one or two bullies teased them about it, but neither Ryou nor Otogi paid them any mind. They were so amazingly happy that they were allowed to take home economics and no longer had to do four hours of gym class.
Yugi, Jounouchi, and Honda had their doubts.
"I heard you two are taking home economics with the girls. Why would you do that?" Jounouchi questioned that afternoon after class.
"I just like cooking," Ryou said with a shrug.
"Home economics teaches valuable skills that everyone should know, not just girls," Otogi responded. "Maybe you guys should join us."
Jounouchi and Honda shook their heads and said, "Nah we'll pass."
"Suit yourselves. But you don't know what you're missing," Otogi said.