The Greatest Love of All

Hi, it’s been a long time since I’ve written an English fanfic. I wish the Microsoft Word®  would stop telling me that “fanfic” is “frantic” written wrong. Anyway, I’m listening to Ayreon, The Dream Sequencer, 2084 (and Ayreon is not Arson, Word-san, thank ya) although what inspired me to this fic was the song “The Greatest Love of All” (and fic is not “fix”, Word-san, thank ya). Now, stopping with the random talk, THIS AIN’T NO SHOUNEN-AI, just for you people to know, I’ve nothing against it, but I like Yuugi with Anzu and Jounouchi with Mai. Just thought you should know. I still haven’t seen a single chapter of the Yu-Gi-Oh anime, but I’ve searched through net and found scanlations of the 2 first chaps of the manga, along with summaries, etc and infinitum, and I can say I know enough of it to risk this small fic. Anyway, I don’t have cable TV and, here on Brazil, Yu-Gi-Oh is airing at Nickelodeon, so I don’t watch it. It should come to open TV soon (I hope), but it hasn’t yet. And I sure hope they’re not using the American dubbie names, ‘cause they sincerely suck. Why is Anzu “Tea”? When did she turn into tea, is she drinkable now? And Joey is such an used up name, Tristan sounds weird (have you ever played Diablo II? There’s a city called Tristram…) and Maximillion Pegasus just destroyed the elegance of his name… at least Seto Kaiba is still Seto Kaiba (not that he’s my fav anyway, but I kinda like him, he’s suffered a lot, hasn’t he?). Dear me, have I really written all this crap? And NO, Word, Shounen is not Showmen, Yuugi is not Yoga, Anzu is not Anzac, Jounouchi has no suggestions, thank ya, scanlations is not escalations, manga is not mango, Tristan is not Triton, Tristram is not Tri-Star, Maximillion is written together, all right, Seto is not Setup, Kaiba is not Kayla (kayak?!?!?!?), fav is not fad, and I wrote kinda because I wanted to. Now on with this fic before I forget the whole plot.

It’s kinda angst, is it ok with you? It takes place before Yuugi completes the puzzle. It’s not something that could happen in the real storyline, even because there are things I’m not sure about, but anyway…

Summary: A bit AU, some angst. This comes before Yuugi solves the puzzle and becomes Jou’s friend. Jou has some problems and Yuugi has to teach him a lesson, before he does something phenomenally stupid… NO SHOUNEN-AI, DAMMIT!!

Warnings: Some angry Jounouchi cussing and suicide thoughts.

*~*~*~*

Jounouchi and Honda walked to school slowly and lazily, as if they didn’t really want to get there (something I’m quite sure about). The wind blew, and Jounouchi quickly held his hair on place – it was damn early, but some classmates were already out. He didn’t really want people to notice the curative at his temple, that his hair was hiding right now.

Honda shot a worried glance at him, but said nothing. He had known his friend for quite a long time, and admired him for what he endured at home, but knew he didn’t like to talk about it. Having a drunkard for a father must be hard.

Someone passed by them, leaping happily and whistling, and didn’t even notice they were there. Honda looked quickly at Jounouchi, with some hope, but his friend’s empty face showed that he wasn’t feeling like bullying Yuugi that morning. Shrugging, he continued walking, while Yuugi was already far ahead, near an alley between two houses.

Someone grabbed his hand and pulled him into the alley.

Honda looked at Jounouchi again, and found him looking back, some interest showing in his eyes. Without even nodding, they headed for the alley, stealthily. They peeked inside, making sure they were well-hidden.

Yuugi looked even shorter, standing in front of three tall – and menacing-looking – students of their school. Yuugi’s pale face showed fear, but he looked to their faces unblinkingly, as if he wasn’t sure of what they wanted. He pressed his lips against each other, his mouth forming a straight line.

“Now, look who’s here, if it isn’t our dear lil’ Yuugi-chan”, said the tallest, that seemed to be the leader. “We just needed some money, and asked ourselves ‘why don’t ask Yuugi-chan for it? He’s such a nice boy, of course he’ll give us anything we want, won’t he?’”

Yuugi stayed quiet, still looking at them. Some time passed. A bird somewhere started moving its wings noisily, flying and dropping a feather between them.

“Hey, are you going to spend the whole day looking at us?”, asked one of the others.

“I can” stated Yuugi, some fear in his voice. “My grades were good at the last tests. So it’ll be no problem.”

They chewed on that quietly. Well, thinking that way, they couldn’t.

“Well, I have more important things to do today than looking at your weird nerd face, Yuugi-chan” said the leader, his voice with a grumbling undertone. “So give us the money.”

“I can’t” said the boy, trembling a little, still with a harmless tone. “I didn’t bring any.”

“Oh, you didn’t?” the bigger boy seemed extremely irritated. Yuugi still hadn’t blinked at them, not even once. “But you have to pay us somehow, don’t you?”

At the entrance of the alley, Honda flinched in accord to the hits Yuugi received, and finally looked away. Jounouchi had a somewhat disgusted face; he’d passed through that a lot of times with his father, but, looking from outside, that was really ugly. They turned their backs on the scene and resumed their walk, as if nothing serious had happened.

“Boy, sometimes I pity that guy.” Honda looked a bit shocked. “He is so afraid of everybody that he just takes the beating without complaining even once.”

“He’s so coward he never tells the truth to the nurses” Jounouchi felt no pity. “What a sissy. These kind of guys are the ones who become nothing.”

They arrived at school, and went to the classroom, after Jounouchi had received some advertencies about behavior, grades and that he could lose his working license if he kept on getting late with homework. Jou had a worried face as he sat; if he lost the job, he wouldn’t be able to pay the apartment rent.

Yuugi had also arrived from the medical room, where he left the nurse to ask herself if falling from the stairs would do such damage. He looked at Jounouchi, but said nothing, and just sat at his chair. Anzu arrived shortly and they started to talk, Anzu taking note of Yuugi’s bandages.

Till the end of the class, nothing worthy of mentioning happened.

~*~*~

“How in hell am I supposed to solve all those problems?” Jounouchi waved his backpack wildly, while complaining to Honda. They were sitting at the stairs, discussing the last class. Some students passed by, running downstairs, now and then. “Honestly, does the teacher think I’m Einstein or something?”

“Yeah, those gravity things are crazy” Honda bit his fingernail, looking at the notebook and thinking hard. “Why would I want to know how to calculate the height of a building by dropping a rock from it? It’s much easier to ask the owner. But I guess Mr. Sawamura wouldn’t like this answer.”

“Does he like any? Even Hanasaki god a medium grade at his last test.”

“Yeah. He only gives A to himself, and A+, just for a god.”

“Now, how in hell do we solve those? I want to keep my working license.”

“Can’t your father work?”

“The only work he knows how to do is glass-and-bottle lifting. Nothing more. And in the end I’m the one who has to pay his bill, you know.”

“Why don’t you ask Yuugi or Hanasaki?”

“No-way, I want to keep my working license. They would notice Yuugi or Hanasaki looking haunted, and even if they denied it, the headmaster would track it down to me somehow.”

Someone was climbing up the stairs noisily, and turned a corner to face the two.

“EXCUSE ME!!!!” a really genki Yuugi climbed up beside them and turning a corner to the corridor of the upper floor. It seemed he had forgotten something in class. Honda and Jou looked at his retreating form, tempted to risk a certain working license, and were going to climb after him when his noisy steps suddenly stopped.

“Sorry” Yuugi’s apologetic voice seemed to waver on the air for sometime, bringing a strange knotting feeling to their throats. The air seemed to grow liquid and hard to breath, and suddenly the sensation stopped, shattered by the sound of a punch. And other. Another. Yet another.

The two took a peek at the corridor just above, hidden by the rail, watching Yuugi being punched and kicked around by a muscular cleaner of the school, that sometimes used his broom to hit Yuugi’s head. The two looked at each other, thinking the same thing: if it was just any school student like many bullies were, they’d just let it be. But a school worker, that was another thing. He didn’t have the right when he was being paid to work. And he was hitting Yuugi with no apparent reason, not even the stupid reasons bullies found for anything.

But still, the guy looked too big… they weren’t stupid enough for that. They had to think of something.

………

“Now, do you remember that time when…!”

“Ah, yeah, I do! And that…!”

“Hah, I do, I do!…”

Making sure they were speaking really loud, they started talking pointlessly, laughing, and stomping at the stairs hard and noisily. Suddenly the hitting sounds stopped, followed shortly by a running sound. They stopped with the noise, running to take a look at the boy.

He seemed to be bleeding everywhere. Torn clothes, red-smeared hair, blood seeming to come through his hair to cover half his face. The floor was stained reddish. No bully at that school had ever gone so far.

Jounouchi dropped on his knees, his face getting slightly green. Honda had a phantasmagoric blue hue at his face, openmouthed, and seemed unable to breath. That whoever was no bully. He was psychotic.

“Katsuya Jounouchi!! Hiroto Honda!!”

Jounouchi’s hand stopped in the middle of going check for a pulse. The two looked at the source of the voice – it seemed the headmaster had decided to take a stroll through the school stairs. A silence lingered at the air. The floor seemed to disappear under Jounouchi’s knees, and his head suddenly felt light and dizzy.

Honda held him before he fell, and Jou held himself tightly; it hadn’t been their fault, and Yuugi knew it. He should just hope that Yuugi was enough of a good boy to defend them.

~*~*~

“I always knew that you meant trouble. Always bullying, threatening and making mess. But now, you two have gone quite far.

“It wasn’t us” Honda repeated, for the nth time. They were both sitting in front of the headmaster’s desk.

“I don’t want to hear excuses. What you did to that boy is UNFORGIVABLE!!!” the headmaster punched the table hard, making both teenagers flinch.

“It wasn’t us” Honda had long lost his hope. Jounouchi seemed to be in a state of shock.

“You, Hiroto Honda, have a month of suspension. Any school activity. A single step into this school during this month, and you’re expelled.”

Honda groaned.

“And you, Katsuya Jounouchi. I’ve known you for quite a long time. A month of suspension, and say goodbye to your working license.”

The room drowned in silence.

Slowly, Jounouchi leaned back on the chair, and slid down a little, almost as if he had been shot. His eyes were wide-open and glassy, his face pale, his lips deadly white. Something froze inside Honda’s stomach as he looked at his friend, the headmaster staring at them mercilessly.

The door opened suddenly.

“IT WASN’T THEM!!” a heavily bandaged and panting Yuugi entered the room, a worried school nurse behind him.  He panted some more, dropped on his knees and bowed till his head touched the floor. “They did nothing to me, I swear on my life! Please don’t punish them!”

The headmaster chewed hard at his cigar, looking at him suspiciously. Normally, bullied people would deny having ever been bullied…

“Very well” he said, still biting his cigar as if it had bullied Yuugi. “I won’t do anything to these two, if you tell me who did it.”

Yuugi stayed in silence for a moment, head still bowed.

“I’ve never seen him before” he finally said. “It seems he’s not a student… I don’t know who he was.”

The headmaster bit his cigar harder.

“Go back to the infirmary and rest.”

Yuugi lifted his head, looking at the headmaster’s eyes. Without a word, he stood up, bowed and left, still limping. The door closed, and the headmaster immediately turned to the two.

“You know as much as I do that no one can trust what Yuugi says on these matters. But as I have no proof to incriminate you, I’ll leave it like this. But, before you leave, I’ll make something clear.”

He stood up, towering the teenagers, crushing them down with a hard look.

“The next time one of you two get into any mess, proof or no proof, I’ll expel the one involved. You know what it means, Katsuya Jounouchi. No school, no working license. Now go.”

Honda stood up, and helped a trembling Jounouchi to stand. They left the headmaster’s room, Honda half-carrying the blond boy by the shoulders.

“Wai-wait a bit, Honda” Jounouchi asked, weakly. “I, I can’t feel my legs.”

He leaned on the wall, sliding to the floor. He put a hand on his forehead, feeling the cold sweat, and laughed, trembling.

“I, I thought I was going to, to pass out right there…” he stuttered, laughing a little. “For three times, I thought I, I was going to faint. I’m still shaking…”

Jou stood up, feeling better. If he didn’t go to work right away, he’d get late. After shaking hands with Honda (in their special-hyper-complicated way), he walked to the bus stop. It was late, and he wouldn’t be able to walk much if his legs kept feeling like jelly, anyway.

“He didn’t really believe it, did he?” a voice asked him from behind.

Jounouchi turned, and saw Yuugi, still full of bandages.

“What d’ya want?” he barked.

“The headmaster – he didn’t believe when I told him you were innocent, did he? I could see that in his eyes. But I hope he still didn’t punish you. You weren’t the ones who attacked me and I know that much.” He tilted his head to the side. “Did he do anything?”

“That’s none of your business.”

“It seems he forgave you. If not, you’d be far angrier, wouldn’t you?”

Jounouchi kept silence, looking at the street, and heard Yuugi laugh softly behind him. It infuriated him, for some reason.

“Now why don’t you go play with any of your stupid toys?!?!” he snapped, turning to face the boy.

Yuugi just looked at him, blinking. That infuriated Jounouchi even more.

“Just SCRAM!!” Jounouchi shoved him, his heart beating in his ears. Yuugi really had a way to make people nervous. His bus came, and Jounouchi entered.

After sitting, he still saw Yuugi through the window. He was looking at him, unblinking, and his eyes had a different gleam. That was when a thought came to Jounouchi’s head, making him feel cold inside.

Everything had a limit… even Yuugi’s patience.

‘Maybe he overflowed this time…’

~*~*~

One of the things Jounouchi liked most in working was that he got to stay away from home for most of the day, without having to deal with his alcoholic father. But, between it, hanging out with friends, and school, he had little time for homework. And, working overtime that day, he had no time for it. He just remembered his physics homework for the next day after getting in bed. He was just too tired, after dodging his dad’s bottles and gibberish.

He couldn’t even think “now what” before he fell asleep.

And the next morning, running to school (woke up late), he finally thought: ‘Now what?’

He entered the classroom, running, noticing with some relief that the teacher wasn’t there yet. Sitting at his desk, he saw Yuugi – still with a lot of bandages – looking at him, unblinking. Just then, Jou remembered he was looking, unblinkingly, just like that, at the bullies who hit him the day before.

Jounouchi shivered unconsciously. The headmaster needed no proof.

The English class, that always seemed to be painfully long, seemed to run quicker than ever. All the classes that day seemed to pass in light speed beyond Jounouchi’s eyes, that awaited for the hour of doom, when, after lunchtime, the physics teacher would enter the class and announce his damnation.

Just then, the bell rang. With some noise, all the students just disappeared from class, and only Yuugi and Jounouchi lasted – Yuugi because he almost never went out of class at lunchtime, and Jounouchi because he couldn’t feel his legs.

Finally Jou got up, suddenly wanting to be really, really far from there, from the classroom, from his books, from the unblinking Yuugi, from that claustrophobic sensation. Feeling his throat dry, he walked randomly through the school, his eyes seeing nothing, his ears hearing nothing, his mind numb with dread. He bumped at something as hard as stone, that roared at him, and the roar brought him back into reality.

He made an effort to focus his eyes at whatever was it he bumped at. It was the tallest and most built guy he had ever seen in his entire life. His eyes were colder than an iceberg, but his look had little effect on an already panicked Jounouchi, that passed by him with blank eyes, without a single word.

Suddenly the world cleared around Jou. The noises of running teenagers, laughing and talking finally registered at his brain. He was in the middle of the crowded school yard.

That guy was wearing a cleaning uniform, wasn’t he?

Jounouchi looked around wildly, but couldn’t see him anywhere. Appalled, he went up the stairs. He needed to sit somewhere he could think. He went back to the classroom, and was opening the door just as he remembered that Yuugi was there.

Well, now he wasn’t. The classroom was completely deserted. And, on the teacher’s table, some pens and a binder.

It seemed the physics teacher had passed by there and left his things.

Unable to hold back a big smile, Jounouchi walked slowly to the table, as if afraid the binder would get up and run away. He touched it lightly. His last hope.

He opened it carefully, fingers shaking nervously. Flipping quickly, he searched through it, until he found the last homework’s answers.

The door opened suddenly. “Jounouchi-kun?”

*reeec*

Jounouchi’s trembling fingers let go of half the sheet. The other half was still at the binder. He had tore Mr. Sawamura’s answer keys for that day.

He turned to the door, shaking. Yuugi was there, looking at him. Unblinkingly.

Jou gripped the table quickly, leaning over it, trying to equilibrate himself. The floor had just jerked under him.

“Jounouchi-kun!? Are you ok?” Yuugi ran to his side, wide eyed.

Jounouchi glared at him, his eyes gleaming with a feverish wrath.

“Yes, I am, but don’t worry, that won’t be for long” he roared, ferociously.

“What do you mean…?”

“I mean you can tell all the shit you want to the headmaster, he’s gonna expel me anyway!!” Jou’s voice got louder.

“But…” Yuugi reached for his forehead, a hurt look on his face.

Jounouchi shoved his hand away.

“JUST GO THERE AND RUIN MY LIFE!! JUST GO TAKE AWAY MY JOB!! MY HOUSE!! JUST MAKE DAD KILL ME ALREADY!!” the teen yelled, tears running down his face. “I’M JUST FUCKIN’ TIRED!! MY LIFE SUCKS!! GET OUTTA MY FACE!!”

He pushed Yuugi from the way, running to the door and down the stairs, passing by a confused Honda – “Hey, I was lookin’ for you—HEY!” – and jumped the school wall. He wanted to be away. He didn’t know from what.

He walked around the city, feeling empty. Nothing really registered in his mind, while he bumped at people, tripped at the pavement and blindly walked, no destination in mind. He only noticed where he was when he heard water – a bridge.

Now and then, a car passed, creating wind and lifting the fallen leaves from the trees nearby. On a pole just a few feet away, a sound box sang some song he didn’t recognize. The bridge had short walls, and there was no movement aside from the occasional cars.

He leaned on the small wall, looking at the dancing water underneath. Now, where had he stopped…? Yeah. Life sucked. He was to be expelled from school, lose his job, his apartment and would take responsibility for it in his father’s eyes. He wondered if he would survive his dad’s bottle throwing that time… he fingered the bandage at his temple.

He didn’t want to see his father. He didn’t want to face that drunkard ever again. He didn’t want to be another burden for his mother, or to be a shame for his sister. He put a foot on the rail, ready to take impulse.

The dancing water was calling him…

“Jounouchi-kun.”

He slipped and almost fell on his butt, looking quickly for the owner of the voice. He looked behind.

Oh, him. Yuugi. Unblinking.

Jounouchi looked at him absently, barely noticing he was carrying his backpack, and looked at the water again. Just a witness. Nothing serious.

“Coward.”

THAT made him stop.

“Who’re you calling what?” he asked, voice calm and steady as it hadn’t been for a long time.

“You, and coward. Do you know what is the meaning of ‘coward’?”

Jounouchi put his foot on the ground again and sat down, facing Yuugi.

“I know. It’s you. The epitome of all cowardice in the world.”

“And what’s cowardice?” the boy asked, in the same tone.

“It’s what you do.”

“It seems I won’t arrive anywhere talking like this, will I?” he smiled. “Then let’s try another way… will it be so bad for your family if you lose your job?”

“What family? I just have a drunkard who thinks he’s my father, and throws bottles at me when I arrive early from work. I don’t need to work only to pay the rent. I need to work to get away from him.”

“But…” Yuugi lost his voice for a moment. “He’s your father, isn’t he? Maybe you should talk…”

“Don’t be stupid. My father is unable to talk without shouting and hitting something. He feels he‘s the owner of the apartment and the money, just because he’s older than me; so he uses my salary to pay his drinking bills and takes strange people to my house. The money I pay the rent with is the money I earn working overtime…”

Some seconds more of silence passed through them, the sound box seeming more loud.

“…I wish he would just die.” Jounouchi growled, fiercely.

Yuugi looked at the ground, his eyes hidden in shadows.

“I…” his voice was faltering. Jounouchi blinked.

The radio on the sound box started a new song.

“I should be the one to jump, not you” Yuugi’s voice was weak and low, but sounded clear.

A car passed on the bridge, making wind and lifting leaves and paper. It made Jounouchi’s hair dance around his face, while he looked at the small boy.

“Just look at me. Ain’t I pitiful? Short, weird, lonely.” Yuugi laughed, a soft, but bitter laugh. “I have only one friend. Everybody knows me as weird, and everybody despises me. I’m just a nobody, and they wouldn’t even notice I was missing, should I die just now… and Anzu is the only one who knows anything about my life. She’s the only one who knows I never knew my father…”  Some silence lingered in the air. “I bet you make no idea of how much I envy you.”

Jounouchi made a movement, but stopped, as if he wasn’t sure of what to do or say.

“So your life sucks, Jou? You’re tired? And me? Have you ever thought about how would it be in my place? My life is hell… I’m punched around every day… you’re so lucky, because you have lots of friends and I don’t. You have a father, bad as he can be, but you at least know him. He can still turn back to the man he once was. You’ll never know just how much I envy you.”

The wind blew again.

“My father died when I was a baby, and I have no memory of him. No laugh, no tears, no smile, no light…” his voice weakened, but he kept on, lips trembling, voice husky and shaking. “No voice… not a single word… just a photo album I can’t stand to look at. Nothing, only emptiness… and my mother is always traveling for work…”

More silence. The speaker said something at the radio and laughed.

“It’s easy to wish someone death…” Yuugi kept on, still weakly, but had more control of his voice. “Everybody is born knowing he or she will die someday. But it’s much harder and painful to wish someone life… because you can’t bring the dead back… so… please don’t wish death so easily…”

He was crying freely now, his voice a whisper, looking at Jounouchi in the eyes.

“Maybe I should just jump from this bridge and leave it all behind, the fear, the pain, the empty dreams… but I won’t. This is my life. May it be the worst it can be, I won’t give up on it and run away… I won’t take the easier path. Even missing what already passed, even being afraid of what’s to come. I won’t… run away.”

Silence again covered the two kids, the radio speaker still talking.

“But you’re also afraid.” Yuugi suddenly said, voice getting stronger.

Jounouchi’s eyebrow flinched, unconsciously.

“You’re afraid, and you’re running away. You see no way out, so you’re taking the easier path.”

A car passed behind Yuugi, breaking the silence. The sound of the water was clear. The radio started to talk about  their sponsors.

“Have you ever seen me running away from any big bully, even if I had the chance? Have you ever seen me tell their names to the headmaster? I can’t. Because I believe I should take care of my problems on my own.”

Jounouchi’s eyes seemed glassy as he looked at Yuugi’s small childish form, and the serious face he had. He laughed, bitterly.

“So you’re not afraid of being a punching bag, you microbe?”

“Afraid?” Yuugi seemed almost offended. “Of course I am. Who likes to be punched? Hurt? I don’t. But I decided not to run away from problems, even if they’re bigger than me. But if you think that’s cowardice, then you have all your concepts messed up.”

The world suddenly became silent on that moment. No car passed. Even the sound box and the water seemed quiet.

Yuugi’s voice sounded clear as a crystal, and echoed as the wind blew again on the street.

“Coward is the one who takes the easier path.”

The wind blew Jounouchi’s hair over his eyes, lifting some leafs and paper. He looked at the ground, silent. Both stayed in silence. Yuugi turned to leave.

“I also thought about running away once, Jounouchi-kun… I almost did it…”

Jounouchi looked up to his retreating form.

“And, and, who talked you out of it?” asked him, awkwardly.

Yuugi stopped, but didn’t turn around.

“No one…” he said, softly. “There was… no one there…”

His voice wavered, and he seemed to be stifling a sob. But, when he talked again, his voice was stronger, as if he had gotten calmer.

“But I heard a song… It was just it. A song that brought me hope.” He took one more step and stopped again. “Thank you. And say thanks to Honda-kun too.”

He walked away, calmly, only stopping at a telephone booth. Jounouchi’s eyes followed him, a bit confused, while he tried to collect his thoughts. In a few minutes of talk, he had learned more than in a hole year of school. He saw Yuugi going out of the phone booth and away, and that was when he finally noticed that Yuugi was wearing his backpack.

*Now, now, we’re back with your beloved Call-and-Ask!*

Suddenly, Jounouchi’s mind registered the radio speaker’s voice, startling him.

*And, although we’ve had earlier calls, we just received a request for a song, with a message, and decided we shouldn’t delay it…*

Another car passed, but Jounouchi’s attention was on the radio.

*Someone called with the following message: ‘This is the song that brought me hope, and I hope it’ll help you right now. From a friend, to a friend.’ Now, now, I also hope it’ll help you, Mr. Secret Friend!*

Jounouchi looked at the phone booth again, although he knew Yuugi wasn’t there anymore. Was it him the one who requested the song? Why did he call him friend? They were never friends… Jou never treated him as a friend…

The song had begun.

I believe that children are our future

Teach them well and let them lead the way

Show them all the beauty they possess inside

Give them a sense of pride to make it easier

Let the children’s laughter remind us how we used to be

Everybody’s searching for a hero

People need someone to look up to

I never found anyone who fulfilled my needs

A lonely place to be

And so I learned to depend on me

I decided long ago never to walk in anyone’s shadows

If I fail, If I succeed at least I’ll live as I believe

No matter what they’ll take from me

They can’t take away my dignity

Because the greatest love of all

Is happening to me

I’ve found the greatest love of all inside of me

The greatest love of all

Is easy to achieve

Learning to love yourself

It is the greatest love of all

And if by chance that special friend

That you’ve been dreaming of

Lead you to a lonely place

Find your strength in love

Jounouchi smiled, remembering that unblinking look Yuugi would shot at some people. In the end, that was just his way of defiantly saying ‘There’s something you can’t take away from me’…

He stood up, lost one foot and had to hold himself at the bridge wall. Now, it wouldn’t be surprising if he ended up falling by accident. Looking at the wristwatch, he was surprised; between taking a stroll at the school, running away, talking with Yuugi and listening to the song, it had taken twenty five minutes. He thought it had been an hour… still some time left to go back to school. He didn’t do the homework, but he had to deal with it, hadn’t he? It was his fault, even if he was working all day long.

He shivered a bit; or the wind was too cold for Fall, or… he noticed he was sweating cold again. He touched his forehead. A bit of fever. Maybe he should pass by the school infirmary…

Already back at the school, Jou looked around at the running students. Now his eyes seemed to see better, and he saw some students bandaged. For a different reason, he shivered again. He walked to the infirmary’s direction, his head hurting a little.

“JOUNOUCHI!!!” Honda’s voice called him, in a state of despair. “WHERE THE HECK WERE YOU?!?!?!”

Jou turned, stifling a laugh. Honda was running towards him, waving his arms wildly.

“WHY WERE YOU RUNNING LIKE THAT?!? WHAT HAD GOTTEN INTO YOU?!? WHY DIDN’T YOU LISTEN TO ME?!? What’s with your face, are you sick?” he changed tones so suddenly Jounouchi could only laugh. “Jou, hey, are you ok?”

Jounouchi stopped laughing a bit, putting a hand on Honda’s shoulder.

“No, I’m not, but don’t worry, that won’t be for long” he said, while Honda looked at him funny. “Now let’s go to the infirmary, I think I need a pill or something.” They walked, as Honda put a hand at Jounouchi’s back, worriedly, and Jounouchi touched his forehead, head bowed down.

Entering the infirmary, Jou and Honda couldn’t help noticing a teen boy, completely beaten up, sleeping at one of the beds. The nurse looked at the two suspiciously, but Jou suddenly staggered at his feet, almost passing out, and Honda had to hold him standing; her frown disappeared.

“Now, now, what’s with you?!” she jumped from her chair, getting a notepad, pen, thermometer and motioning to a bed, giving Honda and a slightly better Jounouchi directions. “Sit him here, this bed, now you, take your jacket out – you have fever!!”

‘What a discovery’ thought Jou and Honda, at the same time, sweatdropping.

The nurse handed Jou the thermometer. “Put this under your arm.” She then started to examine him, looking at his eyelids, checking pulse and taking notes, muttering to herself. While they were at it, a door to another medical room opened, the school doctor carrying an almost mummified girl in his arms, so many were the bandages.

“WHAT IN THE—” Jounouchi had to hold fast in Honda’s jacket; a brusque movement with his head had made him dizzy. Honda tried to help him, but couldn’t quite take his eyes off the girl, now laying at the parallel bed.

“Quiet, you” said the nurse, pushing Jounouchi down. “Now lay down and rest. That girl was found beaten at the third floor.”

Honda looked at Jou immediately, while Jou also searched for his face.

“Isn’t our classroom there?” Honda muttered, eyes opened large.

“Didn’t we find Yuugi there?” Jou’s look was sharp as a dagger.

The doctor sat at the side of the bed to examine Jounouchi, while the nurse took the thermometer out and looked at it carefully.

“37.9°C, doctor. A bit high.”

“Can you bring my stethoscope, please?” asked the doctor, still measuring Jounouchi’s pulse.

The nurse entered the adjacent room, and Honda sat at her chair, heavily.

“Have you been feeling good lately?” asked the doctor, suddenly, while examining Jou’s eyes.

“Huh?” Jou was confused. “Do you mean if I’ve been feeling well lately?”

“Hm… both, you can say, but I mean if you’ve been feeling happy, sad, nervous…”

“Quite nervous” Honda butted in “He needs to work and almost lost his working license because of something he didn’t do.”

The doctor looked at Honda for a moment, and then patted Jounouchi’s head.

“Well, I thought that. You have nothing, only tiredness. Don’t push yourself too hard next time. And calm down, ok? Getting angry or sad can make your health worse, and you’re already stressed. I’ll give you a pill for your fever and you’ll just rest. You, with the fashion hair” he looked at Honda, while Jounouchi snickered “go back to the classroom, the class is about to start.”

“…my homework…!” moaned Jou, suddenly, face as white as a sheet of paper.

The doctor shot a sideways glance at Jounouchi, while Honda looked back at him. “Said anything?” he hadn’t heard well.

“No, nothing!…” Jounouchi laughed a bit. Honda closed the door behind him, and Jounouchi immediately looked at the doctor. “When can I go to class?”

“Just rest half an hour, ok?” said the doctor, handing him a pill and a glass of water. “If your fever is lower by then, I’ll let you go back to class. I’ll hand you a permission to enter class late.”

The nurse entered back on the room.

“Doctor, I can’t find your stethoscope…”

“Uh… well, it was hanging in my neck all the time” the doctor said, looking away, while Jou stifled a snicker.

~*~*~

After half an hour, Jou knocked at his classroom’s door, opening it shortly.

“Katsuya Jounouchi!!!” roared Mr. Sawamura. “Do you have any excuse for arriving so late?!”

Jou walked to the teacher’s table, eyes looking sleepy and a bit swollen from his (thankfully gone) headache, and handed him the infirmary’s permission. The teacher looked at it suspiciously, but, after a second look at Jounouchi’s face, motioned for him to sit at his desk. Jou walked there, while Honda mouthed to him ‘He still haven’t asked for the homework’.

He sat at the desk, opening his backpack and reaching for his notebook. His exercises weren’t done, but he’d better at least copy what was at the board. He opened the notebook at the last written page, and his heart seemed to jump inside his chest.

The homework was all done.

And, at the very bottom of the page, a note said ‘The binder was mine. See how the problems aren’t half as bad as they seem?’

He needed a titanic effort not to laugh wholeheartedly in the middle of the silent class. Thank you, he thought. You saved my life twice.

He erased the note, so that the teacher wouldn’t notice, and turned the page, to start copying – seeing another note.

‘That was just a small payback.’

*Thank you. And say thanks to Honda-kun too.*

Jounouchi quickly looked at Honda, that grinned brightly at him and discreetly pointed at his notebook. Jou grinned too.

“Now I’ll give you some time to copy from the blackboard, while I call your names and you come here show me your exercises” said the teacher, opening the student’s list. Jounouchi erased the second note, and started copying, feeling much better than before.

~*~*~

At the end of the class, Jou ran to Anzu, before she went away.

“What?” asked her, frowning at him, while loading her backpack.

“Do you know why Yuugi went home early?” asked him, quickly. “I saw him going away with his backpack, and he’s not the type to skip classes or something…”

“It’s not of your business” said her, suddenly seeming worried, and a bit angry at him. “Anyway, maybe he won’t be coming tomorrow.”

She walked away, without a word, and Jou looked at Honda. He shrugged, and Jou picked his backpack. The doctor had called his boss, saying he was sick and shouldn’t go that day. He sighed, while climbing down the stairs, he’d better hang out at Honda’s, that afternoon.

A sudden poke at his arm, courtesy of Hiroto Honda, made him look at who was climbing up the stairs – a tall and muscular cleaner, carrying a broom and a bucket, glaring at them. For a second, the time seemed to stop, while they studied each other’s movements carefully.

The guy climbed up the stairs, while the boys climbed down.

“You know, I met Yuugi at lunchtime today” said Jou. “And he thanked me and you.”

“Now that I think, maybe he heard our voices, or he wasn’t unconscious…” wondered Honda. “In a way, he just saved our butts.”

“We kind of owe him something. But I’m worried for him going home earlier today…”

Honda looked a bit thoughtful, and suddenly lifted his head. “Go, go home ahead, ok?!” said Honda, a bit jumpy. “I, I think I can, I’ll try to discover what happened.” He ran ahead.

“HOW?!?” shouted Jou, to an already faraway Honda.

“I’LL ASK A TEACHER!!”

He disappeared, while Jounouchi sweatdropped. Such a simple idea…

~*~*~

Jounouchi was sitting in front of Honda’s house when he arrived, running.

“Why…” Honda was out of breath. “…are… you… out… side…??”

“Easy” answered Jou, with a bored tone. “You have the key.”

“Oh… right…” Honda breathed a bit more and opened the door, entering and throwing himself at the first chair he saw. Jou got him a glass of water, which he drank in a gulp.

“Now tell me if you discovered it or not.”

“Well, I did” Honda sighed. “He lives with his grandpa, right?”

“Yeah.”

“It seems the guy got sick. He had to go home take care of him.”

Jou sat heavily at the sofa. Yuugi had his own problems, but stopped in his tracks to prevent him from killing himself. He put his face in his hands. He really wanted to do something. Anything.

“Honda”

“What?”

“Do you remember those two at the infirmary?”

“Of course.”

“And the guy at the stairs?”

“Yeah.”

There was a minute of silence.

“Do you have…”

As the afternoon passed, they discussed meticulously Jounouchi’s plan and the things needed. Nervous and angry shout’s from Honda, however, couldn’t move the will heard in Jounouchi’s, for once, calm and steady voice.

~*~*~

On the next day, after class, Honda knocked at the headmaster’s door, and entered, bowing his head. “Excuse me…”

The headmaster bit his cigar. “Could I know what would bring you into my office, on your own, Hiroto Honda? You are usually dragged in here.”

“Well, I…” Honda stuttered, sweating. “You know, some people were found beaten up just like Yuugi, and you know now that it wasn’t our fault, do you?”

The headmaster bit his cigar hard, as if it was being disrespectful to him. “Yeah” he grumbled.

“Well, you know, we think we discovered the guy. We’d like to confirm it, though, so maybe you’d like to see it with you own eyes…”

Climbing up to the 3rd floor stairs, the headmaster saw Jounouchi, sitting under the short stair wall, as if he was hidden. He touched his lips with a finger, asking for silence. He pointed to the direction where they’d found Yuugi. Then he calmly climbed up the stairs, Honda pulling the headmaster to his place, taking a digital camera and a video camera from his backpack. The headmaster took a look at what was happening.

He was at a vantage point, where he could see Jounouchi and a tall cleaner without being noticed. Jounouchi walked with a fake distraction, and the cleaner meticulously swept the same place, on and on. At the headmaster’s side, Honda had put the video camera on the rail, and, after making sure it was directed at the cleaner and Jounouchi, started taping everything; then picked the digital camera, ready to take photos.

Jounouchi tripped at the broom.

“Oh, I’m sor--” BAMF.

The headmaster’s cigar fell out of his mouth, as he saw the cleaner throw Jounouchi on the floor and start kicking and hitting him with the broom, for almost three minutes, non-stop. He heard a sob at his side, and turned to see Honda, taking photo after photo with trembling hands, biting his lips so hard that blood started to run down his chin. His eyes were full of tears.

Suddenly he turned the camera off, picking it, hiding behind the stair wall and pulling the headmaster. The video camera’s battery detached itself and fell down the stairs noisily, and the dark-haired boy started laughing hysterically, holding his face in one of his shaking hands, tears flowing freely.

They heard running noises, and the headmaster jumped to see the blond boy. He seemed worse than Yuugi was before. At the stairs, he could hear that Honda’s hysterical laugh were, in fact, despaired sobs.

Jounouchi spited some blood, and opened one of his eyes – the other was full of blood. He looked at the headmaster, and smiled.

They’d found the criminal, and had the proof. That would avenge Yuugi.

~*~*~

“Did you see it at the news?”

“Yeah, I knew it too. About the cleaner, right?”

“Yeah. Who would think he was from a criminal group, infiltrated to rob the school?”

“They say that a student taped him beating up another boy. That was pretty clever.”

“Who did it, uh?”

“Who knows. He’d better be kept in secret, or there’ll be vengeance. These guys are dangerous, you know.”

Jounouchi couldn’t help grin (although his face had lots of bandages and curatives – even his father was worried when he got home the day before!) at all the comments he was hearing. Honda also looked inflated like a balloon – as he was the one who taped the whole thing –, but the “clever idea” was his, so…

Someone passed by them, leaping happily and whistling, and waved to them.

“Hi, hi!” said Yuugi, happily, and suddenly stopped in his tracks, looking at Jounouchi wide-eyed. He still had some bandages, but Jounouchi had far more. He approached the two boys, worried. “What happened to you?”

Jou laughed. “You can say I tasted my own medicine… and it tastes pretty bad, you know…”

The small boy looked thoughtfully at the two, a hand on his chin, and suddenly grinned.

“Ahhh, the mystery taper and the victim…” he winked, tracing an “X” in front of his lips. Secret.

“Damn, he discovered it quickly”, muttered Honda to Jou. The blond boy could only nod, arms crossed. The three entered the classroom together, talking.

“Still, I wonder why he would always hang around this floor after classes”, pointed Yuugi, in his usual “finding strange details” way, while he sat. “Always near our classroom, sweeping the same place over and over…”

“’Cause he was psycho”, said Honda, pointing his head and making circles with the finger. “Maybe he had a thing with the number three. You know, 3rd floor…”

He shut his mouth when the two boys eyed him sideways, anime way.

Anzu entered the class, dropping her backpack on the desk, and almost fainted when she saw Yuugi, Jou and Honda talking so friendly. They were laughing, Jou mock-punching Honda and Yuugi bowing and shaking his head, with a smile. She looked in awe.

‘Was it true what he told me yesterday? That Jou and Honda were the ones who helped him, and not who attacked him?’

She smiled, sitting. ‘So Jou was truly worried when he asked why Yuugi had gone home early… maybe I shouldn’t have been so unfriendly towards him. It seems Yuugi’s finding friend now…’

‘I’m feeling a bit jealous, though…’

Well, well (Elanor Pam appears and pulls down a sign saying “THAT’S ALL FOLKS”, Bugs Bunny way – not that she likes bugs bunny, though. Long life Anime, die, Toon World.) Should I write why the big guy always swept the same place over and over? Because that would be a whole another fic, and it would surely take some time. I’m bad at fics in chapters, because I take a lot of time to write each one. Do you believe I started a Dragon Ball fic last year and I still haven’t finished the second chapter? (and I don’t plan on giving up on it!! It’s going so well!! I’ll keep on writing, it’ll just take time!!)

Anyway, as you can see, it’s a bit Alternate Universe. Some things are different from the actual story, they became friends in a different way. Maybe, if I write the sequel, I’ll include the Sen Nen Puzzle. Sorry for Jou’s cussing (and any other bad language around – my vocabulary include badly written Dragon Ball fanfiction’s vocabulary, with a lot of Vegeta around, sooooo…), but I thought that, at that moment, he should seem nervous, angry and desperate, at the same time. On that situation, wouldn’t you say a lot of (piiiiiiiiiiii)?

Anyway, some characters I just made up, another ones – like Hanasaki – actually exist, at least in the manga. Hanasaki is a bit like Yuugi, always bullied around. He’s beaten up once and is avenged by Yami Yuugi, but I don’t know much more about him.

Do you remember any Sawamura in another very, VERY good manga? One of my favorites of all time! Although Sawamura was far from being an important character, in fact I don’t even like him, but I like the name. He was a friend of one of the 4 heroes, though. Good guy.

Just a note: When Yuugi eyed Jou, in class, at the beginning of the fic (points above), it was because he had noticed Jou’s bandage under his hair.

Sayonara Bye Bye!! Hope you liked it.