Chapter 2: - Dancing Queen
"Why are we here?" Jonouchi asked, irritated already as he gave the sign above the door a look that said that he'd be rather happy if it caught on fire.
Yugi just smiled at him, beginning to get used to Jonouchi's moods. "Anzu's getting out of class soon and I promised to come and watch."
Jonouchi let out a soft snort but nodded. He could be patient. Considering that Anzu had been subjected to several hours of games last night, he supposed it was only fair that he put up with an hour or so of dancing. It wasn't like he minded. The tight, figure hugging leotards would distract him anyway.
The pair entered the studio, where almost immediately they were set upon by the receptionist who recognised Yugi and directed them to the window which looked out on the studio and bustled off to get them some tea while they waited.
Yugi settled into her favourite chair and her friend followed, swiftly becoming amused when Yugi's eyes never left the studio.
"You fancy one of them, Yuge?" Jonouchi asked, earning himself a shocked look from his friend, before the much smaller teen went bright red.
"No!" She protested, a moment of frustration passing through her when she realised that he still hadn't taken in the fact she was a girl, probably because he was so used to treating her like a guy, "No... nothing like that."
In fact she envied the dancers their grace and beauty. Anzu had brought her to the dance studio before, but Yugi had had all the grace of a two legged, lame cow and some of the others dancers had taken great delight in pointing that out, so to spare Anzu any more embarrassment, Yugi had taken to arriving after class had started, so the other dancers wouldn't make snide comments all the way through practice.
"I bet I could do some of that." Jonouchi commented, bragging, as the receptionist returned with tea. Yugi just hid a smile behind her cup. He could say that, but it took years of practise to get that good and she'd seen Anzu have to work at it. As much as Yugi respected her new friend, she was fully aware that there was no way Jonouchi could pull off half the moves that Anzu could. Not given all the training Anzu had had over the years.
It had been Yugi that had encouraged her to follow her dreams after an incredibly embarrassed Anzu had admitted that that was what she wanted to do with her life. In fact she'd even helped Anzu find a dance studio that didn't cost very much and had supportive teachers. While she was unlikely to ever take the stage herself, Yugi was happy to watch her much more graceful friend doing what she enjoyed.
Of course she half expected Anzu to pitch a fit when she realised that Jonouchi had followed Yugi to the studio, but she hadn't wanted to lie to him and hadn't been able to think of an excuse to get rid of him on the spur of the moment.
Yugi was so worried that she hadn't finished her tea by the time practise ended, but she needn't have been since Anzu came out of the changing room beaming.
"Yugi! Hi." Anzu grinned, plonking her bag down by Jonouchi's chair.
"Hi Anzu." Yugi smiled back at her, relieved, as Jonouchi nodded to her. "Good practise."
"The best." Anzu agreed, joining them in the seats and watching the next group file into the studio, "Terada-Sensei told us there's a talent scout coming to the studio tomorrow."
"That's great." Yugi beamed, glad for her friend, recognising that this was her big chance.
It was only then that Anzu seemed to notice Jonouchi's presence, and Yugi winced slightly as Anzu's enthusiasm waned and was replaced by irritation. "Jonouchi."
"Anzu." The blonde nodded back, pretending to be unaffected by Anzu's mood swing.
Yugi sighed. It had been a week since Ushio had gone crazy and the pair of them still didn't really get on well. Anzu couldn't work out why a nice girl like Yugi wanted to spend time with a thug like Jonouchi and Jonouchi found Anzu's attitude frustrating.
"I take it we're heading for the arcade again." Anzu commented, her tone cool. She understood Yugi wanting more friends, but she the only thing she enjoyed at the Arcade was the DDR machines and there was only so much time you could spend on one, especially after a long session in the studio.
It was more fun if you had someone on the other set of arrows to compete against, but Yugi always felt awkward while on it and it showed in the way she moved, which was a shame because Anzu didn't think that Yugi was as uncoordinated as she thought she was.
It was just that Anzu had made the mistake of taking the small girl into the studio just before class and the older, more practised, girls hadn't been particularly kind about Yugi's faltering attempts to follow Anzu's instructions, especially once they'd realised that Yugi, who had gone in into the studio in jogging bottoms and a t-shirt, was actually a girl. Then the snide comments that had flown Anzu's way during class had been more about Yugi's lack of development than anything else.
"Jonouchi wants to meet up with Honda." Yugi explained, sure she'd come up with something that might appease her friend, "I thought I might try DDR again, if you want to play."
Anzu blinked at the girl, surprised. It wasn't the first time she'd been surprised by Yugi's willingness to look stupid for the sake of her friends and it most likely wouldn't be the last, but Anzu was grateful for it.
"Sure, Yugi." She said finally, picking up her bag as Yugi chugged down her now cold cup of tea and got to her feet, "That sounds good."
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"That was fun." Anzu chuckled a few hours later as the two girls walked home, swigging cans of coke and smiling.
Yugi nodded, agreeing. Once she'd let her nerves slip away and treated it like a game it had actually been a lot of fun to compete against Anzu on the DDR machine. She didn't think she'd done too badly, especially considering that Anzu had hiked the difficulty level on her side, pushing it up from easy to medium.
Of course she was certain that Anzu had been going easy on her. There was no way that she should have kept up with Anzu's scores considering that that Anzu had knocked her difficulty level down so they were on the same level.
"You are going to come tomorrow, aren't you?" Anzu asked her, nervous about the importance of the visit.
"Of course." Yugi nodded, smiling at her, "I'll even walk you there if you like."
"I'd like that." Anzu nodded as they paused outside her house. "Are you going to be alright on your own?" She asked, concerned about letting Yugi walk home alone at this time of night.
"I only live a block away." Yugi waved off her concern, though she was nervous herself. "And I know that your mom's a lot stricter on curfews than my Grandfather."
"I'll see you tomorrow morning." Anzu nodded as she pulled her keys out of her bag and Yugi hung around until Anzu had shut the door behind her and then headed home, wandering down the road and darting down an alleyway that would cut five minutes off her time.
It was dangerous, walking home alone, but less so for her than any other girl. After all, most people would mistake her for a boy and just try to mug her, whereas she'd heard the horror stories about girls who were out after dark and had been jumped. She shuddered as she picked up the pace, trying not to get freaked out when one of the many back doors that led onto this alleyway shot open and crashed into the wall.
Her Grandfather was going to be cross as it was. She'd been supposed to be home half an hour ago, but she'd been distracted at the arcade. It happened far too often for him to be surprised, but she half expected to be banned from there one of these days and then she wasn't quite sure what would happen.
Not that it had happened yet, just as she had managed to avoid getting mugged before.
Of course there was a first time for everything and just as she was turning out of the alleyway to walk the last hundred yards to her backdoor, someone grabbed her from behind, dragging her back into the alley by her wrist. Yugi tried to scream, but her assailant put his hand over her mouth and pinned her against his body with his other arm.
Fear made her compliant as he dragged her further up the alley, getting about halfway up before he uncovered her mouth and showed her a knife he'd pulled out of one of his pockets. "I'm taking all of your money." He informed her, whispering in her ear, "Scream and I'll use this, got it?"
Yugi nodded, shaking, and the man pushed her away from him, pulling her backpack off as he did so. She turned slightly away from him, trying to shield the Puzzle, which, she was certain, was made of gold, from the mugger, too scared to run.
"Is that it?" The man growled at her when he raided her purse only to one solitary hundred yen note.
She nodded, having spent all of her pocket money at the arcade.
"Then we have a..." He paused and smirked as he caught sight of the Puzzle, "I see you're holding out on me." He said, moving towards her.
"You can't have it." Yugi backed up and was stopped by a wall, causing her to glance over her shoulder fearfully.
"Just hand it over, and I won't have to hurt you. It's not like it suits a wimp like you anyway."
"No way." Yugi shook her head, attempting to dart to one side, only to be pulled back by her hair. She let out a pained yell as he pulled her around, causing her to lose her footing, going tumbling to the ground and crashing into one of the huge metal dumpsters.
The thug smirked as she picked herself up slowly, going to step forward only to discover he couldn't move his legs.
"W...What the hell?" He demanded of her.
Red eyes glowered in his direction as she rubbed the shoulder that had hit the container. "It's a shame you picked me to rob." She commented as she stretched the limb and winced, anger only intensified by the pain, "Now you'll have to play my game."
"What the hell are you talking about, you freak?" The thug demanded as the darkness around them waved and danced around the two figures.
"It's a simple game." She informed him, speaking as if she hadn't heard his question. "Win and you can take whatever you like, lose and your fate is up to me."
"Like I have a choice." The thug snapped at her, "What are we playing?"
She tossed a six sided die to him. "All you have to do is roll higher than me." She told him as he caught the red die, showing him her own purple die, "Just once, that's all."
"That's it?"
"That's it."
"Fine." He growled. "Roll your dice."
She just nodded and let the dice slip from her hand. It bounced along the floor and rested at the man's feet. "A two." Her tone, while still showing her anger, had a touch of amusement as her eyes came up to rest on his, "Surely you can't fail to beat that..."
He glowered back at her. If he could have moved his feet, he would have pounded the brat, however as it was all he could do was roll his dice... well that or...
He tossed his dice at her. The red die struck her in the forehead, causing her to flinch back slightly, and came to rest on the floor. On a one.
The darkness around them flared as she gave him the dirtiest look imaginable. "You lose." She said, her voice echoing slightly, "And that means your fate is up to me."
"I'm not scared of you!" The thug snarled, realising that his feet were free and launching himself at her, aiming to take her head off.
Instead he bounced off of an invisible wall and ended up flat on his back.
"Pitiful." She snarled as the darkness whirled around the man at her command, "Penalty Game. Enervation."
The thug let out a panicked yell as the he realized his legs wouldn't take his weight. "W…what did you do?" He demanded.
"When you learn that even the weak have a right to respect, the penalty will fade." She told him, "Until then you'll have to work through everything without resorting to brute strength."
"You bitch." He growled at her as she picked up her school bag and put everything back inside.
She didn't even deign to give him a response, just carried on down the alleyway and headed home.
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Yugi yawned as she tried to keep up with the teacher.
There were just some things she couldn't bring herself to be interested in and chemistry was one of them, but she kept up with the work, even if she got bored easily.
She could see a use for her Japanese lessons, English too and she'd need a firm base in maths if she wanted to help her Grandfather in the shop, but things like chemistry she didn't see the point in.
Luckily or unluckily whichever way she wanted to look at it, Jonouchi was more than willing to wile away the last lesson of the day playing noughts and crosses with her as long as they made sure that the teacher couldn't see them passing the paper between them.
What was better was that he was willing to keep playing even after she beat him three times in a row. Most people got frustrated when she beat them repeatedly and stopped playing with her, even Anzu got bored after a while, however Jonouchi seemed to be more than happy to put up with it as long as she showed him where he was going wrong.
"Mutou!"
"S…Sensei?" Yugi asked, her head snapping up at the teacher's voice, looking embarrassed as she hid the piece of paper under her text book.
"If you ever want to get decent grades you should start paying attention," The teacher told her as she swept down the aisle of desks and snatched up Yugi's book, smirking as he picked up the piece of paper, "And stopped playing games. Perhaps an hour's detention will teach you not to slack off."
"But Sensei…" Yugi yelped, trying not to glance at her friends.
"If you have a long enough attention span to play games with yourself, you should have a long enough one to take in what I'm trying to teach you." The teacher said dismissively, putting her book back on the table before moving towards the front of the class.
Yugi glanced over her shoulder and gave Anzu an apologetic look. Her friend just glowered at her for a moment, before waving it off and turning her attention back to the class.
When class ended, Yugi turned to Anzu but didn't get a chance to apologise.
"How many times have I told you not to play games in class?" Anzu asked, her tone speaking of her disappointment and causing Yugi to wince. "You know your grades are slipping."
"Lay off, Mazaki." Jonouchi snorted at the pair, "I'm to blame as much as Yugi, so…"
"Sorry." Yugi interrupted the pair before they could start arguing again.
"At least you'll be out in time to see the end of the lesson." Anzu sighed, not oblivious to Yugi's diversion tactic and letting her get away with it only because she could see how much Yugi disliked it when her friends fought with each other.
There was silence for a moment as no one really knew what to say and then…
"I'll walk you to your class." Jonouchi spoke up, surprising the pair of girls who gave him a shocked look, causing him to give them an amused grin, "I've got nothing better to do."
Anzu opened her mouth, paused when she realized Jonouchi was teasing, closed it again and nodded.
"Thank you." The brunette said, looking like she wasn't quite sure how to respond to Jonouchi's offer, then she left, heading for the lockers so she could change her shoes.
"Thanks, Jonouchi." Yugi said, looking relieved, having known that Anzu really hadn't wanted to go on her own.
"Just covering your back Yuge," Jonouchi smirked at her, "After all it's no good if your girlfriend's mad at you." Yugi stared at Jonouchi uncomprehendingly, wondering where that had come from, causing the blonde to chuckle. "Now, you don't want to be late for your detention." He pointed out, "I'll see you later." With that the blonde headed after Anzu.
Yugi watched him go, still unable to comprehend why Jonouchi would assume she was dating Anzu, then grabbed her own bag and headed down to the detention room. She had some homework she could do that would keep her busy for an hour and then she could be out of there like a flash.
"I never expected to see a nice girl like you here, Mutou." The teacher she presented herself to commented as he wrote her name down, "You might be a bit of a daydreamer, but you're generally good at keeping yourself out of trouble."
Yugi just bowed her head, unconvinced that this was fair herself but unwilling to argue with a teacher. When the teacher was done, she took a seat and pulled out a piece of maths homework, managing to get five or six questions in before she realized that it felt like someone was watching her.
Glancing around carefully, not wanting to end up in more trouble, she caught Honda, who had managed to earn himself a detention earlier in the day, staring at her. At least until her eyes caught his, at which point he looked down at his desk and he started writing like his life depended on it.
Wondering what was going through his mind, Yugi turned back to her own work, swiftly becoming engrossed in the work, and was surprised when, in the middle of trying to work out an algebraic formula, the teacher called, "Hiroto, Mutou, time's up."
Yugi blinked and nodded at the teacher, swiftly putting her stuff into her bag and heading out the door, hoping to reach the studio before Anzu's dance class was up.
She didn't get very far though as just before the lockers Honda grabbed her arm and forced her to turn around to look at him.
"You're a girl?" He demanded, looking her over, irritation obvious.
Yugi just nodded nervously.
"Then why are you in…?" He gestured to her uniform. "And what's with your hair?"
"The girl's uniform doesn't come in my size." Yugi replied, torn between frustration that Honda didn't seem to want to believe it and amusement that he was this surprised, "And my hair looks a mess when it grows out."
"Huh…" Honda stated, slowly going a rather bright shade of red as he realized something. "You mean when I asked you to grab those magazines…"
Yugi just nodded.
He let go. Yugi backed up, giving the boy a small, shy smile.
Without any further comments, Honda left.
Yugi sighed as she put on her shoes and headed for the dance studio. It wasn't like she had tried to keep her gender a secret, but she couldn't help but be worried about Honda's reaction and what Jonouchi's would be when Honda told him, finally deciding, just a few yards from the studio, that it would be better for her to explain everything to Jonouchi herself. He might take it better if she told him, rather than him finding out second hand.
Not that she got a chance to talk to him. He had already left by the time she got there. The receptionist had tolerated his presence yesterday because he had been with her, but the studio hadn't wanted him to hang around without someone around to watch him. They didn't think he looked trustworthy enough.
Yugi would have defended her friend, but Anzu, high off of the success of her dance class and the way she'd impressed the scout and how there might be a place for her in a recital towards the end of the year if she kept it up, had practically dragged her off for celebratory ice cream.
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Jonouchi was walking home.
He had surprised himself when he'd offered to walk Anzu to her dance class and he'd been quite glad of the excuse he'd given Yugi, but he knew full well that wasn't why he'd made the offer.
He wasn't even sure why he was hanging around with the pair of them. Anzu wasn't bad, she had a mean right hook to her, he'd learnt that the only time he'd ever tried to look up her skirt, but Yugi was his natural prey. The small weedy male that didn't fight back… in his days in Hirutani's gang there was no way he would have put up with the kid.
He'd made a real effort to change though, when he'd managed to get himself out of his former gang and into a decent school, though he nearly hadn't made the cut, and it was obviously making the difference if he had changed who he was willing to hang around with this drastically.
That didn't mean he didn't sometimes wonder about some of the choices he made and today was one such occasion.
"Jonouchi."
"What do you want?" The tall blonde scowled as he turned towards the source of the voice, slipping into a defensive stance. "I thought I told you to piss off the last time you came knocking."
"Still the same Jonouchi." The other teen, a well built male with messy black hair, sniggered, "The boss wants to talk to you."
"I'm not interested."
"Perhaps your friends might be. The brunette, the chick and the wuss?"
"Leave them alone." Jonouchi demanded, well aware that while Honda could handle himself in a fight, Anzu would have trouble and Yugi wouldn't stand a chance if they ganged up on him.
"All you have to do is come and talk to the boss and they'll be fine."
Jonouchi's scowl deepened. He knew his former gang leader too well to expect that to be true, but he wasn't sure he had much of a choice.
"Fine." The blonde said. "But if any of you lay a hand on my friends, I'm taking the whole lot of you down. Got it?" He asked, appearing to be speaking to thin air, but well aware that there were, most likely four or five others around, hiding in case needed.
"Fine, fine, whatever." The black haired teen said, "This way."