Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Nobody's Listening ❯ Chapter One ( Chapter 1 )

KH: Hi there, for those of you who don't know me, I'm someone who has retreated from FF.Net and come to see what this site has to offer. About my SN, at the time when I first created it, I did not know how to spell Kuriboh, obviously, this has changed now, but I like my old spelling, as for the rest, well I think it can be assumed that Kuriboh is one of my most hated cards.

Anyway, I am hoping that this is not going to be one of those cliché fictions that have been done a million times before, please be kind and review, with creative criticism if its required, I'm always open for new ideas and suggestions.

I apologise in advance for bad grammar, my computer does not co-operate with me when it comes to grammar check, and I am naturally bad at it.

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Chapter One

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The streets were eerily dark, even for the night time and, the only sound that was audible was the loud smacking of trainers to tarmac as he fled from the three immortal beings who had cornered him moments before . . . who had attempted to bite him and drain his life away. They were still chasing, and it did not appear that they would tire any time soon. Frightened he bolted down an alleyway only to run into a cloaked figure. He fell to the ground heavily, desperately trying to catch his breath again. The cloaked figure aided him back onto his feet and then, without warning lashed out with fangs bearing, plunging them deep into his neck . . . lapping up the blood as it flowed freely . . .

Jounouchi Katsuya snapped awake, his hazel eyes were wide and filled with fright as he remained partially in the dream world, his thick, golden blond hair was plastered to his forehead with sweat and his whole expression was one of fear, shock and pain.

After a little while, he managed to slow his rapid breathing, no longer ensnared by the dream he rolled over and glanced at the cheap, circular alarm clock that rested upon a small cardboard box. 4:30 Am. groaning he turned onto his back and stared for a moment at the sloping ceiling where several cobwebs had suddenly made an appearance. He closed his eyes again and pulled the blanket over his face in an attempt to get back to sleep, however the memories from that dream were imprinted in his mind, and flashed before him the second he had allowed his lids to close so he abandoned all thoughts of getting back to sleep and climbed out of bed.

He listened for a moment then, hearing nothing but loud, obnoxious snoring he emerged from his room that was little more than a walk-in closet and headed towards the poky little bathroom that was always coated in a thin layer of grease and muck. Careful not to stand on the bathroom rug, that had absorbed more than its fair share of foul liquids and such he stood in front of a slimy, cracked mirror and, with a dirty cloth, wiped the surface clean.

He probably stood at around 5'10ft and his frame was quite slender, if not a little on the thin side, his complexion was very tanned and his hazel eyes twinkled with mischief and held that friendly air to them that would also suggest that he was a perfectly happy person at the same time. His personality was loud and he had the bad habit of intimidating people with his constant chatter and wisecracks. People could never tell whether he was being serious or not and that sometimes caused them to feel like they were being picked on.

At school (which he did not attend very often) he was known by most as a 'Juvenile Delinquent' he cared very little about his education and tended to bully other students, although that could well have been seen as his way of crying out for attention, if you managed to look past how he acted and see it. Frankly he just did not care how his life turned out, since he had never known how good life could be to begin with and, since he had been held back a grade twice now, he just did not see the point of even trying to understand what was being said, he was obviously a failure and he was most likely going to stay a failure.

He stretched and yawned then tore his gaze away from the mirror and inspected the shower, it was clean so he stripped out of his faded pyjamas and stepped in after running the hot water for a moment. As his tense muscles loosened with the heat and gentle patter, the dream also slipped out of his mind and he realized he had been quite silly to dwell on it, or even allow his over-active imagination to worry him like that.

After a while he stepped out and hastily dried himself off with what he hoped was a clean towel then pulled on his boxers, then some faded jeans that had a frayed hole at the knee, a wrinkled white t-shirt that had, quite frankly, seen far better days and a denim jacket that was equally as faded as the jeans.

Once he'd run a comb through his thick, damp hair he headed over to the tiny kitchen and frowned at the dirty dishes. His stomach rumbled to remind him that he had not eaten since last night; however, he knew all too well that there was nothing safely edible in the refrigerator since his father had mentioned it to him last night and given him a nice bruise on his stomach to remind him to do the grocery shopping after school tonight.

Not that he would forget, the combined fear of his father's rage and his hunger would remind him, Jounouchi may not have had the best of memories, but he did not forget things when it concerned food, or making his father angry.

Sighing he began to wash the dishes whilst staring at the view of the crumbling brick wall that was directly opposite the tiny, grubby window and by the time he had finished it was 7am. He dried his hands on his pants since there were no more clean towels and began to shove his graffiti-covered books into his battered backpack carelessly before he began to clean up all the smashed bottles and beer cans that had been left there from the night before.

He sighed once again and stared around his depressive home, every-so-often stooping to pick up more glass or another can. The carpets were all cream in colour, worn and stained with vomit, beer and food. The dull wallpaper on the walls were peeling away from the dampness and were also quite stained, then there was the furniture, the couch was old, stained and torn, infested with mites probably, he himself slept on an old mattress with several springs poking into his back with a rough blanket at night (there was no central heating).

He found the whole thing rather depressing really, and embarrassing. Often he would flatly turn down the request of his only friend, Honda Hiroto to let him see his house for he was frightened that, if his companion knew about what conditions he lived in, their friendship would be through, and the blond needed him as a friend for emotional and mental support, even though Honda did not even know it.

He was jerked out of his thoughts when he heard grumbling and cursing from the lounge, his father was up and hung over, a deadly combination, particularly when the house (Which in actual fact was nothing more than a battered old trailer) was still untidy from the night before so, knowing full well there would be trouble, Jounouchi hastily left before he was discovered and put on the receiving end of his father's rage.

What he had not counted on was the rain. It was 7:15am, according to his wristwatch and already he was getting soaked. He actually considered going back to fetch a better jacket or at least an umbrella, but he decided against it, successfully avoiding his father twice in a row was a rare occurrence, he did not want to gamble his safety so instead Jounouchi decided he would just put up with it and swung his bag over one shoulder before walking down the battered street that was part of 'Old Domino'

As he walked, a beggar of some sorts approached him, asking for money repeatedly and becoming rather violent when the blond told him that he had none, after a while Jounouchi became angry and he lashed out at the man with smooth, nimble movements, knocking him sharply to the side, not hurting him too much, but certainly knocking the wind out of him for a while then continued.

For as long as he could remember now, he had always been different from everybody else and he loathed that. When he had been born there had been nothing strange about him, however as the years had passed by he found himself developing strange abilities such has heightened speed and strength. At first, he had been overjoyed and proud, showing it off in front of his parents whenever he could but his father quickly got the idea that he was a freak into his head and now, he was ashamed to be different.

He lived in a broken home, his mother and sister had been torn away from him years ago and, as mentioned before he had turned to bullying as a silent cry for attention, for someone to notice and care that all was not well in his life but soon, the bullying had become habit, and nobody ever noticed because nobody ever cared to read between the lines, and listen.

Jounouchi never really thought that his behaviour pushed possible friends away, he had seen on his little black and white television, kids like him (although at seventeen he was hardly a kid) who were also delinquents, and they had managed to find people who would listen to them, and comfort them when they felt alone or depressed, but he had never felt that himself and, other than Honda Hiroto, nobody cared.

However, even Honda could not understand, he did not come from the same background, he had a loving family where there was no drinking, verbal abuse or physical abuse so, whilst he suspected that there was something wrong with Jounouchi's home life, he did not understand enough to be able to offer worthwhile advice.

Jounouchi shook off the thoughts as he stopped outside the tall, whitewashed building of Domino High. Waiting for him outside patiently was his only friend.

Honda Hiroto stood at approximately 5'11ft, he was tanned like the blond and had quite stern brown eyes, he had a generally quiet and docile personality although, for some unknown reason he admired Jounouchi, and often went along with his plans simply because he wanted to stay close to him although, there were times when he became annoyed with him and ended up lashing out at the seventeen year old simply to get him to take his life more seriously and stop drifting.

He smiled as the blond approached and pushed him gently as a way of greeting "I thought you were going to truant today" he said, his voice held a slight American accent although by now he had become accustomed to toning it down so that native Japanese could understand what he was saying "Its good that you didn't though" he added "Ohashi-sensei was becoming suspicious and I was running out of excuses" he admitted.

Jounouchi pushed him back and sighed, not particularly in the mood, he had upset himself with his grim thoughts "Hey, are you alright?" Honda asked, sounding concerned. The blond did not answer him, although this was not considered abnormal behaviour for him, Honda knew that sometimes, Jounouchi just did not feel like talking, and that usually signified that he was very upset about something because otherwise he was always talking "Jou-kun?"

Once again, he was not given a response "Hey man, don't go all silent on me, I don't like it when you do that" he said, trying to coax the outgoing teen into speaking, however it did not work "Damn it, your stubborn at times" he offered before putting his hand gently on Jounouchi's shoulder as the bell rang "If you want to talk about it I'll listen" he said "Just remember that Jou-kun" and with that last comment he pulled away and headed towards his first class.

Jounouchi felt quite guilty for ignoring his friend, and headed off to his own classroom. As he strode to his desk a paper aeroplane whizzed past his ear and hit a short boy with wild spiky hair right on the head, a group of teenagers laughed as the boy turned and they all sneered at him unpleasantly.

Gradually, the amusement in their faces died down and, since they had run out of paper to throw, they began to talk. One boy, a particularly cocky sixteen year old with long black hair that was pulled into a high pony tail spoke up first "Have you heard anything about that new student?" he asked, his emerald eyes darting from each person who faced him to the next.

"What new student Otogi-kun?" someone asked.

Ryuuji Otogi, happy to be the centre of attention, smirked and continued "I don't know much" he offered "Only that he was expelled from his old school for bad behaviour or something, the principle returned before I could look through the information properly"

"I hope he's cute," a girl piped up.

"Who cares if he's cute?" Ryuuji demanded "Frankly I would not be surprised if he was another pushover like Yuugi" he said, the group all laughed and soon the conversation was pulled onto a different subject, clearly the thought of a new student was not something to get excited about.

After another few minutes their math teacher, Mr Yoshimitzu, a man in his early thirties with short dark hair and a kindly yet strict face entered the classroom, uttering his apologies and promptly began the lesson, only to be interrupted fifteen minutes later by a knock on the door. The class (who had all been quite chatty) were now silent as he pulled open the door and frowned at the person standing there "You were supposed to arrive fifteen minutes ago" he said somewhat coldly (he hated latecomers), a note was pushed into his palm and he read it, then nodded.

He moved out of the way and allowed the boy to step inside the class, several girls sighed in disappointment as they laid eyes on him and Jounouchi, curious to see what was going on, lifted his head and hazel eyes met piercing cerulean, instantly he found that he could not look away.

"Class, I would like you all to welcome your new classmate, Kaiba Seto" all the girls who had scoffed at him were suddenly interested again, swooning over how rich he was supposed to be or something along those lines and staring dreamily.

Kaiba Seto, in all honesty did not appear to be anyone special, he had the build that so many people envied, he was tall (approximately 6ft or so) and skinny as was the common thing for most teens his height, neatly cut dark brown hair fell in piercing cerulean eyes that were enhanced by thick black eyeliner and would have entranced anyone, had they not been so cold and blank, his face was as pale as snow, handsome but not overly so where rumours of plastic surgery would be taken seriously.

"Hey, check out his clothes" one teen hissed in Ryuuji's ear before he began to laugh, the brunette was clad in leather pants that were a little too loose, a cotton top with five thick leather buckles that stretched across his chest and an ankle long trench coat all black, several others in the group sniggered as they too, regarded him closely. Uniform had been abolished from Domino High for some time, but that only brought along more taunts and bullying now, for not everyone could afford the 'top name' clothes and others did not care for 'style' and dressed however they liked, the grounds around Domino were an unfriendly place these days and, unless you looked like everybody else, or acted 'normal' you became the target of a bully.

Jounouchi however, did nothing, he could feel a terrible sensation creeping up from his stomach, into his chest, making him feel very enclosed and nervous, he felt cold and even a little clammy, although he could not explain why. After a short amount of time, the feeling passed and he put it all down to hunger since, once again his stomach was reminding him that he had not eaten.

Ryuuji continued to laugh until those piercing blue eyes locked onto him, sending a shiver up his spine however, that too passed within moments and the gangly brunette was directed towards an empty desk at the back of the classroom. After sliding gracefully into his seat the pale teen began to scratch at the wooden surface with black painted fingernails, completely uninterested in the rest of the class.

Yoshimitzu continued with the lesson, pausing once or twice to ask a question, or to tell someone off for speaking whilst he was explaining a theory of how to do something, after a while he began to question people once again. Overall, the lesson was dull and boring.

All throughout that morning, Jounouchi had been enduring the strangest of feelings, and it had all started when the new student had arrived, he could not understand what had brought it on and he didn't like it one bit, it felt evil and . . . unnatural, creepy in a strange way and chilling. He must have shuddered a few times, although he had no idea why.

"Jounouchi-kun, pay attention" Yoshimitzu spat, becoming annoyed at his obvious lack of concentration.

Ryuuji and his cronies were still whispering and pointing at the brunette but he either could not hear them, or he simply did not care "Man, who would have thought such a pathetic kid like him set the gymnasium on fire at Tokyo High?" he muttered, not impressed with the, to put it bluntly, weird appearance of the new student at all.

"He set the gymnasium on fire?!" about three exclaimed at the same time.

Jounouchi rolled his eyes and ignored them, rumours, that was all their comments were, mere rumours, although he too could not help but glance at the new student who was hunched over his desk and writing in his exercise book. That feeling surged through him again; however, he forced himself to blank that out. He wanted to talk to him, although yet again, he had no idea why but by the time the bell had sounded, he had slipped out of the classroom.

Sighing the blond began to make his way towards his next class when a scream sounded from the opposite end of the corridor, curious he abandoned his route to class and headed over there hastily where he promptly wished that he had not for lying, limp and cold on the tiles was a boy most likely to have been in the 8th grade, his youthful face was now withered and grey, almost like a corpse and, on the lift side of his neck, just a little above his shoulder were two punctures about one or two inches apart. . .

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