Gifted

Katsuya Jounouchi was not what most would call "naturally gifted". Sure, he was good in a fight, good with people, and good at dueling, but those were things he had learned through his life.

Fighting was a skill he picked up from going to middle school in the wrong part of town. With his loud nature, short temper, and foreign-looking blonde hair, he had no choice but to be able to hold his own in a fight. Unless he wanted to constantly resemble a human-shaped bruise, that is. He had slowly improved with each fight, with his reactions getting quicker and his punches getting stronger until he had a reputation for being unbeatable in a fistfight.

He was good with his sister when they were still together, but not good with any of the other children his age. He would play games of pretend with her in the hallway outside their apartment when things were good, and would go places nearby when things went bad between their parents. The children at school would often exclude both siblings, as if they knew how much they did not belong at such an expensive primary school. Things at school got slightly easier for Jounouchi when his father moved him from the top school in the area to the bottom one. As his home situation gradually worsened, he began to learn how to understand people. He could pick up on things like which employers would let him work for them without checking his age or which teachers would let him make up for lost sleep in their class. It made the difference of only being yelled at or being kicked out until his father passed out on the couch.

Despite this, while in middle school he really only connected to one other person, a friendly boy named Hiroto Honda. He liked Honda's joking nature and the way he thought things through instead of rushing in without a thought like he himself was often guilty of. However, even that did not stop them both from getting mixed up in a gang during their second year of middle school. After narrowly avoiding arrest in their last year of middle school, Honda proposed that Jounouchi come to Domino High School with him instead of going to the high school in Rintama. After saving up for the tuition for months and barely getting into the school, Jounouchi began the first year of high school, one that would completely change his life, because of one Yugi Mutou. Because of Yugi and his magical pyramid-shaped puzzle and a game called Duel Monsters, Jounouchi got to go on many adventures and touch people's lives with an understanding that was shocking to come from a person who seemed at first glance to not have a thought that he kept to himself.

Dueling was something that he learned from Yugi's grandfather. He wasn't a natural strategist like Yugi or Seto Kaiba, but he had a never-quit attitude and an impressive amount of luck, both of which put him above most duelists.

It's because of Jounouchi's dueling ability that it was somewhat of a shock when he told his friends that he wanted to go to college and be a social worker during lunch three months after they returned from Egypt.

It was out of the blue, really. He had been thinking about it for about six months, really, but with the world-at-risk shenanigans that continuously seemed to come at their group, he hadn't felt it was the right time to say anything.

And then when everything had finally slowed down, he knew that it wasn't the right time to say anything.

Their group handled the passing of the other Yugi-no, Atem- differently. Bakura wasn't very upset by it, he had spent most of the time in Atem's presence possessed by the spirit that lived in the Millennium Ring. He was frankly thrilled that he could do anything without having to worry about the gaps in his memory.

Honda had handled it the best after Bakura. He had lost both his parents when he was younger, and knew how to deal with that loss. Jounouchi himself was in a similar situation, since he also learned to handle someone you care about disappearing from your life. He still missed his close friend, but he knew that even though it hurt a lot now, it would really be best for him and Yugi in the end. Sharing the same body was fine for the time they had to, but it couldn't last. Yugi had his own life to live and Atem had people who had been waiting for him for a long time.

It seemed that Yugi had realized it too, because he hadn't cried since Atem moved on. At first, he was downtrodden and barely talked. He would slip and sometimes put his hand to where the Millennium Puzzle had been, but those were starting to become less frequent. His smiles were now genuine. Anzu was handling it the worst of all. She threw herself into working on a routine for her performing arts school tryout. She hung out with them a lot less. Sometimes, she would get a pained look on her face when looking at Yugi.

Which is why he blurted out his aspiration to become a social worker in the awkward stretch of silence following Yugi reaching for his Millennium Puzzle and Anzu giving him that look while the other three watched. When he said it, the other four stared at him a moment before Bakura asked him a question that he would end up getting over and over. "Ahh, Jounouchi, what about dueling? I thought for sure you would want to go pro." Which is when Jounouchi got to explain over and over that he loved dueling, but wanted a career that was more stable. After he made the explanation, they had offered their support, with Anzu even saying that he could borrow her college entrance exam study materials.

Shizuka had been completely enthusiastic when he called her that night. She had chatted with him while simultaneously telling their mother what he said, and even had held the phone out so that Mrs. Kawai could offer her support as well. His mother had even offered to help him pay for living expenses wherever he wanted to attend school at. Jounouchi had interjected that he first had to pass the entrance exams before worrying about any of that. Shizuka said that if he wanted to pass them, then she knew he could.

And she had been right. After months of studying, him, Anzu, and Bakura (who wanted to go to culinary school) all passed. Yugi, instead of going to school, was joining Arthur Hopkins in South America. Honda, also, decided against college in favor of joining the Domino Police.

Everything seemed to be falling into place for them, after all.

He said as much to Mokuba Kaiba and Ryuji Otogi when he saw him outside after the five of them graduated. They had all been pleasantly surprised when several of their international friends came. Mr. Hopkins and his granddaughter Rebecca were chatting with Yugi. Anzu was chatting with Shizuka and Honda was excitedly telling the Ishtars something. Mokuba was probably the biggest surprise of all though. He guessed that with all they've been through, that it's no surprise that Mokuba had come to think of them as friends, even if his older brother denies all mentions of the term.

Otogi had jokingly told him that he was glad he no longer lived in Domino when he told them of Honda's desire to be a policeman. Any response Jounouchi had died in his mouth when he thought he saw a flash of blonde hair and purple clothes walking out of the building. He peered at the place where he saw it, but there wasn't anyone there. He assumed it was just wishful thinking, then turned back to Mokuba. It seemed Otogi had walked over to talk to Honda and Yugi had taken his place.

Mokuba then leaned close and began to tell him of his brother's newest project, one that surprised the two of them.

"A school for dueling?" Yugi and Jounouchi asked at the same time. It was half confusion half shock. They both loved dueling, but a school for it was a big stretch, even for Kaiba.

"I know." Mokuba shook his head. "I tried to talk him out of it, but you both know how stubborn he can be sometimes." Jounouchi could tell by the look on his face that he thought the school was a bad idea and didn't want to make a secret of the fact.

Yugi and Jounouchi both wished him luck with that, with Jounouchi making a comment about the teachers having to dress as Blue Eyes White Dragons while teaching, then moved on to different topics of conversation. After all, any dueling school Kaiba started would have no effect on either of them.

End

Thank you for reading! This is a sort-of prologue to a DM/GX crossover I'm writing that stars Jounouchi, Mokuba, and the GX cast. Which will be the first in a series of Zexal/5Ds/GX/DM crossovers. I'm still planning but will start publishing it soon.

This isn't my normal writing style, but I wanted to try something different (aka, dialogue light) so hopefully it's halfway decent.