It was before I awakened, but...I remember everything.
Jounouchi would take the games Yugi'd brought to school and keep them away from him, and tell him he was acting like a girl if he got upset. He even secretly stole part of the Millennium Puzzle! Honda was in on it, too...he'd make Yugi carry his things, buy dirty magazines for him...
In the beginning, they weren't friends at all!
A hall monitor named Ushio found out what was going on, and saw an opportunity. He told Yugi, "From now on, I'll be your bodyguard..." and after school, he beat Jounouchi and Honda so badly that they couldn't stand.
When he showed Yugi, Yugi was horrified...he'd never have wanted anything like that to happen to anyone. He told Ushio a lie, that Honda and Jounouchi weren't his bullies, but his friends....he said that they were just trying to toughen him up, and that he wanted Ushio to stop. But Ushio said that if Yugi wasn't satisfied, he could always hit them some more -- so Yugi put himself between them, and told Ushio to hit him instead.
[Annnnnd then Yugi solved the Millennium Puzzle and the other Yugi robbed the game shop's till to play knife monopoly with Ushio and blasted Ushio's brain with dark magic so that Ushio still hallucinates money in his cell in the hospital. But that's not important right now.]
Did Jounouchi and Honda deserve that kind of faith? Maybe not. But it was because of what Yugi did that Jounouchi gave back the piece of the Millennium Puzzle...it was the first thing he'd done in a long time that he could respect himself for. It was because of that that they became friends...and became the kind of people they were when you met them.
No one's born knowing how to like themselves. You learn it through the people you care for. So, it doesn't matter to me what you used to be like, when you were lonely. What matters is that you're not alone now. Even the spirit that used to force you away from your friends can't do that anymore! You and I are friends, and I do have faith in you.
[He's been serious up until now, but a smile flits across his face as he goes on.]
And I don't trust just anyone! Do you think I'd bet on a card that I thought would lose?
cw description of bullying/toxic masculinity/etc
Jounouchi would take the games Yugi'd brought to school and keep them away from him, and tell him he was acting like a girl if he got upset. He even secretly stole part of the Millennium Puzzle! Honda was in on it, too...he'd make Yugi carry his things, buy dirty magazines for him...
In the beginning, they weren't friends at all!
A hall monitor named Ushio found out what was going on, and saw an opportunity. He told Yugi, "From now on, I'll be your bodyguard..." and after school, he beat Jounouchi and Honda so badly that they couldn't stand.
When he showed Yugi, Yugi was horrified...he'd never have wanted anything like that to happen to anyone. He told Ushio a lie, that Honda and Jounouchi weren't his bullies, but his friends....he said that they were just trying to toughen him up, and that he wanted Ushio to stop. But Ushio said that if Yugi wasn't satisfied, he could always hit them some more -- so Yugi put himself between them, and told Ushio to hit him instead.
[Annnnnd then Yugi solved the Millennium Puzzle and the other Yugi robbed the game shop's till to play knife monopoly with Ushio and blasted Ushio's brain with dark magic so that Ushio still hallucinates money in his cell in the hospital. But that's not important right now.]
Did Jounouchi and Honda deserve that kind of faith? Maybe not. But it was because of what Yugi did that Jounouchi gave back the piece of the Millennium Puzzle...it was the first thing he'd done in a long time that he could respect himself for. It was because of that that they became friends...and became the kind of people they were when you met them.
No one's born knowing how to like themselves. You learn it through the people you care for. So, it doesn't matter to me what you used to be like, when you were lonely. What matters is that you're not alone now. Even the spirit that used to force you away from your friends can't do that anymore! You and I are friends, and I do have faith in you.
[He's been serious up until now, but a smile flits across his face as he goes on.]
And I don't trust just anyone! Do you think I'd bet on a card that I thought would lose?
[He winks.]