Yuma nervously walked into the classroom of his new school. Everyone here...they were different. Didn't look at him. Scary.

So scary.

He sat in front of a boy too large to be his same age, curling his legs under the chair and wrapping his arms around his chest.

"Are you okay? You look cold," the girl next to him asked. He looked up into concerned orange eyes, her green hair framing her face.

No I'm not nothing will ever be okay I'm scared everything is too scary I can't "Yeah, I'm fine," he looked away, staring at the opposite wall where the windows were.

The teacher rapped her pointer on her desk, bringing the light chatter from the various clusters of students to a halt. "Welcome to your first day of fourth grade, class. Today, I'd like you all to introduce yourselves and say a little something about yourself. Maybe what you want to be when you grow up or a favorite activity. Start with you," she pointed to the boy in the front row and far to Yuma's right, who started from a bored faraway look, his spiked blood orange hair unwieldy.

"My name is Takada Akio, I really like..." Yuma tuned out the rest of what the boy was saying, pulling into himself, trying to block out everything else. The students continued on, saying names Yuma would never remember and hobbies Yuma would never be good at. He held in tears as best he could, his whole body vibrating with suppressed sobs.

"I'm Mizuki Kotori, and I really like computers!" the girl next to him smiled brightly, her eyes lighting up. Yuma took a deep breath and reached for the air around his neck, a nervous habit he didn't bother trying to understand, but nothing was there.

"I-i-i-i..." he stammered, eyes darting from face to face, feeling the stares of everyone judging, condemning him. "My name...is Tsukumo -" his breath hitched. No, no, it's scary, I can't I can't

The girl reached out her hand and squeezed his shoulder. "Go on, Tsukumo-kun."

Yuma wanted to pull away, run and cry and hide, but it was like he was stuck in place. "...Tsukumo Yuma. I really like..." he trailed off again.

What did he like? Why did it matter? He would never be good enough. Never accomplish anything. He was useless, a waste of space.

"I like dueling," he managed to get out. "I'm gonna be the duel champion one day." the words tumbled out, lies, all of them, he was so good at lying.

The fat kid behind him started laughing, huge uproarious tones that nearly shook Yuma's insides. "Duel Champion? Like you have what it takes to do that! Have you ever even won a duel?"

Yuma wanted to retaliate. Fight back, say something. Nothing. He pulled his knees towards his chest and turned toward the front of the classroom, eyes staring at his D-pad. The boy behind him was laughing, laughing at him, it was what he deserved, he was stupid and useless and would never amount to anything, it didn't matter how much he wanted to be duel champion, it wouldn't happen.

He wasn't good enough.