I really like how there were no direct spoken words. It made it distant, but also familiar. This was a really nice friendship piece!

Very beautiful.

this is beautiful. simply stunning work. I love how you take the YGO characters and their lives and then write beyond that, making it something unforseen yet utterly realistic. your powerful words and themes make you a fantastic writer. taking the YGO universe of wins and losses and summing it up to be something completely human and neither a win nor a loss could not have been done better. keep it up!

"She’d created spaces between the pieces of herself, trying to weld them together in different shapes, then breaking them apart to weld them together again, and her self-confidence had seeped through the cracks." Oddly, this brings to mind images of Kaiba, specifically the part where Yami no Yuugi breaks his mind/soul apart and he has to put it together again piece by piece.

The annoying fangirl in me wants to imagine a happy ending where they stay as close as they've always been, but I think your version is more realistic, if sad.

I usually skip author's notes, so I didn't see "I set myself the challenge of writing an entire fic without direct speech." until I had finished, and let me tell you that this fic was so amazing that I didn't even notice. It pulled the world into reality in a very impressive, sobering way and it goes right back to the basic moral of the original story. I loved it. The characterization was powerful and true, and the little details counted-Anzu's slow "decay" hit hard, especially the bit about the veins in her legs. Wonderful stuff.

I...I don't know what to say. This was beautiful. That's...about all I can say about this.

Beautiful!

My favorite line in this has to be the last sentence, but I really liked how, without Anzu, Yuugi's world is described as being hazy and out-of-focus. Excellently written fic.

You really are going to make me cry one of these days because your stories do pull at your heartstrings and are not only well written in the sense of sadness but, more importantly, easy to relate to that sense of sadness. I always say this but the way you write the characters it's so easy to connect to the characters here and that triggers off the powerful feelings you were trying to portray here. And you have such courage for daring to write Anzu taking on her chosen career and not succeeding at it. As far as I know no one else has done that and pulled it off this well. Not just for Anzu though, all the characters were well expressed here, especially Yuugi. Poor little guy doesn't miss anything. Though as you've shown that certainly helps in terms of keeping their friendship together. After everything that happened I really didn't think there'd be a happy ending to this story but you surprised me in that respect. It's always a treat to read your stories.

I liked this, I did really, it caputured all of them so well. It was also very believable. One thing though that bothers me too no end simply because I just finished and handed in a 20 page paper on this subject wednesday. Japan doesn't have a regular army thanks to article 9 of their consitution. They have a self defense force and the most help they've given overseas (in this war)is doing things like ferrying US soliders, sendind technology and providing humanitarian aid to non combative zones in Iraq. No Japanese soldier has killed or been killed in combat since WWII. Japan is however, considering rearming. I wrote a whole 20 page opinion paper about it. I won't tell you my opinion because I really don't want to get into it again, but I just thought you should know that; especially since many Japanese people don't even think the little they have done is legal under their constitution.

Very good. Love the title and style.

Brilliant.

-KbN

Really sweet and really sad. Their reactions were all perfectly IC and you pulled off a lot of character development in a very short space. Anzu's changing style to fit her situation at any given moment works very well alongside your depiction of how she swapped out of her old group of friends for Yuugi's sake. I always love that none of the four goes ignored; everyone's got an equal standing here.

A minor nitpick, since you seem to like to put in references to Japan (which I absolutely ADORE; I love how you sneak them in there!), but - Japan's not got an official military. I'm by far not an expert, but to the best of my knowledge, they've got an organization called the Japan Self-Defense Forces, which for all intents and purposes, count somewhat as a military, but they're very limited in what they can do outside of their own borders. They can pretty much only participate in global affairs if approved by the United Nations. In fact, I'm not sure if they've ever actually done any fighting outside of Japan. It only nagged at me because I'm familiar with it, so it's not a huge deal, but I just wanted to point it out. :)

That all being said, I can totally see Honda as being the type to want to protect his country as he does the people he cares about, so as far as characterization goes, that felt perfectly believable. I'm glad he found someone to be with, too, even if it wasn't Shizuka (I have no qualms with him with her or without her); he gets ignored so often...

In short: great fic!

Wow. Not bad.

Again, you're solidifying the friendship between the four, being strongest with Anzu and Yuugi. Much liked, this time you didn't kill anyone important.

Keep writing!

Gosh, that was good. REALLY good. It was original and fresh, and very different from the usual one shots on here. You're a very talented writer, I must say. Keep up the creativity there.

ISF

Wow, Anzu'a always the damsel-in-distress... Quite a big surprpise for the guys (hah, I made a rhyme), and...yeah, another great one. That's all. It was great, and no-dialogue is different, but it was just fine. D

Oh, you really got me with this one. I'll admit that I don't like stories where the gang drifts apart. They make me so sad. But the ending... AH. It wasn't all for nothing!

You know, I'm not sure if I would've even noticed you didn't have any direct dialogue if the A/N hadn't mentioned it. I just get so lost in the words you used, I only noticed because I was looking for it.

Well done!