When Yusei met Judai for the first time he was left with the strangest impression, a gut feeling if you will, that Judai was more than he appeared to be. It something like a pull at something deep inside of him that made him think Judai was a lot smarter than his energetic and simple-mindedly plucky personality let on.

It was when he was treated to the sight of the brunette moving his things into their nice apartment that his gut impressions were confirmed. As his ears picked up his roommate shuffling things around in his own bedroom, Yusei's eyes spotted Judai's textbooks. Supplementary textbooks in mathematics made sense for a college student, but there were some unrelated hobbyist texts there that he, oddly enough, found both predictable and surprising. Namely the Duel Monsters Encyclopedia and other enthusiast paraphernalia for the niche hobby. Even though Judai hasn't been seen with a single card, the interest in the game struck Yusei as oddly fitting. Right, somehow.

That all being said, there were some books that completely threw him for a loop, like theoretical physics, quantum mechanics, and advanced astronomical sciences like astrophysics. Looking at Judai's overabundance of energy as he busied strangely through the apartment like a restless puppy, Yusei wouldn't think Judai capable of sitting through complex science lectures with titles he could barely read. But if his roommate was taking this level of academia as a sophomore, he must have been quite that only begged the question of why someone so apparently talented in complex sciences would need a supplementary mathematics textbook.

Odd collection of textbooks aside, it was just another lesson for him not to judge other's capabilities by outward appearances. A man in his position should know that better than anyone.

Judai didn't seem to own much, going by the small size of the mover's vehicle and how quickly he finished with a lazy flop onto the red and cream sofa. "I sold most of it." he supplied with an answering grin to Yusei's puzzled look. "I figured my roomie would have his own stuff and didn't wanna crowd the place."

Yusei looked at the sparse room with a slightly guilty look. He had come with the clothes on his back, his deck, his bike, and a twenty-thousand yen allowance packed neatly in his pocket, supplied by –and Yusei resisted gritting his teeth a little- Godwin. His roommate sold all his furniture for nothing. "Sorry." He said, mostly apologizing for the situation itself. He came from Satellite, so it should go without saying he didn't have much in the way of valuables worth taking into a new apartment. He couldn't feel guilty about that, about not owning much, but he did feel a little bad about his roommate's furniture mishap.

"Nah, it's cool." Judai said with a sheepish grin. "It's my fault for not asking first."

Yusei nodded and hesitated to ask his next question, but as a duelist he craved the knowledge. "I apologize for prying, Judai, but I saw those Duel Monsters books. Are you a duelist?"

There was a brief flicker of something in his brown eyes; Yusei couldn't tell what it meant. Whatever took over his thoughts seemed to have passed, because Judai responded after a short second spent staring into space. "Actually, yeah. And I'm not bad at it either. Why? Did you wanna play?" His wicked grin spoke volumes of just how "not bad" he was.

"Maybe later." Yusei said apologetically at Judai's disappointed face, feeling a little disappointed himself. "I really need to finish the paperwork for school."

Judai's face lit up, instantly bouncing between moods with a fluidity that kind of amazed Yusei. "Oh that's right, you're in high school! A freshman, right?"

He nodded, but didn't feel the need to mention that he was going to be a year older than his classmates.

"Well, I guess it can wait then." Judai said with a face that looked like he was eating a lemon. It was a childish pout that Yusei couldn't resist briefly smiling at. His roommate's open expressiveness and cheer was foreign to him, after everything, but it was also warm and refreshing.

Yusei settled back into his room to finish the paperwork he had forgone in favor of helping Judai move his things in. Most of the papers were a basic inquiry on his financial, racial, and medical history. Some were more complex questionnaires as to the nature of his criminal history, as evidenced by his facial tracker, and the likelihood of him repeating his crimes. One was a survey about his home life that he knew to be a thinly-veiled probe into possible personal weaknesses; he suspected this one might have been Godwin's doing.

He filled them out as best he could while trying to avoid the bad taste in his mouth developed from thinking about shairng his personal history to strangers and Godwin. It was a necessary evil, though, if he wanted his end of the deal. It was dark by the time he was finished, so Yusei neatly packed the papers into his new school issued book-bag and tucked into bed.

He never was a late riser, despite also being a night owl. It seemed that no matter how little sleep he got he would always rise with the sun. He quickly dressed himself into the blue uniform, buttoned and assembled with textbook propriety, and prepared a simple rice and miso breakfast. He had heard somewhere that western-style breakfasts were popular in the city and were even quicker to make, but they were unheard of in Satellite and he didn't know how to make them. Yusei wasn't even sure what exactly a "western-style breakfast" was. He might ask Judai sometime.

He quickly brushed his teeth and was out the door, revving up the red motorcycle that he had built from scraps and rode off for school.

He still couldn't believe it. School. Satellite didn't have a way of formal education; he was taught to read and write at his orphanage, but he doubted it was enough to get by in formal education. Yusei hardly knew any traditional kanji and he only knew what little he did because, as a mechanic, he had to learn to understand instruction manuals. While he was good enough now to tinker without always knowing what he was dealing with, he certainly wasn't when he was starting out and he had the small scars on his hands to prove how many times his projects had gone awry.

While he didn't particularly care about fitting in, he at least hoped he wouldn't make a spectacle of himself. Unlikely, given the marks on his face alone would be a beacon for negative attention.

Domino High School was oddly quaint in the middle of Domino City, where it was next to high-tech and state of the art buildings. It was a public school, so it wasn't as updated as the nearby nicer ones. But everything in the city was nice compared to Satellite, so Yusei could hardly find anything to complain about. He found the student entrance by following the mass of blue and pink uniforms inside while trying to keep his face down, but the inside of the school was strangely designed. Rather than straight long hallways and stairs to keep things organized, there were many intersections and stairs within rooms. It took some searching, but he found the office in the west wing of the building. Odd, because it made more sense for the middle to have those central services. Domino High School must have been an old school with additional architecture and buildings haphazardly tacked on as time went by. Yusei was vaguely aware of reading about that somewhere.

"Excuse me." He said politely to a secretary typing something into a computer.

"Oh, I'm sorry about that." She smiled apologetically before she peeked around the computer to see who she was talking to; her cheer instantly vanished at the sight of his face. "...I-Is there something I can do for you?"

He gently slid his papers across the counter. "I'm the new transfer student. Fudo Yusei. I brought my paperwork."

The woman took the papers from him with an anxious glance at his mark and looked back to her computer. "It looks like your homeroom number is C-1. If you you get to class before eight o'clock, just wait outside the door for the teacher to let you in. I-If you're late, no big deal- just go on in. There's a bin of maps over there." She gestured to a metal container with a nervous finger.

"Thank you very much." He bowed politely, allowing the woman's attitude to roll off his back. No need to ruin his mood so early over something that would no doubt persist all day. Still, he was thankful; the school had such an insane layout, a map was a godsend. He felt a flash of disbelief when Yusei saw that he had ten minutes to go exactly on the other far side of school and up the stairs to his classroom. He was by no means lazy, but walking back and forth across the school was a little tedious when it was because of poor floor planning.

"I'm Fudo Yusei. Pleased to meet you." He introduced himself to a crowd of mixed reactions. None of them were happy, much to his dismay. Most looked openly terrified once they finally registered the hard yellow trackers marking his face as a criminal's, some wore the openly horrified fascination one reserved for deadly vehicular collisions, and a small handful of others looked aggressive and challenging. Hopefully they could keep from picking fights on his first day in a ridiculous effort to fortify their place as the school's tough guy or something.

Yusei wouldn't pick any fights, couldn't afford to pick any fights, but he refused to hold back if someone pushes him far enough that he has to resort to physical violence.

"Let's see." The teacher said, voice a little strained and matching the equally tense atmosphere of the students. He wasn't watching her eyes, but judging how each student would tense and make pleading faces at timed intervals, he would guess she was picking out a desk for him and the nearby students were begging her not to pick a seat close to them.

And if being treated like a rabid and dangerous animal wasn't both ridiculous and degrading, he didn't know what was. Yusei reminded himself not to let it bother him. He normally wasn't so conscious about others' opinions.

"How about next to Muto-kun?" The teacher motioned to a small boy with tri-colored hair. The kid visibly swallowed; Yusei supposed his face must have grown intimidating in the past few months. His classmates confirmed as much with their poorly hidden gossipping. He could even spot a brown haired girl glaring at him from the corner of his eye.

That being said, he didn't have any protests and the seat itself was out of the way. Wordlessly, he sat down after a short walk to his desk that felt like some kind of horrific death march. Even before he had been visibly branded a Satellite criminal, Yusei knew from experience that his stony silence and stoic face intimidated some people. He didn't even have a particularly bad or unkind attitude- he was just very quiet, reserved, and wasn't one to smile much. He didn't need a mirror to know his expression must have hardened considerably from his seven months long stint in prison, and that coupled with the brand on his face carrying all it's prejudices with it probably made for a terrifying image of a cutthroat criminal. Especially to city kids he couldn't bring himself to think of as anything but utterly pampered on the backs of his and his friends' hard work.

"Did you see his face?"

"Scary…"

"My friend told me he killed someone. He set them on fire."

"What? Someone just texted me that it was five and with an ATM!"

"Dude, I saw him on a motorcycle! It's illegal for kids our age to drive!"

"He really is a delinquent."

"Maan, why'd he have to come here?"

'I wonder that too.' Yusei thought wryly over the cacophony of whispers. It was the third class of the day and they still hadn't stopped. Wouldn't they have run out of things to say by now…?

From across the room he could see the teacher trying valiantly and failing spectacularly to keep some form of their attention onto her mathematics lesson displayed on the board. He was curious why she wouldn't just call the class out. Yusei wasn't one to particularly care about what strangers thought of him, but the persistent and obvious gossiping was rude and obnoxious, especially to the teacher. Wouldn't that warrant her to say something, if not for him, than for her?

Thankfully after this class was a lunch and a short recess. There were five classes a day and each were ninety minutes long. The first set of five were on one day and a second set of five on the next, and then the first set back again on the next day. It made for a rotating schedule that totaled to ten classes per semester; nine of them were required classes and one was an elective of your choice. Yusei chose HVAC because it was the closest this school had to genuine mechanical engineering. At least the class would be easy, and he certainly needed the good grades, but the accompanying tedium soured the joy he didn't even feel for the lack of any interesting challenge.

But now this third class was drawing to a fruitless close and a cross between lunch and a study period would start. Well, it was called a "study period", but the kids didn't have to actually study. They were apparently given free reign so long as they did something with themselves. Most of the guys were planning to go play basketball while it seemed the girls preferred to watch while they ate and played around with their phones. At least, that's what he could deduce from the scattered and rare exchanges that had nothing to do with his apparently bloodthirsty nature.

The teacher gathered her things and filed out of the room with an expression so spectacularly annoyed Yusei had to wonder again why she didn't just call the class out. For some reason the teachers in Domino City were more reluctant to do so than Satellite teachers and he figured it was probably because it was a matter of detached professionalism. Teachers here taught because it was their job, while teachers in Satellite taught because they wanted to. That's what made sense to him, anyways.

For lunch Yusei had packed a small and modest meal because he had never been a big eater. No one in Satellite could really afford to be. Not that they were outright starving, just that they never had quite enough either. They were dropped monthly care packages of food, utilities, and sometimes cigarettes at distribution centers and what you were given is what you got. There were no grocery stores or restaurants or fast food joints if you and your family were still hungry. It was why cigarettes and food were the real currency of Satellite. In that way, Satellite and prison were very much alike.

He patiently waited for the kids to file out first because he suspected suddenly rising to leave would startle his already terrified classmates. Eventually it came to a point where only he and Muto were left after the latter shyly refused an offer to play with the excuse that any team that picked him always seemed to lose. While that may have been true, it seemed the boy was more interested in the strange game he was playing anyways. He didn't even notice Yusei was looking at him for an extended period of time; an impressive feat when the rest of the class looked like a deer in headlights whenever he so much as turned his head in their general direction. The game must have been fun.

He had just left the classroom when he felt a violent shove on his left shoulder. A quick glance to the side revealed a sour-looking blonde and a sneering brunette, both of whom sent challenging looks at him.

Yusei felt a mixture of bemusement and disbelief; it was silly that people were already picking fights with him for no real reason other than because he was branded. Those two were very lucky he was more collected than the hardened criminals from Satellite Correctional, otherwise they'd find themselves with a mouth full of broken teeth. Yusei knew they weren't worth the trouble and had intended to leave without rising to the bait, but it didn't escape his notice that something inside the classroom held their interest. After just a minute his keen ears picked up muffled yelling from a high voice. With a sinking feeling, he turned back and re-entered the classroom.