...This is just a sneak peek of a possible scene for a project I'm working on...XD

"Ho? Akaba Yuya, huh? Bet you must be enjoying that one brat…"

"..." Yuya remained silent, examining his opponent.

"What, are you too important to speak to a lowly duelist like myself now? Hmph, the Akaba family must be spoiling you rotten then…" Kachidoki snorted derisively and shook his head.

"...I'm not being spoiled." Startled by the venomous hiss, the man missed the brief flash of anger in Yuya's eyes, vanishing as fast as it had come…

Kachidoki feigned surprise, his voice taking on a mocking tone. "Oh, the great Akaba has graced me with his voice!" He glared at Yuya. "Of course you're being spoiled, brat! Those cards you used to win your first Duel, no one has ever heard of or seen them! You're being handed powerful cards, just because you're an Akaba now, right?"

"..." Yuya clenched his teeth on his reply, pulled his hood up...it shadowed his eyes, hiding the anger seething within them from view.

"No answer for me? Then I'm right…" Kachidoki snorted again, and spoke into the eerie quiet that now permeated the air. The crowd had gone silent. "You're just another Duelist that has never suffered and sacrificed what I have...another Duelist who has never walked a path of shadows…"

He was about to continue his monologue when he was cut off…

...By Yuya's cold, mirthless bark of laughter.

...Up in the stands, the You Show students tensed, the youngest three huddling together. Yuzu shrank into her seat, and Gongenzaka crossed his arms and furrowed his brow, worried. "Yuya…"

"...I've never walked a path of shadows you say…? Is that what you think…?"

...Yuya's expressionless voice sent chills down even Reiji's spine from where he sat in the viewing booth high above. "...Here it comes…"

Kachidoki stared at Yuya for a moment. "Yes, that's exactly what I think!"

"...Hmph...what 'path of shadows' have you walked then…?" Yuya's tone turned cold, almost...mocking, almost. Were the boy's eyes not closed now, Kachidoki would have surely seen the red fire slowly igniting in Yuya's irises…

Kachidoki chuckled lowly in an attempt to hide his sudden unease..."You really want to know? ...Fine. I turned my back on my own family, and swore that I would not return to them until I was a champion! I have lived solely for Dueling! I cut myself off from others, for the sake of becoming stronger!"

Yuya began to shake, but Kachidoki didn't notice as he continued. "I have trained until I collapsed from sheer exhaustion and pain to get to where I am now! But you, you probably got a free pass!" Kachidoki glared at Yuya, and finally noticed the shaking of the boy's shoulders…and smirked in satisfaction. "Ha, I'm right again, aren't I-!"

...Yuya threw back his head and broke into mad peals of laughter, a hand over his eyes as he laughed and laughed and laughed until he was forced to stop for lack of air. His head came down, and he stood silent, save for several more quiet chuckles...

...Kachidoki, the You Show Students, everyone was dumbfounded.

Yuya began to laugh again even as he finally spoke, voice wholly mocking and bitter, all at the same time. "HA! T-that's your 'path of shadows'…?! Hahaha...ah…! Y-you must be joking!" Yuya covered his face with a hand again, knocking his hood from his head, revealing...oddly ruffled hair...

Kachidoki's cheeks flushed with anger. "Who are you to laugh at me, brat?!"

...Yuya's hand dropped to his side, his eyes snapped open, and Kachidoki found himself cowering sudden and complete terror. And he wasn't the only one. Yuya's head tilted to the side as a too wide, too false, too...predatory, cheshire cat grin wormed its way across his face...that together with the boy's brightly glowing red eyes was a terrifying sight to behold…

"Y-Yuya...nii-sama…" Reira clutched his teddy bear closer, fiddling nervously with a loose thread on its arm.

Unnoticed, Reiji threw a well hidden glare at Himika where she stood in the corner, watching Yuya in rapt attention as he began to speak again, still bitter, still mockingly condescending.

"You...you had that choice to give up your family, and so you did...yet you have the gall to whine and cry about that to me?! To someone who's family was taken from them while they could only look on, while they couldn't do a thing about it?!" Suddenly, Yuya's voice was dripping with terrible anger, deepening in response to his negative emotions. His eyes flared briefly… "You have no right to say that you've suffered! NOT WHEN YOU WILLINGLY CHOSE THAT PATH!"

Kachidoki took a shaky step back when Yuya outright bared his teeth at him as a thin veil of darkness curled around his form. The man swallowed past the lump in his throat, trying to ignore the tight knot of fear in his chest. "A-and what gives you the r-right to say such things then?!"

Yuya stared at him… then threw his head back again and shook in another burst of maddened, mocking laughter. "I have the right because the path that I'VE walked...no, been DRAGGED down kicking and screaming is one I never wanted!" His head snapped back down. "One I would give anything to escape!"

Kachidoki choked, quailing under Yuya's fierce glare. "W-what…?"

"Yes, you heard me...I want no part of the Akaba family, save Reira! I want nothing to do with any of it! I avoid friends because I'm forced to! I used those cards because I'm forced to! I go to LDS under threat! I CARRY THE AKABA NAME BECAUSE I'M AN ASSET TO THEM!" Yuya was nearly roaring now...he felt his control beginning to slip, and tightened his hold on it.

Taking deep breaths, he calmed just enough to remain sane...he wanted the anger to remain for now... "I'm being forced to become someone I don't want to be...and I can't do a thing about it…" Yuya's voice had become completely toneless once again, and he stood loosely, uncaringly. "I'm anything but spoiled…"

Kachidoki flinched, truly ashamed for one of the first times in his life...but Yuya's next words made that shame give way to sheer terror.

"...I won't allow it, I won't allow such an assumption to go unpunished...I'll grant you suffering, since you seem to crave it so…" Yuya raised his Duel Disk, ignoring the worried calls only he could hear echoing from his Deck...

...Reira whimpered, and Reiji loomed over his little brother protectively, hand on the boy's shoulder as he continued to glare at Himika from the side of his eye. "Wonderful…! This is more than even I had expected…!" The awe in his mother's voice was tangible, and it sickened Reiji...

...Up in the stands, Gongenzaka comforted the terrified children, Shuzo sat silent and ashen, and Yuzu trembled... "Y-Yuya…!"

"...Duel me, fool..."

*coughs Ahem, yeah...so...thank CorinnetheAnime for convincing me to use the idea of a Controlled Berserk Mode! XD This was typed up on a whim and will be more fleshed out in the actual AU!

...Because yes, I am working on a Yu-Gi-Oh! Arc-V AU! XD