That is to say, not at all.
It's certainly not helping Anzu concentrate on whatever she's trying to write with the pen she has. Yami's face pops into her head and she shakes her head vigorously, saying she's just being silly. But her mind keeps going back to the memory of the confident and cool "other Yuugi."
Cut to Yuugi's house, where someone is yelling for Yuugi to hurry, or he'll be late. It's a woman we've never seen before wielding a ladle as she looks up a staircase and then proceeds to climb it with a glare. She wonders if Yuugi is still sleeping until she opens his door and peeks inside, calling his name again.
His mother is looking a bit confused, but doesn't say anything further as he glares at his socks. After a moment, he chooses two of them that look to have hearts drawn on the heels of the other side. He congratulates himself on his record, and his mother asks him what the hell he thinks he's doing. He explains to her that this is a matching game that he devised, using socks. He marked one pair of the socks among several identical pairs and scattered them around the room, then tried to guess which ones were the matching ones. He says it's a way to train intuition, and his mother responds by hitting him over the head with her ladle and telling him to use his improved intuition to get better grades. Does intuition have anything to do with getting good grades? It's been a while since I was in school.
Yuugi's mother turns to leave, but tells Yuugi to hurry before she does, because Anzu is meeting him this morning, as odd as that is. Yuugi turns red and starts to gather his things, asking why Mom didn't tell him sooner, and she reminds him that he told her to be quiet earlier. Have to agree with her on that one, because it's hard to tell people things when they're not interested in hearing you speak.
He announces a short time later that he's FINALLY leaving the house. Anzu's outside the house waving at him, and saying that she thought they might walk to school together for once. He goes red again, thinking it's been a while since he's walked with Anzu and he's stoked. She begins their conversation with something that depresses her, though, which are the very public postings of their aptitude test scores today. Yeah, because it's totally NOT damaging to kids when their peers are able to compare their scores in such an open way. No opportunities for abuse there.
Yuugi seems really happy about the results being posted though. Anzu asks him what's good about it, and Yuugi tells her that he, Jonouchi and Honda are playing a game with the results, and the loser has to buy hamburgers for the other two. Yuugi is sure he can't lose, and Anzu gives him a generic "that's nice" type comment. Yuugis gonna talk about and make up games at every opportunity. Anzu suddenly remembers something and pulls it out.
Yuugi tells Anzu how shamefully "girly" those compatibility testers are, and I'm wondering how he forgot so quickly that Anzu IS a girl. Actually, this brings up something that's always bugged me since the beginning of my very existence as a girl. "Girly" is such a derogatory term, even when applied to actual girls, that I've always wondered WHO those girly things are supposed to be for when apparently no one is supposed to be enjoying them. This is a serious question - if anyone has an explanation, I would greatly appreciate the feedback in the comments.
Anyway, I can at least count on Anzu to explain the keychain she's showing Yuugi. She tells him that when you use the buttons to input your name, birthdate and blood type, the device will send out a signal that interacts with the signals of other active keychains. They beep when they're near a compatible keychain, telling the two people holding their respective devices that they'll get along. Yuugi hums at the keychain hanging from his fingers, thinking that it's not very interesting if it's not a game. I don't know, this may not be a very INTERACTIVE game, at least after the initial work of inputting information, but it still fits the definition as a form of play with a definite result at the end.
Anzu pulls out yet another of the keychains and tells Yuugi he can keep the one she gave him. In spite of thinking it was lame, he seems to be really happy that she's given it to him. He's blushing again, so happy to have received a present from Anzu, and I'm not sure what he's speculating it means, but he's probably thinking too hard about it.
Anzu urges Yuugi to put his information in the device, while Yuugi assures her that he already is. Once he finishes pressing buttons, Anzu says she's going to start sending out a signal from her own keychain, and suggests they test their compatibility. Yuugi's face is like a beet once more as he stutters out an agreement. They press a couple more buttons and stand side-by-side, but no sound comes from either keychain. Anzu looks a little surprised as she comments on how neither device chirped, and Yuugi just holds the thing up in front of his depressed expression.
He sighs as he thinks about how he and Anzu aren't compatible according to the digital fortune-tellers. According to a MASH note I made in the fifth grade, I was supposed to marry Robert Heidle, live in a shack and have three kids, and absolutely none of that was accurate to what actually happened in my life. What I'm saying is, don't lose sleep over it kid. Anzu sees how disappointed he looks and smiles at him as they continue walking. She tells him that the cheap toy might be affected by their biorhythms or something, and next time they'll hear it beep. Yeah, that must be it. *eyeroll*
At school, everyone is looking at a banner posted in the hallway with the rankings and test scores of everyone in the school, with varying levels of satisfaction. Jonouchi orders everyone aside as he, Yuugi and Honda force themselves through the crowd. He pulls out a stack of cards featuring a grid on them and says that the three of them will settle their bet. Yuugi names the game "Aptitude Test Rankings Bingo."
Yuugi calls Tsurouka a very nasty teacher in his head, and since we haven't met any other kinds in this school, I'm not convinced there are any nice ones. Tsurouka spies the chain of the device Anzu gave Yuugi this morning hanging out of his shirt pocket, and leans forward to pull it out, asking what he's got there. Tsurouka looks disdainfully at the thing and holds it like he's carrying a smelly dishrag as Yuugi stares open-mouthed. Am I to assume this is ANOTHER something that's not allowed at school?
Anzu mirrors Yuugi's shocked expression, as Tsurouka asks why he thought bringing the keychain to school was a good idea. Oh sure, those digital pets were okay to play with in the classroom and Jonouchi felt okay leaving his out on his desk to get stolen by a classmate, but a COMPATIBILITY TEST is over the line? Yuugi begs for Tsurouka to give it back, because it's very important to him. Jonouchi steps forward to echo the plea, while Honda tells Tsurouka that he doesn't have the right to take things off students even though he's a teacher. He shouldn't be touching Yuugi at all, true, but he does have a right to confiscate items from students if he thinks they're inappropriate for school, sorry to say.
Tsurouka calls all three of the boys worthless, back-talking failures, and declares that they'll never have rights. Um, Honda was talking about YOUR rights, specifically, Tsurouka. Even if he wasn't, the thing about rights is they're not given out based on perceived "worth." They're given to everyone based on the fact that they're human and live in a society with rules of protection for citizens. A teacher should KNOW that. But, because Domino High School is such a cesspit devoid of any actual educational content, Jonouchi can only fume about being called worthless rather than challenge this poor excuse for an educator to use a fucking dictionary.
Just to show how high he is on his own authority, Tsurouka says that he can do anything he wants and be forgiven later. I'm guessing he's in the habit of hitting on underage girls in his office for exactly the same reasons. He drops the keychain he stole on the floor and prepares to stomp on it as an example of his immunity to respecting students and their belongings. Yuugi looks pissed for a moment before...
If he finds it, Yami gets it back. Yami accepts the rules as they're described, and Honda blurts that Tsurouka will regret challenging his undefeated friend. Ugh, Honda, will you just stop shooting off your mouth? Tsurouka still has the other half of the bet to divulge, saying that if Yami fails to find the keychain, he'll smash it and the three friends will be suspended. They agree to these new terms too, so Tsurouka announces that he'll take thirty minutes to hide the
As Yami searches the shoe lockers, Honda and Jonouchi appear with a shovel, pickaxe, and wheelbarrow, in case they need to dig up the keychain. Yami recovers from a mild case of anime sweatdropping to tell them that he's not convinced Tsurouka went outside, and his suspicions that the device is still in the building. Jonouchi asks him how he knows, and Yami lets him know that he saw Tsurouka's shoes in the shoe rack, which weren't dirty. That Young Sherlock Holmes comparison was more on the money than I thought. Called it!
Tsurouka is watching them from a window perpendicular to the hall they're traveling down and thinks about how they can search all they want but won't ever find what they're looking for. He's going to get to kick them out of school because he hid the toy in his special hiding place. Well, it's either in his ugly hair, or his butt. Place your bets, folks.
At forty-two minutes, Yami's peeking in a bin. At twenty-one minutes, he's starting to look worried. He thinks he absolutely has to find the keychain because it's a treasure Anzu gave to him. Anzu herself is creeping at a distance, watching him look desperately for the second keychain. It only occurs to her now that she still has the first one, and goes up to Yami to suggest he use it to find the one she gave him. Everyone is doing an awful lot of blushing today, because she's red as she holds it out to him. He takes it, but somehow she thinks he thinks it will be useless. He pleasantly surprises her by telling her that he'll be able to find the other keychain with this one, ignoring the fact that the mutual signal sent out between the machines didn't produce beeping before. Unless they really do work on other factors than just the information entered through the buttons, I don't see how they'll beep now.
Yami runs, thinking that people hide things close to them naturally, so he has to get close to Tsurouka to get close enough to the other keychain. With just over three minutes to spare, Yami opens the door to Tsurouka's office, and Tsurouka tries to claim they're trespassing on sacred teacher ground. He demands they continue their search outside, but Yami is convinced that he wouldn't be making such a fuss if the keychain weren't somewhere in the office. Tsurouka is flabbergasted at the accusation and insists that he hid it somewhere the three amigos couldn't get to, so it's somewhere else. If you forbid them to get into your office, your office fits the description of somewhere they can't get to it, right? Yami goes a step farther, saying it's probably in a place he can't even touch, because if he were Tsurouka, he would have hidden it somewhere a student wasn't allowed. He says Tsurouka keeping the keychain on his person is the safest bet for him.
Tsurouka is sweating bullets, stuttering that Yami can't lay his hands on a teacher or else he'll have grounds for expulsion. He states that Yami will have to prove the keychain is on Tsurouka without touching him. With thirty seconds to spare, Yami holds up his fist with a chain hanging between his fingers.
Jonouchi and Honda make faces as Jonouchi draws the keychain out of the toupee, and Tsurouka quietly pleads for them not to tell anyone. I don't know, dude, it was pretty obvious to even me, and all the hair in this manga looks universally fake. Jonouchi smiles at Yami, declaring his victory with five seconds to spare! He takes back his keychain, then gives Anzu's back to her, who's smiling through a heavy blush.
So, what did I think of this chapter overall? I guess it wasn't bad, but it was certainly forgettable. I feel like these chapters revolving around Anzu's crush on Yami are kind of pointless and don't carry much substance. I suppose, if I were pressed to find something substantial to take from this, it would be that it emphasizes what a difference confidence makes in the attractiveness of a person. Yami and Yuugi are physically identical because they share that body. They might even share a whole lot more than that in common as well, but that's only been hinted at so far. However, Yuugi's PRESENCE is so much different than Yami's that he comes across as much more passive, as opposed to the active and forward personality of Yami.
This is what is attractive to Anzu, obviously, and that's certainly understandable. It's just that... I don't care what Anzu finds attractive? Learning more about HER in particular would be preferable to this throwaway nonsense about how she's the token lady in the comic and has to be romantically interested in the hero. I just don't find it all that interesting, because frankly, I don't feel like Anzu has had enough development as a person herself for me to be invested in how she's crushing on someone. To contrast, take a look at Jonouchi. He's gotten TONS of development over the past chapters and has grown a lot as a person. I'm already kind of pairing him with Yuugi because in addition to those shared moments of vulnerability and struggle, Jonouchi has interested me immensely as a person in his own right and I can judge his compatibility with other characters because I know him intimately as an individual by now. That's how important it is to develop characters before you start shoving them into pairings.
That's also how most fandoms start shipping characters that weren't supposed to be paired in the source material. At least, that's ONE of the ways. Sometimes it's just the appeal of seeing two pretty people getting it on.
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