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For as long as Misawa Daichi could remember, something had set him apart from his peers. As a child at school, he had liked math and science and quiet. The other children preferred recess and lunch and committing the unforgivable sin of talking during class. He’d tried, a few times, to make friends, but just couldn’t ever quite fit in. It was as if they were part of a giant collective hivemind, which he couldn’t decipher even with his math. Kids had used to bully him, too, but he'd started exercising every day so he could become bigger and stronger than them as well as smarter, and they’d left him alone.
Perhaps it was for the better. They were all stupid anyway, even though he knew it was rude to say it. It was all he could do not to scream when people asked dumb questions and slowed up the lecture, or were asked questions themselves and didn’t know the answer. Why couldn’t they just understand things as easily as he did?! People lied, and had their silly social cues, but equations always told the truth and never changed.
As he grew older, though, he began to take an interest in Duel Monsters. Finally, he had something which he could use as a mask; something with which he could relate to others. And once Duel Disks came into style, things were even better, since he no longer had to suffer through everyone taking out their calculators to figure out life point damage when he could easily do it in his head. He spent all of his allowance on new cards, eventually coming up with multiple decks so he could be prepared for any situation.
When he was fifteen, he decided that he wanted to try to qualify for the prestigious Duel Academy. His parents, scientists themselves, were more than happy to cover the exam fees. After all, his older sister was studying computer science at Stanford University in California on a full scholarship, living with their grandparents. He was under quite a bit of pressure to do just as well as her.
The written and practical exams were both a breeze; Misawa didn’t understand why everyone had complained about them being so difficult. It was also at the practical exam that Misawa met Yuki Judai and Marufuji Sho. And they actually…seemed to like him? True, Judai’s insistence on calling himself the number-one student before they’d even gotten to the island was a little grating, but he also accepted Misawa at face value and was genuinely friendly.
Those initial months at Academy Island were the best that Misawa had ever had in his entire life. He had multiple friends, got along well with teachers and dormmates alike, and had even knocked Manjoume Jun off his pedestal. Girls appeared to be noticing him, too, but he ignored them. Doing well in school was what was important, not having a love life.
And then…the Seven Stars had happened. Initially, Misawa had been proud to have been chosen as a key-keeper, thinking that all of his hard work had paid off. But in a matter of hours, everything had gone terribly wrong.
Misawa never did fully understand what had happened. It had started off as a normal day for him. Misawa was following his usual schedule of exercise and meditation before class. He followed this exact same routine every single day. This day, his friends had even joined in after a little gentle prodding from him. Little did Misawa know, this was the last day they could really be considered his friends.
When they got to class, all the students were missing, as well as Chronos-sensei. So naturally, they had to go into the forest and track them all down. It had been such a nice day. The sun was shining even in the parts of the forest with the thickest foliage.
Then SHE appeared.
Misawa just considered Taniya annoying at first. She had seemed to be not much different than all the airheaded girls at the Academia. It was hard to take her threats too seriously, even with the pet tiger. What was more, she appeared to be somewhere in her twenties, which made things a little creepy. He ultimately decided he'd just duel her so she'd leave him alone. After all, he’d had a partially-graphed function back at his dorm room that he wanted to finish up.
Things did not at all go as he'd planned, though. He let himself get overconfident, and Taniya used that to her advantage. She led him into making mistakes he never would have done if he hadn't been so sure he would win. Trigonometry wasn't working. The quadratic formula wasn't working. Not even calculus had been distracting enough. She kept insisting, and persisting, until he finally caved. She was flirtatious and loud and larger than life…and none of these traits had appealed to Misawa before, but he could sense that in this case, it was backed up by an intelligence to rival his own. When she called him handsome, it was different somehow. It seemed like she really meant it, in a deeper way than the female students did.
He'd lost. Taniya had claimed him as a "victory prize" of sorts, and had locked the door to her arena after forcing everyone else to leave, so no one would interrupt. Misawa, in his daze, took a while to realize that Taniya was tying his wrists to one of the pillars that supported the ceiling of the arena. He didn't quite understand why. It wasn't like he was going to run away or anything...he wanted this too. His memories of the next few minutes were more than slightly jumbled. But he did remember what happened afterwards much too clearly for his own good.
Once they had finished, he had told Taniya that he loved her. That was when the laughing had started. It had gone on and on and ON. Finally, she choked out that love was for fools. Apparently, she had only wanted him as her slave because he was “good breeding stock,” as she put it. While Misawa was still reeling over this new information, Taniya untied him and forced him to duel her again. And again. And yet again. All through the night.
Each time, he lost. He was confused, tired, and cold. And Taniya had just kept on laughing.
After hours of this, she finally let him leave. His friends had all been camped out near the arena, and everybody had wanted to know what had happened. Misawa told then part of the truth by saying Taniya had made him duel her several times.
Later, he wouldn’t remember the rest of that day very well. Judai had offered to help him get Taniya back. Taniya had then dueled Judai and lost…and apparently she herself was also a tiger?? After that, Misawa went back to his dorm and slept for twenty-four hours. The function which he had been anticipating so much remained unfinished.
When he finally got his thoughts reorganized, he noticed that everything seemed to have changed literally overnight. He had humiliated himself in front of everyone. For several months, he had finally known what it was like to fit in, but now this had slipped through his fingers once again. The people who used to be his friends just didn't seem to care anymore. Oh sure, they were still superficially nice, and let him hang out with them and duel them, but they were more distant than before. There were no more paint fights or morning exercises. Often, it seemed like they forgot that he even existed. Judai had been sympathetic initially, but even he appeared to have forgotten all about Taniya after a couple of days. But Misawa couldn’t forget, as much as he wanted to.
The break between school terms wasn't much better. His parents just attributed his increase in quietness to normal adolescent mood swings, and largely left him alone. He spent most of his time in his room.
He didn't want to go back to school. But he knew he had to.
Nothing had changed in his friends' attitudes over the break. If anything, they got even more distant. What was worse, Misawa was now interested in the girls he had once shunned. Taniya appeared to have awoken that other side of him permanently. He had never learned how to act around them, and was called a pervert more than once when he was simply trying to make a compliment. Asuka had even slapped him. He had thought for a long time about just what was wrong about what he’d said, but just couldn’t figure it out.
The only thing that didn't change was his grades. He was thankful for that. His parents would be very angry if he started failing.
An incident in January pretty much summarized the big mess his life was in. He came down with a bad case of strep throat, and had had to spend almost a week in the infirmary. Judai had visited Misawa once during that week. The rest of the so-called friends didn't even bother. To keep himself occupied, Misawa had worked out every single problem in his Duel Math textbook. His teachers were very impressed when they heard this. They gave him a whole bunch of extra credit.
That was a good thing, right? Then why did he feel no joy in it?
By the beginning of spring, this downward spiral had gotten so bad that Misawa was actually considering suicide. He almost immediately decided against it, though. Based on his recent run of luck, he would probably miss the blood vessels and sever a major tendon in his wrist instead. Then that wrist would be permanently disabled, and an infection would most likely set in. He would have to explain to the nurse how that infection had gotten there. None of that sounded appealing. So he just kept trudging through life.
He had eventually decided that the Hikari no Kessha needed to be stopped. However, Judai and the rest of the people were too busy fishing to listen to him. So he took the Kessha on himself.
Of course, he realized now that that was a stupid thing to do. The Kessha represented all that was just and holy. It was the only place where he belonged!
Well, sort of. People still got annoyed at him. Girls still called him a pervert. But that did not matter. He now had a purpose in life. He would show Saiou-sama that he was the most devoted of all! He would be the favorite for once. And, with that happy thought, he started putting the bleach in his hair.