"What was your GPA in highschool, Mai?" (mental first)

"What was your GPA in highschool, Mai?" Yugi asked, his thumbs pressing firmly against her temples while his pointer fingers dug into the sensitive spots just above her ears. The dark energy radiating from his palms intensified, making the air around Mai's head shimmer with unnatural heat. She blinked slowly, her tongue darting out to wet her suddenly dry lips as the compulsion loosened her thoughts like overstretched elastic.

"Nothing too special," Mai murmured, her voice slurred and distant as if surfacing from deep water. Her eyes, already glazed, seemed to stare through Yugi at some indistinct point beyond. "It floated around 3.2 or so." A faint, prideful smile touched her lips, a ghost of the confident duelist she once was, before Yugi's correction sliced through the fragile memory.

"Mai, you don't have to lie to me." Yugi's smirk widened, his fingers tightening almost painfully against her skull. The Eronomicon's power surged through him, a dark current rewriting neural pathways. "I already know you failed all your classes." The words hit Mai like a physical blow. Her body jerked as if electrocuted, a sharp gasp escaping her slack mouth. Her pupils dilated further, swallowing the thin rings of blue until her eyes were almost entirely black, vacant pools reflecting nothing but the dim light of the game shop. New memories, sticky and false, oozed into her consciousness – images of herself staring blankly at incomprehensible textbooks, tear-streaked report cards covered in red F's, the mocking laughter of classmates echoing in hallways she never actually walked. The practical knowledge she'd honed through dueling and survival dissolved, replaced by a hollow ache where complex thoughts used to reside. Really, more or less, she was the same. The only differences were in how she approached a situation, her head full more with practical knowledge and experience than facts or higher education.

"Oh..." Mai breathed, the sound thin and bewildered. A single tear welled in her unfocused eye and traced a slow path down her cheek, cutting through her perfect makeup. Her shoulders slumped, the proud set of her spine collapsing under the weight of implanted inadequacy. The skintight leather of her outfit seemed to constrict suddenly, digging into the soft flesh of her hips and waist as if her body were subtly swelling, accommodating the dawning emptiness within.

"Don't worry." Yugi kept his hands clamped possessively on her head, guiding her unresisting body backwards until they both sank onto the worn cushions of the love seat couch behind them. The springs groaned under their combined weight. He shifted closer, his thigh pressing against hers, the hard ridge of his renewed erection unmistakable even through their clothes. "I won't tell anyone."