Sure, Jan Kaiba. Sure.

Still, it was hard not to have his expression sober up a bit at that particular question. That's right: Kaiba hadn't...he hadn't known about this, did he?

"Ah...yeah, you were mostly out of school by this point. I, uh. Had a bit of an accident on our school trip to Mt. Tateyama."

That was putting it mildly. Falling down a cliff and breaking several bones and being lucky to be alive wasn't just 'an accident', Yuugi.

"A little girl got a little too close to the edge because she wanted to take a better picture. She started to stumble, and, well..."

Yuugi scratched his cheek, averting his eyes.

"I pushed her out of the way, but I ended up falling instead. It wasn't too far, but it was enough to partially crush my leg and break several other bones. Jonouchi, Honda, and Anzu ended up getting me out while Bakura called the paramedics. We were yelled at for being reckless, but...the little girl was okay, so that was worth it to me.

I had to have surgery on one of my legs, and I ended up doing most of my schoolwork and taking tests from my hospital room until I was well enough to start going back to school. I'd pretty much entirely recovered by the time...well. All that happened. It isn't perfect, and the pain can get pretty bad on some days, but I power through it."

Pretty bad was an understatement; walking could be straight-up agony on rainy or cold days, but that didn't stop him. Really, if his friends knew how bad the pain actually was, they'd probably end up fussing over him, and that was the last thing he wanted...

Kaiba, though.

He knew Kaiba wouldn't do that. So it was...safe, in a way, to tell him the truth.