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Colours were never of much importance in people's relationships, except for the one between Juudai Yuki and Shou Marufuji.
In their case, in fact, their relationship was strictly related to colours—those of their uniforms, that is.
The first year they entered Duel Academia, they were both Osiris Red. The Osiris Red were known for being low-rate duelists who had to deal with the not-so-remote possibility of being expelled practically anytime of day (or night, for that matter).
Juudai Yuki, who had beat Professor Chronos himself at the entrance exam, had probably been assigned to Osiris Red because of the professor's resentment towards him. It was clear as day, though, that he did not belong there. He was a far greater duelist than everybody gave him account. If he wasn't, he wouldn't have beaten the professor in the first place (although that could have been a single episode of what they call beginner's luck—however, Juudai was not a beginner, so his might just be a case of pure luck).
Shou Marufuji, however, was a complete different case. He had been placed in Osiris Red not because of some professor's twisted revenge, but because he really was a low-rate duelist, despite being the little brother of the well-known Kaiser, Ryo Marufuji, Duel Academia's best duelist, along with Fubuki Tenjoin.
There was already a major difference between Juudai and Shou then. While Juudai was relatively a stranger in Duel Academia, Shou was actually pretty known, although for reasons he couldn't quite call good. Whenever someone heard his surname, the connection with his brother Ryo was inevitable—and so was the comparison.
People were continuously comparing Shou with his brother Ryo—and, quite honestly, who would want to be compared to Ryo? He was the best; all his duels ended with him winning, most of the time with undamaged life points; his dueling style was flawless. Ryo Marufuji was, pretty much, the incarnation of perfection.
And who was Shou Marufuji? A poor, little, low-rate Osiris Red. A tiny cute rabbit in a jungle full of lions, hyenas and wolves, ready to catch him and eat him anytime. People expected Shou to be just as perfect as his brother and he... just... plain wasn't. His brother himself had told him he was 'too kind to duel,' after all. Shou just couldn't survive in Duel Academia. Even though he was in now, he could have been out any minute, when he least expected it. It was a dream that would end sooner or later.
It seemed that Juudai was the only person in Duel Academia that didn't compare Shou to Ryo—and, because of that, Shou was really grateful to him. He also considered Shou a great duelist, although Shou could bet he said those things mostly to cheer him up. Juudai did not expect anything out of Shou and Shou truly believed to have finally found a true friend who could help him survive in that jungle.
At first, they had a lot of fun together. They either skipped classes, or fell asleep during those. Either way, it didn't matter much the first few months at Duel Academia—they just enjoyed spending time together. They were still young, after all.
Juudai just loved being with Shou. They were best friends and roommates and formed a good team—they were a perfect match. Despite how fun it was to have Shou as roommate, however, Juudai couldn't deny the fact that red was a colour that didn't quite fit Shou.
On the other hand, it fitted Juudai perfectly.
Time passed. Exams period came and Juudai suddenly wished he hadn't skipped so many classes. His grades weren't that exceptional—quite frankly, he was one of the few students who got the lowest scores. It seemed the only thing that kept him in Duel Academia was his skilled dueling technique, which granted him to win all his duels.
Same thing could not be said for Shou Marufuji, however. After the first few months spent skipping classes and not even knowing which homework was due for the day after, he seemed to have some sort of epiphany and started to study seriously. He had become a very diligent student and had passed all the exams with the highest scores (he even managed to get scores even higher than a couple of Obelisk Blue students).
Therefore, he had been promoted to Ra Yellow.
It was good news. Now he wasn't an Osiris Red anymore and, if he kept on studying like that, he would even become an Obelisk Blue. Maybe, now that he was a Ra Yellow, people would stop comparing him negatively with his brother, who had graduated the year before. Either way, he was very pleased of not being an Osiris Red anymore.
Juudai, however, could not say the same thing. When Shou got promoted, he was a bit shocked. Of course, he believed in his friend and he had seen that Shou was really studying like mad for the exams and he was more than happy to know that his efforts had been paid back. He was truly happy for Shou.
However, it saddened him when Shou had to move to the Ra Yellow dormitory. Shou was still his best friend—he just wasn't going to be his roommate anymore. Their friendship would not end because Shou was going to sleep in another room, with another person. It was going to be no different than when Shou was his roommate.
...however, it kind of was different. Juudai had to get used to the idea that he could not spend whole nights talking with Shou after curfew. It felt kind of lonely without Shou in the room. Too quiet for Juudai's tastes. At some point he even feared Shou would make friends with his new roommate and that he would slowly leave Juudai out of his world. Certainly, now that he had too much free time on his hands and that his room wasn't so noisy anymore, Juudai was becoming paranoid.
But he couldn't do anything about it. He couldn't certainly ask Shou to move back with him after all that he'd done to get promoted. He didn't have the heart to ask Shou to be an Osiris Red again. He knew how hard it was for Shou to be compared to his perfect brother. No, there was no way in the world he was going to do something so terrible to Shou as to ask him to go back to being an Osiris Red just for his selfish reasons.
All Juudai could do was hope that he and Shou would still be friends like the first months at Duel Academia (except for the skipping classes part, since now Shou was really serious about studying and doing his homework).
They were growing up and also their friendship was slowly changing, Juudai could feel it. He didn't know whether it was a good thing or a bad thing—he just wished for their friendship to never end.
Also, he'd noticed something else. Yellow looked good on Shou. Yes, yellow fitted Shou better than red. It did... and somehow it didn't.
It still felt like something was missing.
On the other hand, red still fitted Juudai perfectly.
Time went by. Shou was still a Ra Yellow and Juudai was still an Osiris Red. Despite Juudai's fears that those colours could somehow tear them apart, they didn't, much to his happiness. Their friendship had evolved for the better and it looked like Shou wasn't going to shut him out of his life anytime soon.
Although there had been a period where Shou had become inexplicably distant all of a sudden. He would spend less and less time with Juudai and go to his dormitory very early, even hours before the curfew, most probably to study. Or, he would go to the library with a group of study-aholics like him to do homework and such.
This caused Juudai to feel sad and angry at the same time. At first, he thought Shou just needed to adjust to the fact that now that he was a Ra Yellow he needed to keep his scores high and probably the quantity of things to study and homework to do was a bit more difficult than when he was an Osiris Red. Juudai just kept quiet and tried his hardest to be an understanding best friend.
After a week of trying to be an understanding best friend, Juudai just gave up. He just couldn't understand Shou's behavior. Just as he feared, his best friend was slowly shutting him out.
If he had homework to do, he could still do them in Juudai's room, right? Shou could do his homework, while Juudai could think of new strategies to use with his deck (Juudai never did his homework)—just for the sake of spending some time together.
But Shou always said something among the lines of, 'I've got some really important stuff to do,' or, 'I've already promised my classmates I'd do that with them.' He suddenly didn't have time for Juudai anymore—which, of course, hurt Juudai quite deeply.
Then some exchange students came—and so came Johan.
Johan and Juudai became friends almost immediately. Johan was a good guy and he needed someone he could trust at Duel Academia. Juudai figured he could spend some time with Johan, until Shou had either finished adjusting, or stopped treating Juudai like he didn't exist.
When Shou noticed Juudai had stopped bugging him about hanging out together, he thought nothing of it. He simply believed Juudai had finally understood the situation with his scores and the catching up he was finally doing to his brother. He kept on going with his routine—classes, library, homework, dormitory—as if everything was normal.
Until one day, when he was on his way to the library, he saw something that left him quite dumbstruck.
Juudai. Having fun. With some random boy he didn't know.
He probably was one of the exchange students that had arrived not too long ago—in his dormitory there were a couple of them as well.
However, the thing that scandalized him the most, was that Juudai—Juudai Yuki—was having fun with someone who wasn't him, Shou Marufuji. He looked quite happy, too.
After that day, Shou realized the way he had treated Juudai the past weeks hadn't exactly been one of the best. Not really what you'd expect from a best friend, he had to admit. His obsession with his big brother had somehow took control over him to the point where he had nearly destroyed the most precious thing he had—his friendship with Juudai. Juudai, the only person at Duel Academia who didn't care who Shou's brother was or if Shou was not as great as Ryo.
Shou decided it was time for him to try and make up for what he had unconsciously done. He confronted Juudai and apologized for what he hadn't realized was happening between them. He was afraid Juudai wouldn't forgive him, but, to his surprise, he did—just like that. He was sure he had hurt Juudai terribly and Shou himself wasn't sure he would be so forgiving if someone had treated him the way he had treated Juudai—but apparently, all Juudai cared about was their friendship and he seemed very glad to know that Shou hadn't completely forgotten about him.
Shou was grateful to him for that, too.
In that single moment of joy, Shou hugged Juudai tight—and Juudai hugged him back, as if he wanted to tell him that he was never going to let him go.
So, Shou and Juudai, despite the colours of their uniforms, were still best friends. They started spending time together again and Shou could finally take a rest from all the studying he had been doing.
However, Shou had noticed something. Johan's blue and white uniform looked really good near the red one of Juudai.
Really good.
Time flew. Years seemed to have passed in a blink of an eye. Now Juudai and Shou were attending their last year at Duel Academia.
Shou had been promoted again and now, much to his and Juudai's happiness (and everyone else's surprise), he was an Obelisk Blue. His grades were the highest of the entire Duel Academia and his deck was possibly one of the strongest. His brother, Ryo Marufuji, had entrusted him his deck made of cyber-type dragons and Shou had slightly modified it by adding to it his machine monsters, making it possibly even more powerful than it was before.
But that was not all: his brother had offered him to work together and form a league of pro duelists. That meant that Shou was going to become a pro in the next few years and would probably become as feared and respected as his famous brother, Ryo Marufuji, who everyone had always compared him to.
Shou had matured a lot. He was not a little bunny who had to watch out for lions, hyenas and wolves; no, sir, now he was one of those lions and hyenas and wolves that the world had to watch out for.
Juudai, too, had matured. He was not the goofy and clueless teenager he was when he entered the Duel Academia. Now he was an expert duelist (even better than when he'd entered), he took things more seriously and his features were more adult-like; although he still knew how to have some good fun once in a while—and, believe it or not, he still refused to do his homework.
They had matured together—and so had their friendship. It never swayed, not even once.
The graduation ceremony was full of emotions—happiness, joy, hope as well as sadness and melancholy. A couple of girls cried and everyone made a promise to keep in contact, whatever they were going to do after leaving the Duel Academia.
Shou graduated as an Obelisk Blue, with the highest score.
Juudai graduated as an Osiris Red, with a score slightly better than average.
Blue and red. What a funny thing. Two colours that are complete opposites for two people who are complete opposites.
And yet, they couldn't have been a more perfect match. Their friendship was, without a doubt, the strongest that Duel Academia had ever seen—and it couldn't have been otherwise.
When they took the graduation photo, Juudai and Shou were at each other's sides, just like they had always been through all of those years. One with his bright red uniform, the other with his elegant blue one.
They looked simply great together.
Juudai thought that blue definitely fitted Shou better than any other colour.
As for Juudai, that red on him couldn't have looked any more perfect.