All I Wanted Was A Friend

Yami's First Day of School

"And so," droned the maths teacher, Mr. Shirogane, "when finding the height of an equilateral triangle, you can split the triangle in half to make a right-angle triangle and use the Pythagoras Theorem to find the height."

How is any of this trollop useful in a real-life context? Yami grumped.

Well, you need to know this sort of stuff if we want to get a degree in engineering or computer science or programming.

I know that. However, how many of your peers are actually planning that sort of career? What about you? You already have a life ahead of you managing Grandpa's shop once he retires.

But this stuff kinda cool right? I mean, someone was able to spot a pattern with the lengths of a right-angle triangle and explain it with a simple formula. He made a strategy guide for how triangles worked.

"Mr. Mutou?" Mr. Shirogane called.

"Uh, yes?" Yuugi replied. Crap.

Oh. We must have looked unfocused. I am sorry Yuugi.

It's okay, just, Yuugi gulped. Yami help!

"If I wanted to find the height of an equilateral triangle," said the teacher, "where each side has a length of five centimetres, what would the equation be?"

Hang on, said Yuugi. We haven't been shown the equation for that yet!

Calm down, Yuugi. You can do this. Mr. Shirogane would not ask the question if he thought it was impossible. He mentioned Pythagoras, perhaps that is the key.

Pythagoras, a squared plus b squared equals c squared, with c being the hypotenuse.

Now how does he want us to use it?

He split a triangle in half. Half of five is two point five. That's two numbers, but how do we use them?

Yami looked up at the blackboard which showed a diagram labelled diagram of a triangle with a dotted line in the middle. I have it! A is two point five and c is five.

So, if we rearrange a squared plus b squared equals c squared into c squared minus a squared equals b squared.

They answered together, "The height of the triangle is five squared minus two point five squared."

Mr. Shirogane blinked. "Close, Mr. Mutou. You forgot to square root the equation. You've given me the height of the triangle squared."

"Oh." Their cheeks heated up. "Right."

Damn, thought both Yami and Yuugi.

I now see the real-life application for all of this. Yami explained.

And what would that be? Yuugi prompted, despite already knowing his other self's answer.

To ensure we do not get caught off guard by slightly vindictive teachers and avoid public embarrassment in the process.

Eh, it doesn't matter. We can just talk or something instead.

I would guess Jounouchi has other plans in mind, said Yami, purposefully directing their eyes to look at their new friend.

Jounouchi stretched his back as he limped over to Yuugi's desk. "Hey, Yuugi. You got a game we can play?"

"Oh, uh," Yuugi rubbed the back of his head. "No, I don't, sorry. I was kind of distracted this morning, so I didn't get a chance to pack one."