Chapter One: Welcome to Domino

Kiria strolled along the side of the school. Her new school. She was so excited, her first day at a new school with people she didn't know! Better yet, they didn't know her.

She stopped. Would she be able to even talk to anybody? This happened every time; she would get excited for the first day of a new school, and then she'd end up being too shy to even talk to anybody.

"Even if that does happen," she muttered softly to herself. "Then at least no one will tease me or talk to me." She began to secretly hope no one would talk to her. No one to talk to her meant no one to befriend and then hurt, and no enemies or people to hate her.

"That would be too perfect...," she began to mutter again. She hadn't realized she was walking again, and nearly screamed when she fell to the ground. But instead of a scream, all that came out was an embarrassing squeak.

Someone had bumped into her, she realized.

"Please excuse me, I'm so sorry," a thick british accent apologized. She looked up to see a very pale boy with chocolate brown eyes and fluffy, elbow-length white hair. An apologetic smile was on his face, along with a pink tint on his cheeks. He wore a dark, navy-ish blue uniform from which a hand was outstretched to her.

"Oh, it's...ah...alright," she returned, accepting the hand. He pulled Kiria up to her feet, taking care not to be rough. She swiped a hand through her long gold and neon green bangs, and smiled nervously. "So... do you attend this school?"

"Yes, I do actually. Are you, uh... attending this school?" he asked her, looking at her attire with a questioning glance. Her tan sweater, demi jeans, and rainbow print bookbag were not exactly...school appropriate.

Kiria blushed, her face becoming a bright red. "I was hoping to. I need to talk with the principal, correct? I heard this is a good school..."

"I can guide you to the office, if you want," the boy offered. Kiria nodded, pink taking over her face now.

"Thank you...," she began, but felt horrible when she couldn't remember his name. Did he even tell her his name? She wasn't sure.

"I'm Ryou Bakura." The boy revealed, as if he could read her thoughts. "What do you call yourself?" He led her through the doors.

" K-Kiria...," she whimpered. Suddenly, she felt as if she didn't belong here at all, as if she had no right to be in that school at that moment. She tensed up and looked over her shoulder, half expecting someone to come and kick her out.

Ryou threw a hand onto his chest, clutching it. His sudden stopping caused Kiria to bump into him again.

"S-Sorry Ryou!" she very loudly squeaked. She became concerned when he began to shiver terribly. "Are you alright?"

"I really need to go to the bathroom," he breathed, almost impossible to hear. "I'll be back in a moment." He rushed himself towards the end of the hallway.

"Hey, Bakura!" A cheery voice called out from behind Kiria, but Ryou was already gone.

Kiria froze. "So someone is there..." she realized.

"Oh, hi there. Who are you? Are you a friend of Bakura's?" the same cheery voice asked her. She slowly turned around, and was greeted with something she did not expect.

A boy, appearing to be in maybe fifth grade, stood before her. His giant, innocent-looking amethyst eyes stared up at her in curiosity. But what amazed her most was his hair, the jagged-spike-ish blond bangs in front with a small spike in the middle, and then the giant black with light violet tipped starfish shaped hair in the back pointed upward in a total of five spikes. A smile was on his face, and he wore a simliar uniform to Ryou, except not buttoned up, and he wore a gold, upside-down pyramid on a chain, along with a leather dog collar.

Then again, Kiria couldn't judge. Her own gold and neon green accented hair probably looked pretty abnormal too, the way it spiked downward in five thick spikes covering up one of her eyes.

"I'm, uh, m-more of an acquaintance. I-I ran into him this morning and he offered to guide me to the office," Kiria explained, stuttering slightly, but not completely stopping.

"Then why-" the boy started, but he stopped himself. "Well, since he had to leave suddenly, I'll guide you there if you'd like. I'm Yugi, by the way," he introduced himself.

"I'm Kiria, and sure. Thank you," Kiria replied with a smile.

It was around this time Kiria realized this boy must be going to this school, considering the fact that he wore a uniform and knew Ryou. She reminded herself to apologize to him later.

"Here's the office," Yugi announced. Kiria snapped herself out of her thoughts.

"Um, t-thank you Yugi. You should probably get to class, I wouldn't want you to be late because of me...," Kiria stuttered. "Maybe you sh-should check on Ryou...?"

Yugi's eyes went wide. "Yeah, you're right. Bye Kiria, it was nice meeting you!" Yugi ran in the direction he saw Ryou go, hoping to find a bathroom or some room where Ryou could have ducked into.

Kiria stepped into the office, hoping she could talk her way into the school, just like she had for the last few schools.

Kiria was sitting in a desk in class. She didn't know what they were doing, but she had been introduced and now the students seemed to be whispering about her as the teachers prepared to switch. It was interval break, and everyone was chattering, and Kiria had honestly hated that introduction. She'd felt everyone's eyes on her, watching and judging and learning her every detail.

Great, was all Kiria thought. I wanted to hide but now everyone knows my face and name.

She'd caught the wandering eye of a boy, though, and he was twisted around in his seat to face her. His spiky blue hair was off-putting, but not nearly as much as Yugi's had been when she saw it. And his eyes were locked right with her purple ones. He was smiling, though, so the tension melted just a little.

He reached over and tapped the shoulder of the girl next to him. She was outfitted in the female uniform, which fit her nicely, unlike Kiria's ragged clothes that had only added to her awkward appearance even more. They exchanged some words Kiria couldn't hear, and then the girl turned and Kiria got a glimpse of her face.

She had long, extremely pretty black hair, and from what Kiria could see, she had light orange eyes flecked with red. The girl took one look at Kiria and shook her head violently, saying something in retaliation to the boy. He frowned, and then they argued very briefly, before he rose to his feet and made for Kiria.

Even better, she thought. I've caused an argument between friends and now he's going to try and talk to me!

"Hey," he greeted. Kiria's eyes kept locking on his hair. It was just so blue. It looked like the artificial kind that people dyed their hair with, vibrant with some darker bits and pieces, but as far as she knew coloring your hair wasn't allowed. Was it?

"H-Hello...," she replied.

"My name's Asuiri! Asuiri Takabetsuno, to be precise and positively on point. And you're Kiria Tomat, from what the teacher says. Where are you from? You've got a bit of ah... a bit of an accent." He wiggled a finger in front of his mouth as he said that.

And he also noticed the American. Greater. "I'm from America, Asuiri... uh, do you n-need anything?"

He blanched. "What? No, I just wanted to talk. I wanted to see if you could maybe hang out with me and Shizira, but she's so stubborn about new people. Or people in general. Ahm-" and here he blushed. "S-Sorry if I bothered you or anything... I didn't mean to be rude or invasive. If you're, uh - bothered, yeah, bothered, I'll just be going now." And then he walked away.

Kiria bit her lip, listening to him as he left. "Bothered? You said bothered three times you moron. Augh, can you be any more embarassing? And she seemed so nice, too! Stupid stupid-" and then he was too far to hear over the noise of the other kids talking.

Kiria looked down at her hands folded atop the wooden desk. She didn't know whether she wanted friends or not.

"Alright, class," the teacher announced when he walked in. "Calm down, calm down. Now get out your history textbooks..."

Reader Review: "Alright, so I've read this entire book over and even tho it's pretty egh average ah at the beginning the ending completely blew me like holy baloney where did this come from. It's a fanfiction that's dependent upon the original story but not entirely focused on Yugi and his struggles. I'd keep reading. Kthx"

- From WolfOfTheNorth, via Private Message