Chapter One – Lost and Found
Pairings: Eventual Malik/OC, eventual hints of Yami Malik/OC.
Rated T for later chapters, just to be safe.
Author's Note: I am so nervous posting this… my first fanfiction that I've put up here in a good couple of years.
Also! I know I said I'd try to not slaughter any personalities, but…
Sorry if Malik – or anyone else – winds up horridly out of character at times. I was watching Yugioh in Japanese (anything is better than the dub) and the subs were terrible – translated from Japanese to Chinese and then to English, so most of the conversations that actually happened in the show will have improvised scripts, and characters may seem out of character.
I grew up watching the 4Kids dub (ew) so the personalities may drift off towards that, as well! Otherwise, enjoy, and please tell me if a character seems blatantly OOC!
The sands of the desert stretched out for miles and miles. The only sign of life was what looked like a thin, weak boy walking in the sand. He stopped, staring at a faraway silhouette of a pyramid. So far, so far… He lifted up a water bottle to his mouth and shook it, but it was empty. A gasp of thirst escaped his lips. So thirsty, so thirsty…
When he collapsed onto the sand, he didn't notice. He just felt bliss, utter bliss, to be lying there, able to relax at last. His legs were aching terribly. And then – how much time had passed? – voices. They spoke a language he did not understand. The boy thought he could pick out names being said, but he wasn't sure. Then he was aware of nothing at all. There was no one to comfort him… but there were his memories…
*
Elise Matsuki stared into the mirror, a blank look on her face. She hated these tents that she'd had to stay in so often for the past few months. She'd been perfectly happy living in a normal house. But moving every few months, and now this? She missed attending regular school, and her friends, and she missed having a life.
Then her parents became archaeologists. She heaved a sigh. Here they were, in The-Middle-of-Nowhere, Egypt, surrounded by sand, more sand, and then even more sand. There was nothing to do, and everyone here was crazy. She couldn't see or talk to real people, her friends, anymore. She didn't even have her old cell phone. They'd sold everything – said it would be basically useless if they were travelling. How is a cell phone useless?
She pulled a baseball cap over her hair. She'd recently had it cut short, which had shocked her parents. They'd assumed she loved having her black hair long. She hadn't, really. She'd done it for them, but what had they ever done for her? Now that it was short, her plan could unfold.
With the baggy clothing she had on, which hid what little waist and bust she had, she looked almost exactly like a boy. Elise let out a little squeal of happiness. Her disguise was perfect – her parents, and the others, would be looking for a fifteen-year-old girl, not what looked like a scraggly twelve-year-old boy.
If they went looking for her at all…
She grabbed hold of a water bottle and fastened it to her belt. Her hand hesitated above a necklace she'd received for her birthday. A memory flashed in her mind.
She'd torn the wrapping paper off, throwing it thoughtlessly onto the floor. It was a necklace – a cute little pink heart with angelic wings coming out of the side. She gasped, a hand flying over her mouth. "Oh, thank you so much!" she said, jumping up and wrapping her arms around her parents. "Thank you so much, maman, papa!"
They'd smiled, laughed, hugged her in return. Her mother fastened the necklace around her neck. "It's beautiful," her parents said in unison.
Elise grinned at them, wrapping a hand around the little winged heart. "I'll wear it with me wherever I go," she'd said, "and it'll remind me that no matter what, I should listen to my heart and it will set me free."
Her mother had tousled Elise's hair.
"Maman!" she'd protested, and everyone wound up laughing…
She'd worn that necklace non-stop until just yesterday. She'd taken it off when she went to bed. Cutting her hair, taking off the necklace… was she maturing? Biting her lip slightly, she picked up the necklace and put it on. 'Just listen to your heart,' she thought, 'you might need this necklace to remind you of that, yet.'
Finally, she grabbed a plastic bag which contained a few extra clothes (along with her favourite outfit) and her wallet (as if what money she had would come in handy)… just in case. Hiding the necklace under her shirt and hauling the bag over her shoulder, she pushed the tent flap to the side. She gazed outside, glanced around, and heaved a sigh of relief. No one was there. She could make a run for it. She dashed, tripping in the soft sand multiple times, but didn't stop running, not until she was far, far away from that camp.
*
A hand was shaking her shoulder, and prattling on in a very annoyed-sounding, deep voice. She couldn't understand the words… they weren't French or Japanese, the two languages the girl spoke. Elise's eyes flickered open, but she couldn't see anything. For some reason, wherever she was happened to be pitch black.
Was the language Arabic?
"Ah!" exclaimed the voice, still annoyed, then started speaking that strange language again. If it was pitch black, how could the voice tell she was awake? Was she dead?
"Um," she began, sitting up, "excusez-moi, est-ce que vous me comprenez? Parlez en français ou japonais, s'il vous plait."
The voice sighed, but started speaking in Japanese. "Now that you're awake, Malik-sama will want to see you."
Elise blinked in confusion, and as she did so, she felt fabric over her eyes. Ah, so that's why she couldn't see – she had a blindfold of some sort on. It was made of a heavy, thick fabric, and she raised her hands to tug on it.
"I'd suggest not doing that," warned the voice. Elise's hands froze in mid-air. She opened her mouth to ask why, when the voice continued, "Malik-sama doesn't let just anyone see him – not straight away. You might get thrown back, yet."
Oh, so she had to be privileged to see this 'Malik,' whoever he was. The man who had been talking to her grabbed onto her hands and heaved her off the piece of furniture she'd been lying on. She was being dragged somewhere. Where was she going? Even more importantly, where was she currently?
Then, before she knew it, the voice from earlier said, "Malik-sama, here is the boy."
A much younger sounding voice "hm"ed, but said no more.
The boy? Elise wondered, and began with a quick, "Ata-" to say atashi, then she remembered – she was dressed up as a boy. Atashi was the female version of "I," and she had to try to speak in male words. Oh, no. She shook her head, imagining crazy looking men with raised eyebrows at this "boy's" pronoun confusion, and began again. "I don't know what I'm doing here."
The unnamed voice laughed and pushed her forward. She landed on her knees with a loud cry of pain. The younger voice – Malik? – began to talk.
"I don't assume you remember, boy, but you had fainted in the sand. I don't normally pick up any adolescent I see, but you looked like you had… potential."
"For what?" Elise wondered.
The older voice began explaining. "We're the Ghouls. Rare Hunters, if you will. We search for rare cards, and Malik-sama is our leader."
"R-rare cards?" Elise stuttered, stupidly. Who would be interested in cards? Rare… solitaire… cards? What a strange hobby!
"Duel Monsters cards," Malik retorted.
"… Duel whats?"
Someone sighed. "Rishid," Malik commanded.
A third voice – how many Ghouls were there? – said quickly, "Yes, Malik-sama?"
"Take off the fool's blindfold."
As the fabric fell to the floor, Elise's eyes adjusted slowly to the strange lighting in the room. At the head of the room sat a hooded and robed man, who couldn't have that much older than Elise, she figured. His eyes only looked a few years older, if that. But that was all she could see of him, his eyes. They were a very piercing, deep shade of lavender, and she couldn't pry her eyes away for a good few seconds. Those eyes – they looked like they were staring into her soul. She let out a nervous squeak, lowering her eyes.
Malik let out an irritated-sounding sigh. "What's your name, boy?"
"E-" Elise started, but was unable to come up with a masculine name beginning with the letter E. She feigned saying "eh," and tried as quickly as possible to come up with a male name. Elise Matsuki. Matsuki… Matt! "M-my name is Matt."
"Odd name for a boy wandering around Egyptian deserts."
"M-my parents are archaeologists," she admitted. No point in lying about that. "I…"
Six eyes turned to stare at her – Malik's, the man named Rishid's, and the man who'd led her from her room. Elise bit her bottom lip. "I didn't much care for my parents," she continued.
"Well," Malik said with an air of boredom, "either we let you go back out into those sands and you can wander around like a lost, mindless idiot, or you become a Ghoul."
"Wh-what would that entail, er… M-Malik-sama?"
"Simple – you get rare Duel Monsters cards at whatever cost."
"E-even stealing, Malik-sama?"
"Especially stealing."
Elise thought she saw Malik grin, and as he did so, she realized he was holding some kind of strange, golden rod. Brown eyes met those piercing lavender eyes, and she stammered out, "It's either this or I die in the desert?"
No one said anything.
"I…" She wouldn't return to her parents. No, not after all this. Straightening her posture, she nodded. "I'll become a… Ghoul, then."
Malik grinned – smirked? – again. "Perfect…"