BUZZ. BUZZ. BUZZ.

Reika frowned against her pillow as she heard the buzzing, before sitting straight up, the hospital sheet falling into her lap as she reached in the darkness for the source, a sinking feeling beginning to stir. She knew that the thing that was buzzing should not have been. Finally, her fingers grasped the vibrating phone from the bottom of her bag. Violet eyes darted nervously around the room for any signs of consciousness from the others resting there. No one stirred, as she put the phone to her ear.

"Yes?" she breathed into the receiver as she slowly got off her bed and inched toward the door.

"Reika… I'm sorry to bother you but I'm afraid I have to tell you that you're being taken off assignment," Kenji's brisk voice said on the other end.

She frowned, slipping out of the room with her bag. "What? You can't pull me out of here now! We've only just saved the Alabasta Kingdom. And what about my parents?" she hissed, violet eyes keeping a wary look at her surroundings as she made her way into a hallway far enough away from the medical area.

Even in the darkness, she didn't know who could be listening in. This was an area that had only just been recaptured from a hostile enemy after all.

"I know, and I apologize for having to do it, but we found out that your grandfather has fallen into a coma," Kenji replied. She could practically hear the frown through the phone.

The words hit her like a train, and her stomach dropped. "What?" she managed to whisper. "What happened?"

"We're not sure. We're still trying to get information from your aunt and cousin but it looks like he just… fell into it," Kenji said, though Reika could hear something hidden in the words, and she exhaled slowly before speaking again.

"You don't think it was a normal reason, do you?"

"Like I said, we're still trying to get more information. I'll fill you in completely when you get back. But… my suspicions are that it wasn't a physical problem with him, no."

Rubbing at her forehead, Reika sighed and leaned against the wall, staring out the window at the horizon, the light only just beginning to try to break through the inky blackness. "When exactly is that going to be? I can't set up a portal now. It's too dark, and I can't just abandon them in the middle of the night. Plus the Marines are looking for us." She wouldn't be surprised if the Marines were already well on their way here, actually.

Kenji's slight laughter rumbled through the other end of the line. "Akio is on her way on one of our ships. She'll be posing as a friend of yours to take you home. Just stay put. She's got your coordinates and left hours ago."

She forced herself not to groan. She hoped this worked. "Okay," she said softly. "Thanks for letting me know."

"Of course. We'll see you in a few hours."

"Over and out," she sighed in reply, ending the call and sliding to her knees, her mind still reeling with a mix of exhaustion, anger and sadness.

She hated the thought of having to leave this land – after all, she still had no answers as to what happened to cause her parents to disappear – only a bit of speculation here and there from what she'd managed to swipe and scrape by from the various battles with the Marines they got into.

On the other hand… her grandfather had taken her in after her parents had gone missing in this dimension, and the fact that he was in a come – one that Kenji didn't think was naturally occurring – made her very, very nervous for Yugi, the cousin she lived with. He was two years younger than she was and not exactly someone built to fight.

And yet… she was absolutely friends with these pirates – something she hadn't anticipated happening. She hated that she had to leave them. But she knew her duty to the agency and to her family, and so with a heavy heart, she began sneaking her way through the castle and down to where their ship was.

She managed to make it onto the Merry with a heavy breath, fighting back the fatigue and lingering pain from the battle with Baroque Works and slipped into the room she shared with Nami. Kenji had told her when she'd started this assignment the year before to keep a bag packed at all times in case an emergency ever happened.

"It's exceedingly rare, but it has happened before and any good agent needs to be ready, Reika," he'd told her in Domino City at T.A.I.D.R. headquarters. "It's just to make sure we can get in and out quickly."

She wondered how rare this actually was, as she paused on a photograph of she and her parents from when she was ten. One of the last photographs they'd taken as a family before their disappearance somewhere beyond the Grand Line. They'd been here on assignment and headquarters had lost contact with them.

When she'd been sixteen and they offered her a position in the agency, how could she turn it down? Then at seventeen, they'd offered her the chance to come to the Pirate Dimension, and the rest was history as soon as she'd gotten Monkey D. Luffy and his crew to accept her as a member in Lougetown.

And now here she was. Having to give all of that up because of an emergency at home.

But regardless, she couldn't just vanish without them knowing she was leaving – even if it wasn't exactly protocol for the agency.

Reika grabbed a piece of paper and a pen and sat down to scribble a quick note.

Dear Crew,

I'm so sorry for having to leave you out of nowhere like this, but I'm afraid I've received word of an emergency in my home town and I had to leave at once. But on my honor, I'll come back and sail with you again when the emergency has passed – I'm sure I'll be able to find you. I just want you all to know that I've had the time of my life on the crew, and I've learned so much about myself because of you.

I'll see you all again,

Reika

She set the letter down on the desk and placed one of her arrows down with it (it wasn't like she was going to need them in Domino). Letting out a heavy sigh, she swung the bag over her shoulder and took a last look around the room. "Time to go then."

Wincing as she made her way back outside, she frowned when she noticed Aiko standing below her on the dock. Next to him, she could see a small boat.

"I was told you had a ship, Aiko," she greeted, making her way back down the gangplank and over to her.

"This is faster," the man replied with a shrug and a grin.

"Mmhm," came the hum as she tossed her bags down into the boat. "Shall we?"

Aiko nodded. "After you."

She gave the palace a last glance as she stepped on board, going slightly pale when she noticed lights popping on. "Let's go. Now. They know I'm gone."

"Hold on tight," Aiko said, slipping behind the wheel and moving them away from the castle as fast as the boat could go. "Any trouble with the Marines?"

"Nothing that wasn't handled. Only two of the crew I was with have bounties at the moment," she groaned, leaning against the wall. "We got into a fight with some criminals yesterday though. Gained a pretty cool looking scar on my back for my troubles."

Aiko laughed, tossing her the portal maker. "Well, at least you have a souvenir from your mission."

She snorted, typing in the right combination for a portal in a boat this size, closing her eyes as the bright light enveloped them, bringing them back to Domino.

"Welcome home, Agent Mutou," Kenji said as he peered over at them as the light faded, the boat sitting in the small pool in the underground of the base. The clock over his shoulder read five o'clock in the afternoon. Well, at least she had an excuse to sleep when she got home.

Reika sighed, slowly managing to climb the staircase to the main area. "Do you have any more information on what happened with my grandfather?"

Instead of answering, Kenji frowned as he looked at her. "You're injured."

"Well you didn't exactly send me to the Kuriboh and Cotton Candy Dimension," she retorted. "I'm fine, I'm just a bit sore."

"I still want you checked out before you head home. I'll explain while the doctors are checking you out," Kenji said.

Rolling her eyes, she relented. It wasn't like she'd have any other choice in the matter if she wanted to get home. Following Kenji into their hospital ward, she lifted her shirt up when one of the doctors moved to look at her back.

"Talk," she told Kenji. She knew she shouldn't speak to a superior officer in such a way, but she was anxious and frustrated.

"We detected a high amount of dark energy hovering around the game shop leading up to your grandfather's coma. We can't say for sure but… we think that the Millennium Items may have had something to do with it," Kenji explained with a small frown. "But we have no way of knowing for sure without you."

She hissed in pain as something was applied to the scar on her back. "So that's why you brought me back from the Pirate Dimension. You want me to figure out if it was a shadow game… which only brings up more questions."

"Indeed. That's all I have for you so far, so if you're cleared…" he looked over at the doctor, who nodded that she was. "Then you can head home."

Home. What an odd concept to her now.

But hours later as Reika stood in her old bedroom, her bow and arrows safely tucked away in the very back of her closet, she could feel a strange sense of belonging. A sense of peace. Without really thinking, she slowly made her way over to her jewelry box. She'd realized on her way home that she was going to need something to cover the tattoo she'd gotten with Nami – she didn't feel like answering so many questions at once.

Pulling out a gold bracelet her grandfather had gotten her while he was in Egypt, she held it up to the tattoo, and smiled in relief upon the realization that this would cover the mark on her wrist.

"Thank God," she whispered, slipping on the golden bracelet, before feeling the ground begin to spin for a moment. Her hands scrambled to grip the table as she looked at herself in the mirror. Letting out a slight groan, she shook her head. Why had she suddenly seen herself dressed in older-looking clothing? She must have been losing her mind.

Then again, she had only gotten three hours of sleep right after being seriously injured, so that explained it.

"Hello? Mom?" her cousin Yugi suddenly called, the faint sound of a door slamming following him. Shaking her head again to clear the odd feeling, Reika made her way downstairs.

"Yugi," she said with a small smile as she spotted her cousin in the main area of the shop. "It's been a long time."

"Reika!" Yugi cried, running over and hugging her tight. She returned it, glad to feel familiar arms around her again. "When did you get home?"

"Ah… only about an hour ago," she told him, fighting back a yawn. "I was just going to grab something to eat. Are you guys hungry? I can make enough for five." Her violet eyes darted over to the three friends Yugi had brought with him.

The blonde one grinned as they moved into the kitchen. "Well, I'll never turn down a meal but uh – who are you?"

"You're Yugi's cousin. I remember you from your graduation last year," the brunette girl said.

She nodded. "My name is Reika. And you're Téa, aren't you?"

"Yeah. That's me. And this is Joey and Tristan," Téa said with a smile.

"Ah… it's nice to meet you both. Are you duelists like my cousin?"

"I am. And I'm gonna win Duelist Kingdom for my sister!" Joey said with a wide smile.

She frowned as she tossed some garlic in a pan. "Duelist Kingdom? What's that?"

"It's a tournament sponsored by Maximilian Pegasus," Yugi said, giving Joey a strange look that Reika had seen before. A look that said 'don't say too much'. "I got invited to it because I beat Kaiba in a duel a couple months ago."

The mention of Seto Kaiba was an interesting one, but Reika knew that wasn't the important thing at the moment. "Really? And so the founder of duel monsters invited you to compete in a tournament?" she asked. "Did grandpa know about it? You know… before the coma?"

There was a glance passed between her cousin and his friends as she tossed noodles into the pan to cook. "Yugi… tell me the truth. He's my grandpa too."

Yugi nodded slowly. "Okay. Pegasus sent me a videotape and when I put it on… he challenged me to something called a Shadow Game. And I lost. And he said he took Grandpa's soul because I lost the game. So I have to go to Duelist Kingdom and win so I can get his soul back."

She paled a little when she noticed the Millennium Puzzle hanging around his neck. "So they're back. Shadow Games are back."

"Back? You know about them?" Tristan asked.

"I'm studying archaeology at school… and it was something that was mentioned in a few of my lessons. I didn't think… I didn't think it was real. Not like the items…" she trailed off, gesturing to the bracelet on her wrist. "I was only just starting to dig into them when I was called home."

It wasn't a lie, technically. She did know about the Millennium Items because of the studies… she had just been studying them in her free time on a pirate ship in a different dimension.

"So Pegasus has the ability to call Shadow Games. When do you leave for Duelist Kingdom?"

"We leave tomorrow night…"

Hm. Tomorrow didn't give her much time to get more information out of him, but she smiled and nodded in understanding as she got plates out. "I hope you're all hungry. My friend Sanji taught me how to make this."

"It smells delicious!" Tristan said with a grin as he and Joey snatched plates out of her hands and helped themselves to the pasta dish she'd made.

She shook her head in amusement as she watched her cousin and his friends as they ate together. In the year she'd been gone it appeared that more had changed with her cousin than she ever expected. Now he was thrown into this shadow games madness with the creator of duel monsters.

Well, she thought, at least he has his friends with him. I couldn't be the only one protecting him after all.

"I'll leave you guys to talk," she told them a couple hours later. "I had a long flight back here and it took a lot out of me. Goodnight."

"Night!" the group on the couch echoed as she went back up to her room.

"Goodnight, Reika," an unfamiliar voice whispered as she drifted to sleep.