A/N: This is my Sparkleshipping entry for Computerfreak101's YGO writing contest. That's ManaxKisara so if you don't like small hints of girl/girl then I'm sorry! This is an AU in which Mana and the others attend Egypt's most elite private magic academy. The time and location are rather vague, which is the way I like it. It leaves more up to the imagination. I've been on a first person kick ever sense we started doing more personal narratives in Language Arts, so forgive me for stabbing once again at that style. Blame the school systems! Anyway, enough rambling, hope you enjoy this!
Disclaimer: I barely even own myself! How in the world would Yugioh be mine?
Puzzles
She was tall and beautiful, that much was certain. As for the rest of her character, I was unsure, not because I lacked observational skills or the like, but because she never really spoke to anyone. She sat alone in the corner of the classroom, beautiful white head leaning gracefully against her pale palm as she flicked through the pages of a novel- a different one each week, I kept count- only every looking up when addressed by the professor.
I had never once heard her voice, and her name would have been a mystery to me as well if not for the fact that our instructor, Mahado, called it out whenever he wished her to answer a question. "Kisara." He would say, his rich tone thrumming with the power of his soul.
I loved the sound of his voice. It sent shivers down my spine, the baritone drawl ringing with the unrivaled energy of his spirit. The very walls seemed to quiver as the sound rippled passed them, sending wave after wave of tangible force into the air.
I wondered what hervoice sounded like. Kisara never spoke, either replying to a question with a nod of her brilliant head or a scribbled phrase upon a sheet of parchment that she always seemed to have handy.
Such a quirk wasn't usual at my school- excuse me- my academyas Mahado was constantly correcting me. It's been said that they won't even let you through the doors if you don't have at least something unusual about your character, a rumor I didn't believe until I saw them turn away the only "normal" candidate that had come in for an interview. She was an honor student from a world renowned intermediate school for magic; plain but pretty with perfect marks and a list of extracurricular activities and achievements long enough to wallpaper my dorm room.
Her interview didn't even last five minutes.
I, myself, was not the greatest magician. If truth be told I hardly expected to graduate from my pitiful excuse of a middle school, let alone get into Egypt's most elite private academy for the supernatural arts. But, as I said, they like people on the radical end of the bizarre spectrum.
Maybe it was the fact that the person I admired most in the world wasn't even human, or that I enjoyed spending my free time startling my fellows by leaping out at them from inside vases. In any case, they saw something in me that they seemed to see in all the adolescents they handpicked for their student body, and I was asked to join their ranks.
I wondered what they had seen in Kisara. Her name and appearance were strange to be sure, her fair skin and stark white tresses hardly labeled her as a child of the desert, but, apart from her foreign countenance and odd method of communication, I could see nothing particularly powerful or even significant about her. The strange, beautiful girl was an enigma, a puzzle.
And I hate unsolved puzzles.
I watched her from the corner of my eye, half listening to the lecture Mahado was preaching, something about the practical uses of magic and ways to control energy without depleting any spiritual reserves.
I would ask Atemu for his notes later.
Said best friend was currently seated beside me, his quill scratching furiously against his paper as he copied down Manado's rant for bedim. The golden bangles upon his forearms jangled irritatingly, and I half considered turning around and smacking the prince across the head to quiet him, not that I cared much for the hearing range of those in the vicinity, but the noise was distracting me from oh-so-discretely spying on Kisara.
My personal puzzle was curled up at her desk, bare, delicate feet folded neatly under her frail knees upon which rested her chin. The girl's dark blue eyes darted so quickly across the page of her book, the irises appeared blurred. I pondered how someone so engrossed in another subject could still keep their ears open for such a dull sermon, even one that was being delivered by Mahado's godly voice.
Just as the thought of my professor swam into my mind, a loud 'SMACK' upon my desk nearly caused me to topple over. I managed to save my face from having a rather impromptu meeting with the floor by reaching a hand out and clutching the robes of the person standing before me.
Just my luck that said person would be Mahado. My professor growled, shoving my hands away from the, now rumpled, front of his expensive gown and piercing me with his dark eyes. "Mana.," he hissed, that rippling radiance in his voice coursing with waves of venom. "Now that you've been so kind as to stop stalking your classmate, why don't you come up to the board and write down the ten laws of summoning spirit energy."
My face couldn't have been redder if it was the surface of Mars.
In my embarrassment and fear, my eyes darted towards Kisara's crouched form. The girl seemed in exactly the same situation as a few minutes previous, apparently immersed within her novel, though I couldn't help but notice the flush in her cheeks, so faint it was almost nonexistent, or the fact that her eyes had stopped scanning the pages at warp speed.
As Mahado griped my upper arm and frog marched me to the front of the room, I met Atemu's crimson gaze. The prince had obviously followed my line of vision and now his eyebrows were raised so high that they disappeared into his wild, golden hairline. The look I shot him screamed "I'll tell you later." But I wondered vaguely, as I racked my brains for the ten laws of summoning spirit energy, what exactly I was supposed to say.
"Do you like her?" Atemu's deep voice was half teasing, half accusing. I glared across at his tanned form, flicking a grape into his wild hair.
"MANA!" he whined in irritation, digging through his unruly mop in search of the tiny piece of fruit.
"Why would I like a girl?" I snapped with a roll of my eyes, giggling as he ripped off his glinting crown in pursuit of the grape.
The prince didn't reply, so engrossed in his hunt. I didn't even notice his indifference. "She's just … different … you know…interesting." I glanced over my shoulder at the fair figure seated alone in a corner, thin fingers toying idly with her food.
"You should go talk to her." He said offhandedly, cursing fervently beneath his breath as he continued to paw through his, now, completely mangled tresses.
"And what would I say?" I asked him. The idea was appealing to me, especially since Kisara seemed so lonely. Atemu had stopped even feigning attention to my dilemma, rapt up as he was in his hair predicament.
With a sigh I stood, taking my rather pathetic platter of food with me, and sent the struggling prince a half sympathetic, half amused grin. "You know, most would call this a lost cause." I indicated towards his spiky sculpture of hair which his fingers now apparently seemed to be braided into.
He glared daggers at me as I laughed, turning my back on his venomous gaze and fording the distance between the place were we sat and where my personal puzzle lay.
Kisara actually looked up when I took the seat across from her. For a split second, emerald met sapphire, and I could see confusion and nerves sparkling in her dark orbs, before an incomprehensible mask of indifference clouded her countenance.
The white head simply nodded in my direction, the blue eyes darting back to gaze unseeingly at the thin fingers now prodding an apple wedge.
"Hello." I intoned brightly after a few moments awkward silence, testing the waters gingerly. "I'm Mana." I held out a slightly trembling hand.
She didn't take it.
After a moment I lowered my palm, disheartened. Why I felt a deep ache in my heart at her apathy, I knew not. All I was aware of was an overwhelming since of disappointment. I tried to hide it from her.
"You're Kisara.' I stated it as cheerfully as I could, though my tone seemed to go flat.
She nodded, never glancing up from the fruits she was prodding. My chest swelled at the response. "Nice to meet you."
She nodded again in, what I assumed to be, acquiescence. My heart skipped a beat.
"Hello?" I tried again, after several more still minutes. She just nodded. The silent treatment was starting to grate at my nerves. Anger welled up inside me, but, for some reason, I had to fight tears from spilling from my eyes.
Confused by my sudden fury and bewildered by the glistening moisture in my eyes, I put my hands upon the table, ready to push myself upwards, to flee this unsettling sense of depression at the girl's strange form of rejection, but a smooth hand gently clasped my wrist, holding me firmly in place. The delicate fingers were smooth and cold, so thin I feared I'd snap them like twigs if I attempted to wrench my hand free.
I glanced up in shock, discovering a pair of perfect azure eyes piercing me. I shivered, though the cause for the peculiar sensation was beyond me. The orbs that held my vision slowly shifted downward, drawing my gaze inexorably with them. The sight that met me silenced my rapidly breathing heart and stilled my hazardous breathing. It stopped time. Stopped the rest of the world.
The fruits before the pale maiden glistened with their juices, the form she had prodded them into spelling out one simple, wonderful word.
Hello
The list was tacked up on my dorm room wall, the paper unwrinkled and fresh, the perfect metaphor for its, so far, short-lived residency upon the spot.
I could feel Atemu's curious crimson gaze peering at it from behind my back. "Silence. Books. Beauty. Brains….And fruit?" his perfectly plucked brows knitted together in confusion. "What is that supposed to mean?"
"Oh nothing." I grinned, caressing the paper once before spinning around to take in his baffled expression. "Just a puzzle I've been working on."
A/N: This is actually a lot shorter than I thought it would be. Hope you liked it! Please review!