Two pointless little plot bunnies. Both take place during the original manga before the Duelist Kingdom arc, or Season Zero. I'll provide a URL at the absolute end, so just remove the spaces. There's just a few differences from it and the watered down crap all of us in America got to see. Like, for example, a friggin awesome demonic Yami in the first episode, the young ditz Miho, and Kaiba's hair is mysteriously green…

Anyway, the first one is just some little observation I made and an excerpt of a novelization idea I have of Season Zero/original manga (That probably won't be done. But, ask and you shall receive.). The second one… well, I was curious about how Anzu was taking all the weird stuff happening around them. This is sort of a mix of the original plot and Season Zero.

Bottom line, original manga/Season Zero pwns. And I don't use words like that often.

But enough shameless advertising. I'll be kind of slipping between English and the very limited amount of Japanese I know a couple times during this. I'll translate it at the end.

Disclaimer: If I owned Yu-Gi-Oh!, Yami would've stayed totally demonic through the whole season, Nosaka Miho wouldn't exist, there'd be more violence and swearing, people would actually die for once, it would've revolved less around friendship, there'd be more random "you cheated so now you pay the price" stuff… The list goes on, but I'm sure you get the point.

In the country of Japan, there is one sleepy town named Domino City. Nothing really interesting ever happens here, but oh, no one has any idea of the mayhem to come. No one would ever guess their town would become a big spot on the map from being home to the greatest Duelist the world has ever seen. But, that is a long ways away in the future. For now, let's take notice of the subtle irony of the pre-sunrise moment.

You've all played with dominos, right? Lined them all up like little soldiers or kids in line at the cafeteria to receive the glop called school lunch, then knocked the one at the end of the line—either end, it doesn't really matter—and watch that domino hit the next, and the next, and the next until they've all fallen down from getting hit by the one behind them.

Remember all that good stuff about Domino City being famous? There are many steps leading up to that point in time. Or, I suppose you could say there are many dominos in that line. Starting to see the irony, are you?

Earlier in the morning or late last night (the sun was down, it's hard to tell), the first domino that stood like a little sentinel was pushed by a high schooler. This particular child was given an ancient Egyptian artifact. "Something that you see, but have never seen before." This riddle is a hint to the nature of this priceless gold relic. Well, good reader? Do you know what the riddle is talking about?

Oh fine, I'll stop beating around the bush. It's a puzzle. The Millenium Puzzle, to be exact. Ah, I know that light in your eyes. Are all the pieces falling in place for you? The last one fell into place for little Yuugi a few hours ago.

Very well, I'll stop with the bad jokes and puns.

Let's focus on a little building. Yes, the one with the big Game sign over its front door. This, if you haven't noticed, is a game shop and is owned by our protagonist's grandfather.

In one of the rooms above the store, we can see him sleeping all sprawled out with one of his sheets twisted around his leg. There's a little shelf attached to the headboard of the bed displaying a cartoonish clock complete with eyes, arms and legs. To the right of the bed (seeing as how you can't look left—there's a wall there) is a simple desk with only a few books and a large lamp sitting on it. To the right again is a cabinet/dresser hybrid containing Yuugi's uniforms. Pressed against the far right wall is a cubby-hole system where numerous games and at least one bouncy ball sits. A mirror somehow found itself stuck in the corner between the shelves and the next wall. The window above the desk is allowing the beginnings of the sun's warm rays into the room, which slowly waked the room's sole inhabitant.

Mutou Yuugi had an usually hard time waking up that morning. He just couldn't seem to drag himself out of bed. His dazed mind was able to pick one thing up, though: there was something around his neck, and he was not wearing his pajama top. No, he wasn't topless (Shoo, you harpies! This isn't that type of fic!). Confused, he slowly got up and half stumbled over to his mirror. He blinked blearily as his sleep deprived brain tried to function properly.

The thing around his neck looked like an overly large belt with its silver buckle in front. It was a very dark blue and almost black in color, much like the rest of his shirt. It wasn't exactly a shirt, per se, since it had no sleeves. The material was a few shades lighter and looked like leather with three strips the same width as the choker. One of the strips went vertical from the choker to the waistline while the other two went across his chest horizontally and revealed that they were, in fact, two more belts by their own buckles displayed on his right side. There were some silver studs going down the length of the vertical strip in a straight line, alternating from vertical to horizontal strip. Yugi can safely say he never had anything like this in his closet.

"Jii-chan's gonna flip!" He thought frantically. One good thing about the mysterious shirt was that the shock it gave him did something no amount of coffee could ever do: make someone go from more than half asleep to wide awake in about 1.4 seconds.

Yuugi did something anyone and everyone would've done in the same situation; he panicked. The material was kind of soft and looked loose enough to come off. He grabbed at the belts' buckles in an attempt to loosen them enough to remove the shirt, but they were stuck good. If he wasn't panicking, he might've noticed after the first five minutes that it was hopeless to struggle against the thing. It obviously didn't want to come off.

But, it's amazing what panic can do to an already stressed teenage mind.

"Yuugi!" His grandpa's voice made him stop trying to bite through the darn thing long enough to listen. "Isn't it almost time for you to be heading out to school?"

A quick, nervous glance at the clock confirmed that yes, it was about time for him to be heading out the door. Time flies when you're having a panic attack.

Yuugi's school has a somewhat strict uniform policy, and that punk shirt would definitely not fit with school standards. Now he knew messing with it would just waste more time, so he grabbed the nearest uniform shirt and yanked it over the leather. After fussing with getting his hair through, he looked in the mirror and saw that the top part of it was still visible along with the choker. They didn't have a necklace policy, so it should be okay.

"Yuugi!"

"I'll be down in a second!" He answered Jii-chan's worried call. He grabbed his jacket, unknowingly grabbed the completed Puzzle's cord (which he had attached before it was solved), and yanked on a pair of pants and socks. No time for sock solitaire this morning.

Let's take a step back out of his house. No, we're not stalkers, but he's going to run out the door any—there we go. Yuugi dashed out of his house with more than half a piece of toast sticking out of his mouth. The Puzzle jumped about on its cord completely unnoticed from the youth. It would only take a few minutes for the eustress to wear off, and by the time he got to school he'd be closer to the half asleep state of mind.

But I'm sure some of you are wondering "What exactly happened that previous night?" Well, who am I to spoil it for you.

(A/N: Honestly, has no one else noticed that shirt's strange appearance directly after Yuugi solved the Puzzle and is always seen wearing it in the following episodes except at the pool and during PE? And a good kid like Yuugi would never buy something like that… willingly, at least.)

Anzu was currently walking down the road with Jonouchi-kun, who was strangely silent. The sun was going down, so both of them wore jackets in an attempt to fight off the evening chill. They were on their way to Yuugi's after they read the news and met up halfway there. The news was Mr. Kanekura, the museum director, had died due to heart attack. Jonouchi-kun was probably trying to cope with the fact someone they just met died.

Anzu's mind was thinking about something entirely different. Yuugi, to be exact.

She had been friends with the little starhead through much of their childhood. He had always been a little different, wanting to play his kind of games (such as checkers or puzzles) instead of sports. (His height never really helped much, she couldn't help but point out.) That day weeks ago in the classroom, she wasn't surprised at all that Jonouchi-kun and Honda were picking on him or that he refused basketball to work on a shiny puzzle. No, the changes started happening two days after that.

They weren't very big or noticeable. It was the kind of thing like when you stare at a clock all day every day for a long time, and one day the first thing you notice is the rim of the clock is the wrong shade of grey. It's subtle enough to go by unnoticed from everyone except for those who bothered to look around them every once in a while. Some were like getting smacked by a billboard, though.

Like Jonouchi-kun and Honda-kun becoming friends with Yuugi. Who could've seen that coming?

But it was Yuugi that changed the most. He seemed to finally be opening up to more people than just herself and his grandpa. And it looks like some of Jonouchi-kun's confidence is starting to rub off on him. Things were staring to look up for him.

"But, he's starting to worry me." Anzu thought. "During those times when we need each other for help, he always seems to disappear. Then he shows up again with whatever we were looking for, and he doesn't remember where he found it."

The most recent time had been when Honda lost Miho-chan's D-Shock wristwatch. They stayed in the arcade for hours on end after Miho slapped him and called him an idiot till she got out the door. He had even gotten so desperate that he picked up one of the bigger games and had been restrained by two of the employees. Both she and Jonouchi-kun ran over to make sure he didn't get in trouble. It took awhile to convince them and left all three drained. She noticed that there were only three of them (meaning Yuugi went missing again), and when she brought it up the others didn't know where he went either. Their worries were put to rest a few minutes later.

Flashback

"You found it!? It's true! Yes! It's found!" Honda exclaimed while rubbing his face on it.

"So it was under the stairs?" Jonouchi asked Yuugi, mostly ignoring Honda's show of affection.

"Yeah."

"Why would it be there?"

"Also, what happened to your face?" Anzu asked before he could answer Jonouchi.

"I'd like to joke about this…" Yuugi paused while giving an apologetic smile, "but I can't remember what happened."

"Thank goodness! With this I can face Miho-chan! This really is great! Thank you, Yuugi!" Honda cried, literally.

Jonouchi looked like he was going to sigh, Yuugi looked overjoyed, and Anzu looked slightly embarrassed which melted into a thoughtful frown. "They all just swept Yuugi's memory lapse under the rug."

End Flashback

"Yo! Yuugi!"

Jonouchi's voice snapped Anzu out of her memories. Standing in front of them were Yuugi and his grandpa, the former of which was still wearing his school uniform. His grandpa had just thrown a heavy coat over his overalls. To not seem out of place, she waved.

"Jonouchi! Anzu!" Yuugi exclaimed as he waved back. Anzu looked over him to check if there was anything different… Nope, same ol' Yuugi.

"We just saw the news about Kanekura!" Jonouchi explained.

"And we just met him! What a shock!" Anzu snuck in before Jonouchi got a chance to.

"We were coming to hook up with you guys and then go visit the Professor! I bet he knows the details of the case!" Jonouchi stated while Anzu fought not to roll her eyes.

"Sure, let's talk to someone whose partner died about the death! Jonouchi can be so heartless sometimes."

"Ho ho… Shall we go together, then?" Ojii-chan suggested. Worry flashed across Yuugi's face, but it disappeared before Anzu could register what it was.

"I just know there's a curse!" Three guesses as to who said that.

"There he goes again," Anzu thought, "the moron!"

"Anzu… Jonouchi…" Yuugi started in a small voice. When he got both of their attention, he continued. "I think it would be better if you didn't go." He brought his pleading violet eyes up to ours. "I just get this feeling…"

A collective "Huh?" went between the pair before Anzu replied. "We're all right, Yuugi! You're worried that Jonouchi's afraid of the curse, aren't you?"

"Yeah! I'm not really scared!!" Jonouchi reassured him. "Professor Yoshimori showed us around the museum! We're worried about him just like you are! He seems like a good guy!"

"Y-Yeah, you're right! I'm sorry for acting weird…" Yuugi smiled and trailed off.

"Ho ho," Ojii-chan reminded us that he was there. "Then, let's be off!"

But Yuugi wasn't really paying attention. He was staring down at the Puzzle in his hands. Anzu followed his gaze.

"Come to think of it, everything started the day after Yuugi finished the Puzzle." Anzu guessed. "I wonder if it's connected…"

It wouldn't be until much later that she would see how right she was.

(A/N: I had to watch the ending of 4 so many times to get that flashback dialogue right. Acourse, watching Yami say "How pathetic." in a really creepy way made it all worthwhile. The rest of the dialogue after the flashback was taken directly from Volume 2 (they use a lot of exclamation marks…). Beat that!)

Aside from wanting to kill Miho, some really crappy animation, and Yami sounding kind of like a girl (I think he sounds better that way. Go ahead and flame me on that.), I stand by everything I said about Season Zero. Episode 6 is like a horror movie.

Teral: Go Anzu, go! Choke the life out of him!

Wait, lemme guess, "Who's him?" right? Why, Yuugi of course. Now, enough spoilers, go watch it already!

Laret: Please leave a review, it really doesn't take that long.

Kemay: And here are the translations!

Jii-chan/Ojii-chan… Grandpa or Old man (It's only offensive if you say to a man who isn't old or is in denial.)

-chan, -kun… It's an honorific term. Don't ask.

Mutou Yuugi… The Japanese put last names before first names. Just don't ask.

Yami no Gamu… Yami Games (Or Shadow Games if you're more familiar with the dubbed.)

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