Chapter One
Disappearance

She was called a monster, a being with no other desire but to cause pain. Through the many years that had gone by, Izayoi Aki has suffered the resentment of her so-called friends, the people of the city, and above all, her mother and father. Everything changed and her happy memories faded away ever since the incident and the appearance of what she believed as a wretched mark, the mark of a dragon claw. Just like how the world resented her, she resented it back with a feeling that nobody understands her and a locked heart that wouldn't seem to break its shackles. But, she didn't know that her view of things would send doubts in her head the moment she met him, Fudo Yusei.

As a teenager, she found herself enrolled as a first year in the Duel Academia of the city. Being there wasn't exactly too healthy for her emotion: eyes gazed up to her but they weren't eyes of amazement, they were eyes of fear and disgust; Every time she entered the classroom, silence suddenly falls, just enough to hear murmurs of people who spread ill rumors about her. She felt like she wasn't even part of this world, an outcast that doesn't deserve to live. All people treated her like this except for one who understands her feelings, a person who claims that he can crush the shackles of her closed heart.

On a casual school day, she was called for a practical duel against a classmate of hers. She entered the stadium with the usual expresionless face she had, a cold feeling that no one expected to change. She could already hear the loud jeerings of the students, calling her monster or freak. The stadium was a sea of people but she could still notice Yusei who was silent as usual and didn't bother to join the scornful yells of her classmates. Seeing this made her heart slightly beat faster and her face to turn a bit pink, something she couldn't explain. Perhaps he was right, perhaps he was the only one that could understand all of her suffering. It hadn't occured to her that the duel would bring about an expected turn of events in her life.

"Violet Witch, attack!" she cried.

The monster fired a yellowish blast that sent her opponent staggering backwards but it didn't stop, the witch continued to shoot an array of blasts and before Aki even knew it, the whole stadium was on fire. Her eyes widened in shock: she couldn't believe what she had just done, how her powers went out of control and caused this much destruction. That day marked a new chapter in her dreadful life. The next was just as worse as she thought it would be: even though everyone managed to escape the outbreak of flames, her classmates and even the others grew more distant from her. The news had reached her parents, causing another rift or boundary in their relationship.

After hours, the school day finally came to a close and as Aki fixed her things, someone she least expected to see approached her.

"What do you want with me, Fudo Yusei?" she asked in a cold tone.

Yusei stood behind her, his face full of worry. She had wondered why he was like this and at the very least, approach her unlike anybody else who would instantly move away the moment they saw her. But then again, being used and believing something only to regret it at the very last minute wasn't something new to her. She thought that Yusei is just like anybody who had taken an interest in her, a person who wanted her power for her own selfish reasons. Time seemed to have stopped until.....

"Izayoi, I know how you feel,' said Yusei. "If you just let me, I--"

"Please, save me...." said Aki, her eyes in tears and her voice surprisingly soft.

For a split second, she turned into a intense burst of pruple light and before Yusei even knew it, she had vanished. Yusei's head was full of questions he couldn't comprehend: the last words that Aki had said to her was still ringing in his head. What did she mean by asking him to save her? Since then, Izayoi Aki had been gone missing and is nowhere to be seen again. The news spread far and wide, even reaching the television programs and the newspapers. It occured to Yusei that she was not the only that were missing, others had been reported to be had been taken away by an unusal purple light.

"I bet you someone's gathering all these freaks," said one of Yusei's classmates, laughing with as they mocked their missing classmate. "Serves her right for hurting me in that duel."

Yusei couldn't stand someone saying those words to Aki, especially now that she's been gone for three days. He wondered why her parents hadn't been searching for her and thought that maybe they just don't care, maybe they just want someone with those wierd abilities to disappear from the depths of the planet, even though she was their daughter. Just then, Yusei's thought were interrupted by the sudden opening of the door and there stood three persons: a teacher who he clearly recognized and a man and woman who Yusei instantly thought as Aki's parents.

"Fudo Yusei-kun, Izayoi Aki's parents would like to have a word with you," said the teacher.

Yusei hesitated for a while, wondering why he was to talk with Aki's parents but then, he stood up and went outside the room. As he walked, he could clearly hear his classmates murmur about him and he even heard someone saying that he's involved with the monster.

"Fudo-kun, I have heard from the teachers that you were the last one to talk with my daughter," said Senator Hideo Izayoi, Aki's father.

"Yes, I was with her," said Yusei automatically.

"Do you know where she is, our daughter?" said Setsuko Izayoi, Aki's mother. "We may have been a little hard on our daughter but----"

"I'm sorry but I don't know anything."

Yusei was wrong after all: Aki's parents cared so much deeply about their daughter even though they had been hard on her to the point of her father accidentally calling her monster when she was just a child. As Yusei walked the outskirts of Neo Domino City, these thoughts swirled around his head like a spinning vortex. And then he saw it: a blank card that he didn't recognize. He held the card and to his surprise, flashes of visions came into view: the city was being destroyed and split into two......several unfamiliar people were calling his name.....Aki was saying the words that he had said to him before she disappeared.......

There was someone screaming, trying to break free from his shackles......people running in fear and dread as total destruction engulfs the whole world..........a dark slash-like crack was gradually appearing on the blank card........Aki was crying again and asking Yusei to save her........and, the next visions were fast flashes that Yusei couldn't even intake and see what was happening. He broke free of the vision when the card flew out of his hand. The moment he returned back to reality, he was breathing heavily and felt like his mind would explode anytime soon. Yusei could hardly see when a man shrouded in a white robe appeared, an eye of his gleaming red and the other covered in an infinity-shaped relic.

Yusei held the card again and there was nothing he could see except for a flickering burst of purple light, exactly the same light that Aki's body turned into. In a matter of seconds, his body was being plunged into nothingness and squeezed like rubber until the outskirts of the city disappeared and a dark building with came into view. It was castle-like but fragments of it were scattered on the floor, indicating that this building with an ill atmosphere is nothing but a ruin. It was very silent and Yusei could only hear the clanking of chains until a soft voice spoke, a voice familiar to him.

"Fudo-kun, is that you?" said the soft female voice. "Why are you here?"

Yusei turned and to his surprise, he was right of who it was.

Who is the person that Yusei saw? Next time: Reverse