Note: This is my first Yu-Gi-Oh! fanfic. Um, I'd really just like to know how well I'm keeping the characters in, well, character, and how well you like this...

Chapter One: First Impression

All of the class, even Seto Kaiba, looked up with Mr. Yamada came in at the start of the day. In addition to the black leather suitcase he carried into the classroom, he led a girl of medium height into the classroom. She was pretty in a rare way, and her brown hair was pulled back by a bow. "This is our new transfer student from Hokkaido," Mr. Yamada said. "Sakura, introduce yourself."

"Hajimemashite," Sakura said, bowing as she did so. "My name is Sakura Yaminayama. I like to dabble in the game of Duel Monsters, as I'm sure many of you do." She paused to give a slight smile to Yugi Moto, who blushed, and Seto, who turned away. "And I look forward to learning with you."

"Thank you, Sakura," Mr. Yamada said. "You can take a seat, there in the fourth row."

Seto watched Sakura put down her bag of things and take out a piece of paper and pencil, taking the cue from everyone else. Apparently, she was aware of the gaze, and she gave him a look over her left shoulder. He pretended to look at something else.

"Now, class." Mr. Yamada clapped his hands eagerly. "Let's start on the warm up problem." The students groaned as the teacher turned the over-head on. "A 12-foot ladder stands upright against a vertical wall. If the lower end of the ladder is pulled away from the wall at the rate of 2 ft/sec, how fast is the angle θ between the ladder and the ground changing when the top of the ladder is 6 ft. above the ground?"

Seto chuckled to himself. A related rates problem, he thought. Simple. Although the teacher had introduced the subject only yesterday, he had mastered related rates weeks ago. He worked through the problem, tickled by the thought of other students suffering from such an easy problem.

When he was halfway done, he heard Sakura say, "Excuse me, Yamada-sensei, what do we do when we're finished?"

Seto gasped as he looked up and he was not alone; the whole class was staring at Sakura. Impossible! He thought. How could she have finished before me!?

Mr. Yamada adjusted his glasses. "Well, um, Sakura-san, I usually give the class five minutes to work on the problem, but since you're finished, I suppose you can read a book."

"Thank you, Yamada-sensei," Sakura said, and she dug into her bag for a relatively thin book and began reading.

Mr. Yamada chuckled. "Watch out, Kaiba-kun. It appears you have a contender."

Seto growled softly as the class laughed briefly before it returned to the problem. He noticed Sakura look over her shoulder, give him a quick appraising glance, and return to her book. That grated on his nerves somehow.

After class was dismissed for lunch, Sakura approached Yugi and his friends as he finished beating Joey in a friendly duel. She focused all of her attention on Yugi. "Another victory for the King of Games."

Yugi looked up. "Oh, hey, Sakura. What's up?"

"Oh, nothing. It simply amazes me how you arrived in the Duel Monsters public eye in a whirlwind. You defeated both Seto Kaiba and Maximilian Pegasus, didn't you? And beat the creator of Dungeon Dice Monsters at his own game as well, if I'm not mistaken?"

Yugi chuckled nervously. "Yeah, I did."

"I don't know you very well, and I don't want to be imposing, but may I look through your deck?" Sakura asked. "I'd love to see how a master assembles his deck."

"Sure," Yugi said as he landed her his precious cards. "As a fellow duelist, I'm sure you know how to handle them." Yugi gave Joey a meaningful glance.

"I dropped one card!" Joey said as he ears turned red. "Forget it already!"

"I don't know if I can, Joey. There has to be a law against that somewhere, and forgetting that would be aiding and abetting a criminal," Yugi said. Tristan and Téa laughed.

"Laugh it up, you guys," Joey said. "You'll get yours!" All he got was more laughs. Giving up on them, he asked, "Hey, Sakura, what have you heard about me?"

Seto noticed Sakura gave Joey the same appraising stare he himself had received. "Joey Wheeler, runner-up at Duelist Kingdom." She thought a bit more and shook her head. "I'm afraid that's your claim to fame, other than the fact that you also used to be a nobody until the Duelist Kingdom Tournament."

Joey smiled. "Dat's all right, Sakura." He turned to Tristan. "See, people in Hokkaido do know about me!"

"Whatever," Tristan said. "You're still just second place."

"Tristan!" Joey said as he raised a fist. "I'll show you second place!"

Tristan put his hands up, palms out and open. "Hey, relax, Joey. There are ladies present!"

Téa shook his head. "Boys," she said in a knowledgeable manner to Sakura as she returned Yugi's deck. "Since you're new, Sakura, maybe you'd like to come to Burger World with us after school. Yugi and I could show you around."

"Thanks for the offer ... Téa, is it?" Sakura said. Téa nodded. "But I'm always a little tied-up after school. Maybe later."

"Oh. Okay," Téa said, a little slighted. "Well, whenever's all right with you is fine with us."

"I'll see what I can do," Sakura said as she returned to her desk.

"She seems nice," Joey said.

"Very nice," Tristan said, his eyes following the topic of conversation. "What do you think, Yugi?"

"She's all right," Yugi agreed. "But someone else tops my list."

"What exactly are you guys talking about?" Téa asked.

"Nothing," Tristan said, but his eyes continued to linger elsewhere.

Why would she possibly want to associate with Yugi and his ilk? Seto thought. Someone with her smarts should have the sense not to – He gasped; he'd spied the title of the book Sakura was reading: Machiavelli's Prince.

Sakura turned to look at the source of the gasp, but Seto ducked into his book. He felt more than an appraising glance this time; this gaze was probing, and it grated on his nerves even more.

Seto's impression of Sakura did not change. In fact, the only class she didn't outdo him in was physics. They had a sort of tournament as review for a test in that class, and when he and Sakura went head-to-head, he'd won, but only by a small margin. He watched her as she gracefully returned to her seat, but he could detect no hint of awe. She's not impressed, Seto had thought. To her, I'm just another classmate. He growled. I'll show her.

After school, Seto's limousine pulled up on time, as always. He glanced at Sakura, who he assumed was waiting for her right, before he got in. She noticed his gaze again and gave him a slightly bored look. He turned away. "Kaiba Corporation," he instructed the chauffeur.

"Yes, sir," he said and started the engine. Seto smirked. "For all her smarts and looks, she's just an ordinary girl," he murmured and laughed softly. He turned to catch a last glance at her and gasped.

Sakura was also boarding a limousine and the license plate said OMNITEK. She met his gaze and gave him an amused smile before her limousine drove off.

He growled softly.

Seto arrived at his mansion soon enough. He had given the direction to Kaiba Corp just to impress Sakura. It hadn't worked, so he made the chauffer drive to his house instead.

"Nisama! You're home!" Mokuba yelled as he bounded a couch to hug his brother's leg.

"Hello, Mokuba," Seto said as he returned the hug. "How was your day at school?"

"It was awesome!" Mokuba said. "In music, all of us had to play this song, and I was the only one to play it flawlessly! Then at lunch, I bought the last ice cream sandwich, and it tasted great!" Taking a breath, he asked, "How was your day, Seto?"

Seto let go of Mokuba and sat on the couch. "It was all right."

But Mokuba could tell it wasn't. He joined Seto on the couch. "No really, bro. Something's wrong. Don't worry, you can tell me anything!"

"It's nothing, Mokuba." Seto got out his homework.

"Please?" Mokuba said. He tugged on Seto's sleeve. "You have to tell me!" Mokuba put on his adorable face.

Seto looked at Mokuba and regretted it immediately. Mokuba was his one weak spot, and Mokuba knew it. The puppy-dog face could get him anything he wanted, but he used it mainly to bother his brother. Seto sighed. "A new student from Hokkaido showed me up in all of my classes."

"Nisama, I'm sure you were just having a bad day. He's probably just some ordinary kid," Mokuba said to comfort his brother. "Don't let him get to you."

"Her name's Sakura Yaminayama. Her father owns Omnitek."

"A girl, huh?" Mokuba said with a smile. "It's about time."

"She beat me, in math and in electronics... That's impossible!" Seto continued. He ran his fingers through his hair and thought about what Mokuba had said. "Mokuba, what do you mean, "'It's about time'?"

Mokuba slid off the couch. "Oh, nothing." He left for the kitchen, chuckling to himself.

Seto abandoned his homework and turned the computer on instead. It is just nothing, Seto thought. He typed in his password. And I've got better things to do than worry about her: I've got a company to run.

Above his grandfather's game shop, Yugi was procrastinating again. Instead of doing his homework, he was looking through his deck in an absentminded way. His yami appeared in spirit form. "Yugi, why are you going through your deck? You have no new cards."

"I was just thinking, Yami," Yugi said. Anticipating Yami's next question, he added, "I'll get to my homework later."

"Hmm," the Pharaoh murmured. A little later, he asked, "What was the name of the new girl in class, aibou?"

"Sakura ... Yaminayama, I think. It's an odd last name." Yugi turned to face the Pharaoh. "Why?"

"Aibou, did you notice Kaiba today?" Yami asked.

Yugi was sure there was a point to this but he couldn't think of any. "What about him?"

"He seemed to be giving Sakura a lot of attention..."

"I'm sure he was just jealous," Yugi said. "She did outperform him in nearly all of our classes."

"Is that it?" Yami said. "She is a very pretty girl after all."

Yugi gasped. "Yami! Kaiba ... and Sakura!? That'd never work!"

Yami shrugged his shoulders. "Why not?"

"Kaiba's too ... Kaiba."

Yami chuckled. "If you say so, aibou."