Everything
Disclaimer: Obviously I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh! or anything that has to do with the anime/manga.
Claimer: I fully own Ichidou Yachitose and her family, Mrs. Suteki Iyashii, Suteki's deceased father and mother, Ryougi, Karei, Sumizome, and Miss Jishi. Please don't use them in any form without my permission.
Full Summary: 12 years have passed since Yami's former host, Yugi, passed away and since then the Pharaoh has remained dormant within the Millennium Puzzle. When the Puzzle is given to a 16-year old girl named Ichidou Yachitose, events follow that leave both Yami and her changed forever, including the rivalry between some old characters' grandchildren and Ichidou and the simple fact that Seto Kaiba though old is still very much alive and not too friendly towards the teenager.
A/N: I hope you all like this! The title comes from a song that I'm going to use in a later chapter. Whoever guesses the correct song gets an invisible prize! Air! laughs Lame, I know, but I don't care. -
Seto Kaiba frowned at his guest, a middle-aged woman adorned in a crisp silver business suit and skirt, her long chocolate-colored tresses just brushing the middle of her back. "I know why you've come, Mrs. Iyashii, and the answer is still no. Your grandfather entrusted the artifact to me to give to Ichidou Yachitose on her sixteenth birthday," the elderly man reminded her.
"Ah, but, Mr. Kaiba," pleaded Mrs. Iyashii. "You know as well as I do that Grandpa Yugi had no will. My grandmother and I are his only living relatives so naturally we should be given his most prized possession."
"That is an incorrect assumption, Mrs. Iyashii," Kaiba explained darkly. "I was given the Puzzle by your grandfather, therefore it is mine, not Yugi's. Now are there any more questions otherwise I'd like to end this senseless meeting?"
"Don't you understand what'll happen if this girl gets the Puzzle?" shrieked Mrs. Iyashii. "The Pharaoh will be under her control, and I doubt she should be given the Puzzle at such a young age anyway!"
Kaiba's frown deepened, causing wrinkles to lengthen on his aged face. "Yugi Mutou was a freshman in high school when he completed the Puzzle. I'm sure we can trust someone even older and who was in Yugi's prophesy. Now, that is all the time I will waste on you." He took a small sip from his glass of wine and tapped a buzzer on the top of his desk.
"Yes, Mr. Kaiba?" inquired one of his secretaries, young Miss Jishi, politely.
"Please have my ototo escort Miss Iyashii out of Kaiba Corp. as he requested earlier," replied Kaiba coolly.
"Yes, sir."
Mrs. Suteki Iyashii's remaining saccharine behavior vanished and, after a moment of just her fingers twitching in fury, she accused, "How can you even think of entrusting a sacred relic, such as the Millennium Puzzle, to a teenager who we know nearly nothing about?"
"Several years ago, the Millennium Necklace foretold that Ichidou Yachitose would receive the Millennium Puzzle from me after Yugi's death," answered Kaiba as Mokuba appeared. Kaiba's ototo now had shorter hair that was still quite dark with the occasional streak of gray.
Mokuba scowled at Mrs. Iyashii who glared right back at him and got to her feet, her purse clasped tightly in her tiny fists. She turned her head back sharply to Seto and queried heatedly, "Just tell me this, where are the other Millennium Items?"
"I believe Anzu Mutou has the answer to that," said Seto Kaiba simply.
Mrs. Iyashii narrowed her amber eyes slightly and nodded. Then she turned and stormed out of Kaiba's office, Mokuba behind her.
With his visitor and ototo gone, Seto safely went over to a wide metal door in one corner of his office and typed a quick code onto the fingerprint sensitive pad to the right of the entrance. The door slid open and Seto stepped inside. Along with other prized belongings like his deck of Duel Monsters cards and several old pictures, there was a reinforced glass case with a golden upside-down triangular with a large eye in its center. It was on a thick chain that hung from a hook at the top of the inside of the container. The Millennium Puzzle, a treasure with so many enigmas it would make even the brightest archeologists' heads spin. No, Seto Kaiba wouldn't let Yugi's granddaughter take the precious treasure. He had promised the King of Games that he would keep the Puzzle safe and out of anyone's hands until the Puzzle's future host was ready.
Several decades before Kaiba wouldn't have believed in any of it. The Heart of the Cards, the Pharaoh, the Millennium Items' hidden powers; he just wouldn't have understood the secrets of Duel Monsters and the Pharaoh within the Puzzle. But he did believe and had the resources to protect the Puzzle. He had been in the prophecy, so Yugi had given the Puzzle to him only a month before he had passed away. Even though Kaiba wouldn't admit it, Mokuba, Jounouchi and Mai Katsuya, and Anzu strongly believed that the CEO of Kaiba Corp. actually missed his old Dueling rival.
Seto studied the Puzzle before turning away. 'In two months this Ichidou Yachitose girl will be sixteen and I'll have to give the Puzzle to her,' he realized.
He strolled out of the room, locking the metal door behind him, and went over to the large glass windows over-looking the front entrance of Kaiba Corp. below. He watched in barely-disguised amusement as his ototo pushed Suteki Iyashii out the door. He could tell it was Mokuba by his long, dark hair and Mrs. Iyashii by her common attire. It was a rare thing indeed to see Yugi Mutou's granddaughter adorned in anything else but suits.
Seto turned back to his desk and sat down. He had done quite a bit of research on Miss Ichidou Yachitose. She was a reasonably good student and her only living relations were her mother and two grandparents. She hadn't even been born when the Millennium Necklace showed Yugi the Yachitose Premonition, as it was commonly called among Yugi's family and friends. Four years afterwards a little baby girl was named Ichidou Yachitose, and Yugi confirmed that she was the one in his prediction.
Only a few years later Yugi died and the Pharaoh Yami became dormant within the Millennium Puzzle. The period of inactivity would end soon enough though by the hands of a speculative teenage girl.
Ichidou Yachitose was, in fact, quite adamant on becoming an author and Duel Monsters Champion. She was ruffling through her deck wondering, for what felt like the millionth time, if she should enter the local Dueling competition. She didn't think she was very first-rate at the game, and the thought of losing in front of so many people in her hometown made her cringe.
She looked up and brushed a few rebellious locks of straight brunette hair out of her face. The chocolate-colored tresses were pooling onto her shoulders and out of her messy ponytail. She took the ponytail all the way out and uncrossed her legs. She hopped off her bed, causing it to emit a squeak, and bounded over to her cork bulletin board on her bedroom wall. Her calendar stated quite clearly it was only three weeks until her birthday, and she grinned. 'Sweet sixteen!' she reminded herself. She couldn't drive a car and had a feeling she wouldn't be allowed to learn how to for some time. The prospect of having to drive her okaasan, Kyouko's, old car didn't dampen her spirits any. She liked the vehicle even though the cerulean paint was flaking and the hood was dented. It had been owned by her okaasan for as long as she remembered and held so many memories they pretty much out-weighed the annoying hacking sound the car made at times.
Ichidou went over to her mirror above her wooden dresser and remade her ponytail. Her bright emerald eyes glittered back at her. She was garbed in baggy blue jeans and a navy T-shirt that was too big in the shoulders, causing the sleeves to sag.
She rotated to the right and hurried out of her room, down the hallway causing the bare wooden floorboards to groan, and down the stairs. "'Kaasan!" she called.
"Hai, Ichi?" came a reply from the kitchen of the small two-story home.
Ichidou strolled down another hallway, going past the living room entrance, and pushed open the door leading into the kitchen. Ichidou's bare feet made little sound as she walked across the linoleum floor and to the table on the right side of the room. Her okaasan was sitting there, reading a thick book with a faded black cover and yellowing pages. Some of the pages were creased and each time Kyouko came to one of them she would carefully unfold them and press down.
Kyouko looked up at the ti-n'e-ja and smiled. "You're going out with Ryougi?"
"Yeah, we're going to Karei's party," answered Ichidou, snatching her red jacket off of the hook on the wall by the backdoor of the kitchen.
"You'll be back by eleven I presume?" asked Kyouko.
"Hai, that creep Sumizome Naifu, Karei's boyfriend, tends to show up at midnight and usually gets drunk, so I'm staying clear of him," said Ichidou.
"Isn't he underage?" Kyouko inquired.
"Non, he's twenty-two," stated Ichidou neutrally.
"Isn't Karei your age?"
"Hai."
Kyouko looked a bit leery but her daughter's frank attitude made her smile slightly. "All right, but be careful or you're in big trouble, Ichidou," she finally said.
"Hai, 'Kaasan," muttered Ichidou, giving her okaasan a kiss on the cheek and leaving through the backdoor and out into the side alley.
She waited at the end of the alleyway, peering at the street and waiting for her boyfriend's father's red jeep to pull up. Considering the fact that Ryougi could drive and frequently barrowed his dad's car, he was the one that pulled up a few minutes later. He smirked at her and shouted, "Hop in, Ichidou!"
"Ooi, Ryougi!" Ichidou said, climbing onto the seat beside his.
"All set?" queried Ryougi.
"Hai."
"Then let's get this party started."
"Go away!" screamed Ichidou out her bedroom window.
Down below Ryougi hollered, "Shimatta, Ichidou! I told you I was sorry!"
"Sorry?" shrieked Ichidou; she was nearly hysterical now. "You were making out with Karei! If Sumizome hadn't shown up early and beaten you up, I would've!"
"Oh, come on, Ichidou!" pleaded Ryougi; his lip was still swollen due to the rough treatment he had received from the party host's boyfriend.
"I told you we're through and I meant it, you pig!" Ichidou roared. And with that said she closed the window and plopped down on her bed and fumed. She had been livid when she had seen Ryougi and Karei together and, when she had gotten home she had sobbed. Now she was through being sad and back to wrath.
She silently called him every curse she knew before turning to the calendar on the bulletin board. Only two weeks until her birthday, and she was totally dateless for the birthday party her friends and family were holding. She shrugged and crossed her arms. 'Good riddance!' she told herself. 'I'm not gonna let that jerk ruin my sweet sixteen!'
She leaned back and grimaced as she miscalculated and banged her skull on the headboard of her bed instead of her pillow like she had planned. "I jinxed myself," she mumbled before resting her head comfortably on her pale blue pillow and closing her deep green eyes.
August sixth marked several important points in time. First of all, Seto Kaiba removed the Millennium Puzzle from his vault and had his limousine bring him to the Yachitose residence a little after six o'clock. Meanwhile, Ichidou's friends and family bustled through the house getting it ready for Ichidou who was at her grandparents' home helping her obaasan bake her birthday cake, a three layer strawberry paradise.
At three-thirty Ichidou and her obaasan returned to the Yachitose house to find a living room covered in sky blue streamers, navy balloons, and numerous smiling faces. "Happy birthday!" they yelled, causing Ichidou to grin and blush joyfully.
They celebrated, ate dinner, and even had dessert, the delicious cake. At five her friends left so that Kyouko and Ichidou could celebrate alone, and Kyouko went upstairs to rest. She was weary after events such as gatherings of many people. Her body had a low tolerance for such things. She would be geared up to go in only a couple of hours though.
The doorbell rang and Ichidou yelled, "I'll get it!" She opened the door to see an old man decked in a blue suit, a black limousine behind him, and a dark suitcase in his hand.
"Miss Yachitose?" Seto Kaiba inquired in a composed, impartial manner.
A/N: Hope you liked it! This is my first Yu-Gi-Oh! fanfic!
A/N 2: Here are the Japanese Translations:
Ototo=younger brother
'Kaasan=informal way of saying mother
Hai=yes
Okaasan=mother
Ti-n'e-ja=teenager
Non=no
Ooi=hey!
Shimatta=damn it!
Obaasan=grandmother
And the OC Name Translations:
Ichidou=one road, a ray (of hope),
Yachitose=thousands of years, eternity
Ichi=one, Ichidou's mother's nickname for her daughter
Kyouko=firmness, stability, security, strength
Ryougi=double meaning, two meanings
Karei=beauty
Sumizome=dying black, dyed black, dark
Naifu=knife
I'm using a dictionary website to translate these so there could be errors. Please let me know if there is.
A/N 3: By the way, don't forget to review!!!!!!!! Bye!