~ Chapter 1 ~

Nozomi was sitting down on the roof watching the clouds go by. It was a perfect day which was unfortunate since she and her friends couldn't practice. Everyone had to do something important today regarding their family. Nozomi took this chance to relax on the roof since her family was off in another country.

"I wonder how everyone is doing?"

She lifted her left arm to see her bracelet shine in the sunlight. She was given this in by her parents the last time that they came. The piece of jewelry wasn't that important to her. She did know that it was a family heirloom.

"I wonder."

She closed her eyes and let the heat of the sun drift her off to sleep. Unknown to her, the bracelet faintly glowed for a moment as a crow went by.

"Is she alive?"

"How should I know?"

"I'm gonna get help!"

Nozomi continued to hear these little voices in her head. She started to shift herself as a preparation in order to get up. She could still the voices trying to talk to her.

"Look she's getting up!"

"Stand back Hikari."

Nozomi felt something wet on her face. It was almost like someone was licking her. She sat up to see what was going on. Nozomi had to give herself a moment for her vision to come back. When she opened her eyes she was greeted by two little kids and a dog.

She took a good look at both kids. One was a girl the other a boy, but both wore worn-out clothes. This surprised Nozomi. She never saw people in dressed like this before, but she noticed that their eyes didn't have any sadness in them.

"Hello," Nozomi greeted. "Do you know where I am?"

"Where you are?" the little boy repeated.

"Hikari! Daichi!"

Nozomi looked behind the children to see a young teenager about her age running towards them. He had a little boy running next to him that she guessed was one of the ones she heard earlier.

"Crow! We found this lady on the ground," the little girl, Hikari, explained.

"I told you guys about talking to strangers," he scolded.

"But Crow!" Hikari started.

Nozomi took a good look at this "Crow" when he got closer to her. He had tanned skin that went well with his gray eyes. She guessed that his headband was pushing up his orange hair because hair shouldn't stick out like that. Nozomi mainly notices the weird markings on his face.

Crow looked closer at Nozomi. A confused look painted his face but was quickly wash away. He put his hands on his hips.

"I never saw you before."

"My name is Nozomi Tojo."

As Nozomi tried to stand, she felt her knee buckle down. Crow caught her before could fall. They both looked down and saw that Nozomi's left knee was bleeding.

"See! She's hurt!" Hikari pointed out.

"Here sit down and stretch out your leg."

"Yes, sir."

Crow frown but soon started to laugh.

"You don't have to use sir. We're the same age right?"

"Right," Nozomi smiled.

Despite his looks, Crow seemed to be a nice guy.

"We need to stop the bleeding."

"You can use my bandana," the boy who was running with Crow said.

He pulled off the bandana from his head and handed it to Crow.

"Thanks, Taiga."

Crow flipped the bandana over and used the side that wasn't in contact with Taiga's hair. He wrapped the fabric over Nozomi's wound.

"Just take it slow."

"Right."

With Crow's help, Nozomi managed to get back up. Her wound still hurt, but at least the bleeding stopped.

"Thank you very much, Crow."

"It's no problem. Just be more careful there are some pretty bad people here in the Satellite."

"Satellite?" Nozomi repeated. "Is that where I am?"

The children looked at each other in confusion. How did she not know where she was? Was she from the city? Even so, the people there would never come here. Crow vocalized his confused.

"Huh?"

"Is there something wrong?"

"You must be from far away if you don't know about the Satellite. Where are you from anyway?"

"I'm from-"

Nozomi lost her train of thought when she noticed a monster like bird next to Crow. The bird's body feathers were a dark purple, but its head feathers were green. This is the only way Nozomi figured it was a bird since it didn't have a beak. The eyes of the monster made Nozomi very uncomfortable since it seemed like it was pricing through her.

"What's wrong?"

"There's a creepy bird next to you Crow."

Nozomi pointed to his right. Crow looked but only saw an empty space.

"Crow," Hikari whispered.

"Hm?"

"I think she hit her head."

"I think so too," Crow whispered back.

"Can't you see it? It's a bird without a beak and it has purple feathers."

"Purple feathers?"

"With green feathers on its head."

Crow stared at Nozomi. The description she gave sound familiar to him. It then hit him. She was describing one of his cards. He pulled out the card in question, which was Blackwing - Gale the Whirlwind, and showed it to Nozomi.

"Did it looked like something like this?"

"Yes."

"How did you guess he had that card?" Daichi asked.

"I saw it," Nozomi answered.

"You got some freaky powers there Nozomi," Crow commented.

"You think so?"

"Well, I never saw anyone who could do see someone else monsters without at least them dueling them before."

"So people in this world can't see those card monsters naturally like I can," Nozomi noted.

"Well I can't leave you here like this. Especially if you don't know your way around here."

"Crow is coming to stay with us?" Hikari asked.

"Yeah. She can crash with us."

"Thank you, Crow," Nozomi bowed.

"Hey now no need to be formal with me."

"Right."

"Now follow us. We'll lead the way."

Nozomi nodded and followed natives. On their walk, Nozomi not only watched how they interacted with each other but also looked at her surroundings. The building was all run down to a point were Nozomi didn't know if people could live there. Crow noticed her looking at the buildings.

"Don't worry nothing gonna jump out of ya. We're in a safe spot."

"Right."

"Crow!" a little girl in a pink dress yelled.

"You're back!" a boy in an orange jacket added.

"I told y'all I would be right back."

The little girl noticed Nozomi standing a little far back. The elder girl gave her a gentle smile.

"Hello. My name is Nozomi. What's yours?"

"Kokoro."

"That's a beautiful name."

Kokoro blushed at the compliment.

"Well, my name is Hikari!"

"That's a beautiful name too."

Both girls continued to fight for Nozomi's attention. The boys watched them.

"Where did she come from?" the boy with the orange jacket asked.

"Me and Hikari found her on the ground."

"I couldn't leave her alone so she'll be crashing with us for a little while."

Crow looked at Nozomi. He was looking at her clothes to be exact. Someone like her with her type of clothing and body type would certainly be attacked by some people in the Satellite. He shuddered to think what could have happened to her if the kids didn't find her.

"Ok," both boys replied. They didn't question his decision since it was Crow.

The rest of the afternoon was filled with the children playing with Nozomi. Crow stood off to the side watching them. Even though he said that he would let Nozomi stay with them, Crow didn't know anything about the purple haired girl.

She seemed harmless. The kids loved her. She could be the politest person she ever met. These were the good things Crow noticed about her.

The things that got him wondering was how she knew nothing about where she was. He guessed that she had amnesia. He wondered if she was a duelist. If she was that means that she talk to them anytime she could or at least see them.

"It is pretty cool if I could talk to my monsters," he said out loud.

When It got darker everyone decided to head in for the night. All of the kids were tired from their day of fun with Nozomi. Once they went to bed, Crow grabbed two drinks from the refrigerator and tossed one to Nozomi.

"Thank you."

"No problem."

Nozomi looked at the bottle to see what it was. Even though she didn't know any of the brands here, she knew that what Crow gave her a beer of some sort. Was the drinking age of this place seventeen?

"To be fair this world doesn't seem to care about a thing like that," Nozomi thought.

Nozomi took a sip of the beer. She must have made a face because Crow started to laugh.

"I can get you something else if you want?"

"No, I'm fine."

Nozomi took another sip to show that she was fine with the drink. Crow shook his head.

"Well do you want something to eat? You barely had anything for dinner."

"No thanks. I'm not hungry."

"If you say so."

It's true that Nozomi wasn't hungry, but there was another reason why she didn't eat much earlier. They already had a little amount of food. She didn't want to take things that they needed.

"Don't worry about us."

Nozomi's head shot up at Crow's words.

"I'll always make sure that we have what we need."

Nozomi nodded. He must have been looking after them for a while now to be so sure of himself.

"Do you know why you were in the middle of the road when we found you?" Crow asked.

"I was asleep on the roof of my school then the next thing I knew a dog licked me awake."

"I don't know what type of school you came from but there's no way you came from the Satellite. Your uniform is too fancy for this place."

Nozomi looked at her uniform. It was true that her outfit stood out. Not by it being a school uniform but by it looking so new.

"Do you know where your family is?"

Nozomi thought for a moment. Where were her parents right now? They traveled so much it was hard to keep track. Did they even tell her where they were?

"They could be anywhere," Nozomi shrugged.

Crow noticed how Nozomi didn't seem to care about her parents. He decided not to push the issue.

"Well, you can stay here as long as you want."

"Thank you."

Nozomi looked at her right. There was a motorcycle that seemed to have wings on it. She knew it was Crow's since he could be only one able to drive it.

"You like it? It's my Duel Runner, Blackbird."

"I never have seen anything like it."

"Yeah, this bad boy got me out of a lot of trouble," Crow laughed. "Sector Security can never catch up with me."

"Sector Security?"

"Yeah. They say that they want to keep the peace, but that's impossible to do with the way they treat us. Don't do anything that can get you in trouble with them."

Nozomi was about to ask a question, but something else caught her eye.

"That bird is out again."

"Huh?"

"Gale."

"How are you able to see it?"

"I don't know. It's just there staring at me."

The bird tilted its head before disappearing once again. Nozomi wondered if there was something wrong with it.

"Wel, I see you in the morning. Night."

"Night."

Crow drank the last of his drink before heading off to his room. Nozomi slept on the couch. Crow's place had only two bedrooms, which both were being used. The children shared the bigger bedroom while Crow got the other.

"What is this place?"

Nozomi woke up in a field that was covered in dead flowers. This wasn't the Satellite and it certainly wasn't home.

"You don't belong here," a voice said.

Nozomi turned around to see Gale.

"Did you just talk?"

"You're acting like this is the weirdest thing to ever happened to you."

"I already liked you better when you couldn't talk."

"Why are you here?"

"I don't know."

"That's not good enough."

"But it's true. I don't even know where my friends are in this world."

"You are the only one."

"Huh?"

Gale's eyes opened even more once footsteps could be heard. She flapped her wings and flew above Nozomi. Once she found the ones who were coming she started to fly away.

"Human you should leave."

"Wait! What's going on?"

Gale didn't answer her question for she was too far away to even hear Nozomi. Nozomi looked in the direction of where the footsteps were coming from. Multiple monkeys in armor were running towards her. She didn't have to think twice about running away.

"If this is a dream I need to wake up now!" Nozomi yelled.

Nozomi ran as fast as she could. Whatever the monkeys wanted it couldn't be good. She turned around to see that they were getting closer. Panicking, Nozomi started throwing little rocks she found in hopes that would slow them down.

"Someone help me!"

Not looking where she was going, Nozomi tripped over something. She saw that she tripped over a deck of blank cards.

"What the?"

Knowing that the monkeys will catch her, Nozomi closed her eyes and braced herself. She waited for the monkeys to attack her, but it never happened. She opened her eyes after a moment. She was back at Crow's hideout... on the floor.

"Was all that a dream?"

She figured that it was more than a dream at the sight of a deck of cards in front of her. She picked it up and stared at the item.

"I wonder if I woke anyone up?"

Nozomi sat up and waited to see if she accidentally woke someone up. She didn't hear anything. Since going back to sleep wasn't an option for her, Nozomi decided to take a walk outside to get some fresh air. She made that she wasn't far away from the others. On her walk, Nozomi decided to look at the deck of blank cards that had tripped her in her dream.

It was a rather quiet walk until she heard a police siren. Being a curious person that she is, Nozomi decided to check it out. She was two men in police uniforms huddling around a woman. Nozomi noticed that a small child was in the building behind the woman.

"Will you just leave me alone!" the woman yelled.

"Can't do that. You've been charged with burglary."

"I haven't stolen anything!"

"Keep telling yourself that."

One of the men walked up to her with a pair of handcuffs. The woman pulled out a disk-shaped object from behind her. The little was pulling one out to until the woman stopped her.

"I'll fight for my freedom!"

"These people don't know when to give up."

"Might as well. There's nothing better to do."

Nozomi watched as the woman placed a deck of cards in the machine.

"I have to help her," Nozomi declared.

Nozomi took a deep breath before taking a step forward. She knew that she shouldn't be trying to fight them by what Crow said, but she couldn't help it. Nozomi felt her right hand, which was the one holding her cards, heat up. She looked at the deck to see that it was not only heating up but also glowing a scarlet red color.

'Use me.'

"Huh?"

'Use me.'

"Which one are you?"

Nozomi looked through the cards until she saw the one who was causing the heat. The card had a picture of a woman with short brown and red spiky hair holding fireballs in her hand. She seemed to be wearing armor with a sword strapped to her side.

"Let's duel!" the others yelled.

'USE ME!'

Nozomi pulled out the card and called the monster out.

"Maiden of Sins - Rage!"

The woman appears in front of Nozomi. Smirking, she pulled out her sword and let flames consume it. With a flick of her wrist, the fire monster used her sword to set fire to the Sector Security's car. It didn't take long for it to explode.

"What the hell?!" one of the men yelled.

"Let's see what else can I do," Rage said to herself.

Rage swung her sword again, but this time she aimed at the men. The men screamed as they ran away. The woman took this opportunity to grab the little girl and escape.

"S-stop it," Nozomi wheezed.

Rage looked at her. She had used too much power summoning her here. Rage shrugged her shoulders. It should be expected that she couldn't do it.

"Hurry up and get out of here."

Nozomi nodded and hobbled off back to Crow's hideout. She collapsed on the couch and draped a blanket over her. Her mind was going in and out. She finally let the exhaustion take over and drifted off to sleep.

She could already tell this was the beginning.

This took me a while to write. All of the stories connect starting with Love Live Trainer Idol Project, then it's another story that I haven't started yet and the character-centered stories.

Nozomi's powers stem from her 'spiritual powers' aka I couldn't decide if she should see spirits or have psychic powers. I couldn't make a deck that would fit her, so I made my own.

Maiden of Sins - Rage

Type: Monster

Attribute: Fire

Sub-Type: Warrior

Level: 4

Attack: 1300 Defense: 500

Effect: When this monster is face-up in attack position it gains 500 attack points.