Chapter 1
His eyes stayed wide and staring the spectacle in front of his eyes and Yami's jaw had already hit the floor when Yugi pulled the right trigger and made the last shot of the game.
"Aibou...that was incredible. You didn't even use a shield to defeat that grinder at the end..." he shook his head with an impressed smile.
Yugi smirked a little and put down the controller. "Ah, it would have just slowed me down." The shorter sat cross-legged on the couch, eyes glinting at his victory in his game.
The weekend, like most students, was their favourite time, for the same reasons even if the other didn't know it. The pair would hang out, duel, play games, take trips into the middle of Domino, and generally enjoy the other's company.
This weekend saw them without the companions they would normally have, with Jou working, Honda visiting a friend and Anzu currently taking her dance exam. All four had assured her that the girl would pass the exam with flying colours. So the two were engrossed in a little XBox gaming. "Hey I'm gonna get a soda. You want something, Hikari?"
"Um, I'll have a scotch on the rocks with a twist, and a couple of hundred dollars wouldn't go amiss either," he turned his head and gave a cheeky grin.
"So, you'll have a soda as well?"
"Yup."
---
Something was travelling on the wind. It flew across Domino City, undetected by anyone, even the item bearers of the city. It was getting closer and closer to it's destination as it swooped down between two buildings and into an alleyway. Just up ahead was a tall girl with short brown hair and blue eyes. Satisfaction filled the creature's mind.
Perfect.
Anzu had just finished her dancing exam, and was heading to the Game Shop. Yugi had demanded that she come after her exam and tell them all about it. It had gone well, only a couple of mistakes in her routine. Her dream was just a little closer. Anzu shivered. It suddenly felt very chilly. She paused for a moment, glancing around the alleyway she was in. Something about it was giving her the creeps.
She started to walk again, but eventually broke out into a run as she felt eyes on her back. The alleyway seemed to be stretching on forever- had it really been this long when she had first walked into it? It felt like she was being closed in on by some unknown forces, and it was scaring her to death. She turned to look behind her-and screamed.
Across Domino city, cries went up as the millennium eye blazed on the foreheads of eleven people, their minds suddenly flooded with a sense of foreboding. Something had happened.
---
They could all see the line they had to cross in the distance, calling to them to make it as fast as they could.
Kaiba lined up in the second lane, only two spaces away from the female record holder of the school. Well, he was the carrier of the fastest male record...
Mattie tilted her head and gave a wide smirk. "Best of luck Kaiba." Her voice oozed confidence and he gave a grin that reeked of something evil.
"Wish yourself luck, Cassidy, you'll need it a hell of a lot more than I do."
Both tilted their heads back to look at the line that was their target, the adrenaline urging them to jolt forward. Their teacher held the starting gun in the air and after counting down from three, let it off.
11 seconds...11 seconds... Kaiba's legs pounded on the track below him and he didn't even allow himself to glance to see where Matilda was, though through the pulse that was overwhelming his hearing he could faintly pick up the sound of her next to him. He couldn't allow himself to even waver for a second.
The last step took him over the white line and a cheer went up from the boys, while the girls stuck their tongues out and shouted at their immaturity. He looked at the time on the stopwatch that his gym teacher had been holding and smirked at the time it displayed. 10.41 seconds. He still had the boy's record.
Mattie took her own stopwatch and looked at her time, a frown appearing on her features. She'd broken the female record again, but not by as much as she had hoped... "Damn..."
Her time displayed 11.2 seconds, her original being 13.22, "I was hoping to get it down to below 11."
"What, trying to best me again, Cassidy?" she glanced up at her rival and the grin returned to her features.
"Everyone knows that if I was a guy I'd kick your ass," her voice, with its foreign undertone, once again took on that confident vibe, and she punched him in the arm lightly before returning to the girls.
Matilda Cassidy, commonly referred to by peers as Mattie, was one of the few people Kaiba seemed to show any level of respect for outside of a duelling arena. She had his air of self assurance, and was typically known through the class as the most competitive girl in the year. Her persistence to be the best was something both admirable and off-putting.
---
Mizuko was stood just outside the classroom of her new school, one hand on her hip, and a frown marring her face. She hated starting new schools, especially during the introduction stage where everyone tried to be all nice to her. It was much easier when they realised that she preferred to be left on her own. The homeroom teacher finally opened the door, leading Mizuko into the classroom. Her frown deepened a little bit as she felt everyone's eyes on her, but she kept her chin up, looking around the classroom at the people she was now going to be spending most of her time at school with.
The one that immediately caught her eyes was a small boy with large star shaped hair in three colours. How on earth did he get it like that? She wondered. Next to him was a blonde boy who was whispering to a brown haired boy whilst staring at her.
There was another boy who also stood out, but this one seemed to have gone the opposite way to the multi-coloured haired boy, with long white hair and soft brown eyes. He looked at her in curiosity, but ducked his head down when he realised she was looking at him.
Behind them was a brown haired boy reading a book, he seemed to be the only one who hadn't looked up at her arrival. Interesting.
And then Mizuko spotted her. The one girl who she had hoped never to lay eyes on again.
'Oh fan-fucking-tastic…'
---
Mattie froze as her eyes met the blue-haired girl in front of her, her eyes narrowing as the girl's eyes met hers and did the same. She never thought she'd see her again.
Jou nudged the back of Yugi's chair with his foot, and leaned over the desk to whisper in his ear, "Yug', I think that the apocalypse is gonna hit. Mattie looks like she's gonna go in for a kill."
Yugi looked over, and sensed Yami become more alert within his soul room. He was right; Mattie's eyes had taken on a piercing edge, almost freezing over.
The teacher clapped and waved Mizuko to the empty seat, where she sat down, still glaring daggers in their classmate's direction.
Near the back of the room, Kaiba picked up on several whispers from the sides of "that was tense," and "I thought she was gonna kill her..." and silently shook his head. If that new girl wanted to pick a fight, in choosing Mattie she'd probably have signed her own death warrant. He knew that she could be a bitch, and she had a strong right hook.
After seeing the impending confrontation between the two girls, the class had become fairly quiet, and were just waiting (and almost hoping) for a fight to break out. It would have certainly made the lesson more interesting...
By the end of the class, Mattie had finally stopped burning mental holes into the new girl, and when the bell went and they were dismissed from the room, she stopped at her locker and chucked her books inside, then leaned against the wall waiting for her friends. Her eyes drifted over to where Kaiba was putting his own stuff in his locker, and he smirked in her direction in a way that said, "You and me. Lunch. Track. Rematch."
That was their thing. Their times were so close, and she was constantly vying to beat him, even if only by a few milliseconds. Just to be faster than him would make her happy, because then she could brag to him constantly that she was better than him at something.
She grinned back and flipped her middle finger up at him.
"Matilda Cassidy. I will not see you, nor any other student make such a vulgar gesture!"
'Great. The Old Bat is on the warpath again.' Mattie momentarily rolled her eyes and apologized to Miss Kamikawa, or The Old Bat, and disappeared down the corridor to find her friends, who'd obviously forgotten to meet at her locker.
---
Mizuko had dashed out of the classroom as quickly as she could, unable to stand being in the same room as her. Mattie. Did someone up there hate her? Mizuko wondered, glaring at the sky. Probably.
She was just wandering aimlessly around corridors, having gotten herself lost. She wanted to get outside, but no matter which way she turned she was just faced with more of the same bland corridors as before.
"Dammit!" she banged her fist into an unfortunate nearby locker. A laugh echoed from somewhere down the corridor and Mizuko growled. Oh she just didn't need this…
"Hey, Mizuko, fancy seeing you here! I had no idea you were transferring to this school," it was Mattie, Yugi and their friends. Mattie had a glaring look in her eyes, but the others seemed unsure of why they were there. Mizuko shot them a glare, and turned to walk away, not even bothering to answer Mattie's question.
"You can't avoid me forever," Mattie called, her voice echoing a little in the corridor. When Mizuko kept walking away, her temper flared and she marched forward and flicked the back of her head with her slender fingers.
Mizuko stopped dead as she felt the sharp jab, and whipped around, her hair swiping her nemesis in the face. "What do you want, Matilda?"
"Why the hell are you here?" The question was fierce and Mattie's eyes held nothing but contempt for the girl in front of her.
"I transferred here, bitch. Although if I'd known you would be here I'd have gone somewhere else," Mizuko snapped, a slight smirk adorning her face.
A reverberating sound of skin hitting skin sounded through the corridor and Mizuko staggered to the side as Mattie's hand hit her left cheek, leaving a stinging red handprint on her face. It didn't take her long to recover though, and Mattie flew backwards onto the floor of the hallway as Mizuko's fist knocked into her jaw. She landed on her back, her pleated school skirt riding up to reveal her legs, toned from her athletic activity over the years.
Mattie rolled back up onto her feet with a slight jump and steadied herself, her look now so intense that Mizuko would have been six feet under if her glare had the ability to kill.
Yugi bit his lip and Anzu glanced down to him, her eyebrows furrowed a little in worry, while Jou and Honda had dopey grins on their face and were chanting 'Cat Fight!' to provoke the pair to attack each other more.
Just as Mattie was about to fly at her rival and enemy again, she was yanked back by a strong pair of arms and a familiar voice filled her ears. "Cut it out, Cassidy," Kaiba's voice dropped so Mizuko couldn't hear, "She's not worth the trouble."
She struggled out of Kaiba's tight grip and glared at the girl. "This isn't over," she hissed, her voice burning with hatred for her former classmate.
"Oh it is, because obviously your boyfriend over there won't let you get into trouble," Mizuko flipped up her middle finger and smirked, then charged past the gang and around the corner.
Mattie seethed and held her sore cheek. Damn the little bitch could pack a punch... A hand pressed down lightly and she flinched away at the pain that shot through her jaw.
Kaiba sighed, his expression only showing a hint of concern for his rival and companion. "Come on, I'll take you to the nurse's office," he mumbled, pressing her in the right direction. Reluctantly she turned and went with him, leaving the gang staring after them.
---
~*Ancient Egypt*~
Nila was stood in front of the Pharaoh and his sacred court. Her breathing was shallow and her heart felt like it was about to jump out of her chest. This was it, if they accepted her she would finally be accepted into the palace to train with her magic! She would be able to become an elite spellcaster. She kept her head down low, and tried her hardest not to fiddle with the hem of her dress.
"She doesn't look like much," came one voice, and Nila bristled slightly at the arrogant tone.
"That may be true, but I do sense a great deal of magical energy from her, centred on water," came another voice, and Nila's heart lifted. She recognised this voice-it belonged to the man who would become her master should she be accepted. High Priest Mahado.
"My Pharaoh, what do you think?" Mahado continued, and Nila dared to peek upwards at the seven people before her. None of them seemed to be smiling, but only one seemed to actually be scowling at her-a man in a blue hat holding some kind of golden rod with the millennium eye on it. Moving her eyes onto Mahado, she saw his attention was directed at the man, or rather boy, sitting on the throne. Her Pharaoh's face was contemplating, as her gazed at her studiously, as if to judge her.
"Very well," he announced finally. "She shall be accepted as your new apprentice Mahado. I'll ask Mana to show her the ropes around the palace." Nila's face broke out into a huge grin and it was all she could do not to start jumping up and down. She had been accepted! She bowed down as low as she could without toppling over, and was finally able to raise her head just as Mahado came to lead her away to her first lesson, and to meet her fellow apprentice.
---
Nila was looking around helplessly as she wandered down yet another corridor of the palace. She was totally lost! Her first lesson had been wonderful, even if she was able to do very little at this stage. She had only been working on gathering her magic together into a ball in order to focus it-Nila loved the way it looked, all blue and shimmery like waves. The other girl there, Mana, seemed to have been struggling too, even though she had been an apprentice for so much longer than Nila.
"Ahh! This is so frustrating!" Nila suddenly yelled, throwing her arms out to the sides.
"Are you lost?" a voice came from behind her. Nila turned to see a girl about her age with short black hair and the usual dark Egyptian skin. She was dressed plainly, a servant or slave Nila assumed. "Didn't you hear me? I asked if you were lost," the girl repeated, placing her hands on her hips. Nila smiled in relief.
"Yes, I am. I'm Priest Mahado's new apprentice Nila. And you are…?"
"Nerifa. I'm the Pharaoh's servant. But he has so many it means I get plenty of spare time." She smiled, and Nila smiled back, glad to have found someone friendly.
"Well, Priest Mahado said that we could have a break, and I decided to have a walk and…well…" Nila trailed off, embarrassed.
"You ended up lost, right?" Nerifa finished, smirking slightly. Nila scowled at Nerifa's smirk, but nodded her head reluctantly.
"Nerifa!" a new voice echoed through the corridor, this time it was distinctly male. Nila also recognised it as the voice of the man who had insulted her. "Nerifa, I thought that I told you I wanted to speak with you?" the man continued. He was very tall, and wore a blue and white robe with a long cape. He carried the millennium Rod in his hand.
"Sorry, I'd better go," Nerifa smiled at Nila.
"Don't worry; it was nice to meet you!" Nila smiled back, and watched as the two of them left. Until she realised her mistake.
"Wait, I still don't know where I am!" she yelled in exasperation.
