Oh! Hi, hey, so just gonna put a little disclaimer here before we get into it. I'm not much of a writer. I enjoy writing, but I'm not nearly as talented as many of the writers here. This story has been something I've been writing to help distract me from my divorce (Insert not so sad sob story here). My, I guess you could call her beta reader, loves it so I figured I'd share it. If people don't like it that's cool. Although if you lovely people don't flame me that would be awesome. If you DO like it, go ahead and let me know. I'll just assume people don't like it otherwise and not update. o3o I'll be following the Dub for the most part, because I'm lame and haven't watched the sub. Anyway, I don't Yu-Gi-Oh! Just my OCs Rikku and Recca. Anju belongs to my beta reader. Toodles poodles!
Dring Dring Dring! Dring Dring Dring!
She could hear the sound of the landline upstairs, the persistent ringing nagging at her to leave the nest of papers and books she had made to answer the phone.
'Ichiro will answer it,' she reasoned, returning to what she was doing.
It had been a long night of going through her family's basement looking for anything that would aid her research project, and Rikku wasn't about to let anything distract her now.
"Yo! Mayflower!"
Nothing was going to distract her . . .
"Riiiiiikkuuuuuu!" The sing songy voice of her brother drew nearer, but she refused to look up.
'Nothing!'
"It's Recca and Anju."
Rikku's head shot up at the sound of her two best friends' names. Immediately she forgot about the promise she made to herself and she reached for the phone in her older brother's hand. Naturally he held it over his head as he scanned the room with disapproving eyes and she fruitlessly jumped up to grab it from him. It was at times like this that she hated having an older brother. Even now at the age of twenty one he still acted like a child.
"C'mon Ichiro! Gimme the phone!" She pleaded.
"It's terrifying in here Rikku! If Mom and Dad saw the basement like this you'd be busted. You're not even supposed to be down here after what happened."
"That was a long time ago!" the raven haired teen huffed. "And it wasn't that big of a deal."
"You locked yourself down here," Ichiro retorted. "And you came running out of here like a big baby when we finally found you."
"I was six . . ." she mumbled.
Taking advantage of Ichiro being distracted by the mess Rikku jumped on a shelf behind him and snatched the phone out of his hand before launching herself to the other side of the room with a triumphant laugh. She heard a protesting; "Hey!" and the sound of what she could only assume was Ichiro tripping over her nest. It served him right for teasing her.
"Hello beautiful people," she said as she put the phone to her ear and returned to her chipper self.
"Hey! Got some time to spare? We found something that might interest you," the booming, confident voice of Recca replied.
"What did you find?"
"We were walking to find a place to eat when we passed the museum," Anju's more calming and soft voice chimed in. "They have a really neat Egyptian exhibit open today."
"It could help with your research on the bracelet!" Recca added.
Rikku's hand found itself running over the bracelet around her wrist. It had been a mystery to her for years. Where the eye shaped, Egyptian style bracelet came from and how her family came to possess it was still unknown to her. All she knew was that strange things happened to her when she wore it; things people other than her two best friends wouldn't believe.
"We'll text you the address okay? We'll go together."
With a curt goodbye Rikku grabbed her cell phone off her dresser and jogged down the stairs only to be grabbed from behind by Ichiro before she could even reach the door.
"Hey Runt. Where do you think you're going?" he questioned using his spare hand to give her the worst noogie of her life. Most likely as payback for the stunt she pulled in the basement.
"Out!" she replied simply, as a majority of her energy was being used trying to get out of his grasp.
He finally let go only to give her a book he had used to tap her on the head a couple of times.
"Give this back to your friend then will ya?"
"Which one?" Rikku mumbled as she mindlessly fixed her hair from his torture.
"The non irritating one."
"Fine fine. Just give it."
It should have been a short walk to the museum from where she had parked her scooter. Although since she hadn't been there before she found herself getting turned around more than once. Recca's constant stream of texts asking where she was certainly wasn't helping. Feeling rushed she found herself running through the busiest part of town, her green eyes fixated on the screen and her fingers typing furiously in response to the texts.
Rikku knew better . . . Her klutzy behavior had taken over her more often than usual over the past couple of months; Running into doors, tripping down stairs . . . Colliding into people and today was no exception.
It was too late by the time she looked up. When she did all she was a head full of spiky hair and bright violet eyes as she ran right into the poor guy. It hadn't been hard enough to knock any of them over, but Rikku spazzed and found herself falling backwards, reaching for anything (or anyone for that matter) that would help her keep her balance. Her hands found cloth and she shut her eyes tight to brace for impact.
She heard a couple of light gasps . . . some laughing, and finally the voice of a girl calling out for whoever she had grabbed as she landed butt first into the fountain in the middle of the square.
'Why me?' Rikku pouted mentally, feeling steady streams of water running down her face.
Honestly, she couldn't for the life of her understand why all of these bad things had been happening to her lately; the klutziness, the light headedness, the over sleeping when she had somewhere important to be, the overall spazzy behavior. She had a hunch. Sure, Rikku had been this way before, but never to this extent, that is until she found her bracelet.
"This damn thing is nothing but trouble!"
FLASHBACK
"I dunno what you're hoping to find down here . . . You've only searched this basement top to bottom three times," a seventeen year old Ichiro complained watching as his baby sister used some shelves as steps. She frowned, but didn't look back at him.
"I'm not looking for anything. It's called exploring . . . And you said you'd keep watch."
"I doubt that anything new has magically appeared since the last time-"
"Hey wow! Look Ichiro! There's a little hidden cubby type thing back here!"
"You have got to be kidding me . . ."
Ignoring the snide remarks coming from her brother Rikku pried open the hatch with her fingers and reached inside, her hand patting around the small space in hopes of finding something. Her eyes practically sparkled and a grin formed as she ran a hand over what felt like a small box.
"Anything in there?" Ichiro questioned.
Rikku didn't answer, letting the jewel encrusted box speak for itself. Eagerly she opened it, tossing it aside and she pulled out the gold bracelet hidden within. All she could do was stare at it with wonder, holding it up in front of her face to examine it more closely.
"Ooooo," was all the preteen could manage to spit out before the sound of a crack brought her back into reality.
She didn't have time to react. Before she knew it the shelves that were supporting her collapsed from under her and she found herself flat on her back, covered in boxes; a situation she had found herself in on more than one occasion.
"Ah! Rikku!"
The panic in Ichiro's voice didn't concern her, nor did the sound of her parents bounding down the stairs. Rikku knew she wasn't supposed to be in the basement, and she knew that she was busted for disobeying her parents, but she didn't care. She was far too excited by her recent find.
"Look what I found Mom!" she exclaimed holding up the bracelet as the three pulled the boxes and pieces of shelf off that was weighing her down.
"It looks Egyptian . . . Have we ever been to Egypt? What about Gran? She was always talking about all of the trips she and Grandpa had been on. I bet she went! How old do you think it is? Oh man! What if it was worn by an ancient Egyptian princess?! Do we have any Egyptian ancestry-"
"Rikku please . . ." her mother interrupted.
Immediately she shut her mouth closed making a key locking motion with her free hand with a grin.
"You'll be fine," her father said with a chuckle. He helped her stand up and brushed off her clothing. "What did we say about coming down here Mayflower?"
"To not to . . . " Rikku replied. She looked down at her shoes only just now realizing the trouble she was in. She looked back up when her mother held out her hand and motioned for her new found treasure.
"The bracelet please Rikku."
She turned back to her father with her best puppy dog stare. She knew the pull she had with him. She knew that he felt guilty that he was almost always gone and Rikku used that to her advantage.
"Oh c'mon Kimi. It's just a couple of broken shelves. It's nothing we can't replace. There's no need to punish her for that."
"It's not the shelves I'm worried about Kazuhiko," she retorted. "She could have gotten seriously injured."
"Promise not to come down here again?" he asked turning back to his daughter who nodded furiously. "Then run along."
Again she nodded, taking advantage of the opportunity before her mother could convince him to change his mind. As soon as she was in her room and the door was closed and locked Rikku plopped down on the floor to examine her treasure one more time. With a smile she slipped it on her left wrist and ran her fingers over the eyes shaped accessory.
"I'll never take it off . . ."
-x-
"Hey, Uhm . . . Are you okay?"
Rikku's eyes met those of the boy she taken down with her and instantly the red on her face began to deepen. Her little show had gotten the attention of the entire square and her outburst had caused them all to gather around. Too embarrassed to answer she pulled her soaking wet hair over her face to hide the blush.
"I am so so so sorry," she finally managed to blurt out from behind the curtain of hair.
"Alright people! Show's over. Disperse . . . Go on! Beat it!"
Mentally Rikku thanked the girl who had managed to send everyone away. The situation was embarrassing enough. She didn't need an audience.
"It's okay," the boy responded with a slight chuckle. "Are you okay?" he repeated.
"Wet . . ." she mumbled incoherently, brushing her hair back out of her face. He held out his hand with a kind smile.
"Let me help you up," he offered.
Rikku nodded accepting his hand, but frowned when the puzzle around his neck caught her eye. It looked eerily similar to her bracelet, and when she opened her mouth to ask him about it both items began to glow to the point of momentarily blinding her. She knew exactly what was happening, so when she opened her eyes again and she wasn't in Domino City she wasn't surprised. She was surprised however that the boy from before was standing next to her.
"Where are we?" he asked.
'It appears to be ancient Egypt,' a deeper voice replied.
She couldn't see who had answered, but she could distinctly hear a voice that hadn't come from her new spiky haired friend. Rikku couldn't be bothered with that however as her attention averted to a younger version of the boy walking past them with a girl in tow.
"It's you Spirit!"
'Who the hell is he talking to?'
"Hey . . . that's you?" he then asked her, pointing at the girl.
He didn't seem all too surprised that the girl captured Rikku's likeness, and that the boy captured his own. He should have been. Any sane person would be flipping their lids at this point.
"No, her name is-"
"Akane! Careful, you could fall," the Egyptian boy said, looking up at the girl who was now hanging upside down from a tree. With a grin she jumped down from the branch, and straightened out the dark purple kimono that stuck out like a sore thumb.
"You worry too much!"
"Only when you're around," he retorted.
She giggled as she flopped down next to him under the tree. She rested her head on his now straightened out legs before changing the subject.
"Where does your father think you're at?"
"Playing with Mana. Where does Natsuko think you are?"
"I left behind a doppelganger," she answered proudly. "She thinks I'm playing in the palace garden."
"Isn't she your teacher? You don't think she'll know the difference?"
"I've been practicing I'll have you know. I only teleported to one other place before I made it here this time!"
"My mistake then," he said with a smile, clearly amused by Akane's defensiveness.
"I don't understand why no one wants me to be here. It's not like we're hurting anyone, and you're my only friend! You would think they would want their princess to be happy and have at least one . . ."
"We have responsibilities to our lands," he rationalized, causing her to pout.
"We're too young for talk like that," she argued.
It was silent between the two until the boy motioned for her to get up.
"I have something for you," he said with a smile.
"A present?!" Her eyes sparkled as he pulled out the all too familiar bracelet and dangled it in front of Akane.
"Now you can have a piece of Egypt with you whenever you go back to Japan," he said as he put it on her wrist. "We'll be friends forever. No matter what."
Before Rikku could see the princess's reaction the blinding light returned, and when she opened her eyes again she was back in Domino City, still firmly grasping the hand of who she could only assume was Yugi by his female friend's cry.
"Yugi! Are you okay?" she asked. "You spaced out there for awhile."
"Uhm . . . yeah. I think so."
Frantically Rikku ripped her hand away. She had seen memories of Akane before. That was what her bracelet did; show her scenes of the princess's life. It was random and the memories were almost always out of order, but she had never seen the boy before; the boy who looked exactly like the one standing in front of her. She needed to get out of there . . . She needed Recca and Anju. Her head was spinning.
"Hey wait!" Yugi called after she bolted. "Come back!"
Rikku ignored his pleas, picking up her pace instead. She didn't know where she was going, but luckily she spotted the black hair, and equally dark dress of Anju ahead of her. She grabbed the girl from behind when she reached her warranting a slight gasp.
"Rikku! Where the hell have you been? We've been looking everywhere for you!" Recca said as she put her hands on Rikku's shoulder in an attempt to calm her down.
"Something strange has happened."
