First it was dark. She thought that she heard screaming, or maybe an explosion or a crash, but she wasn't sure. The sound seemed so visible that she couldn't be sure whether it was sound or images. It might have been both.

Then the light came. A bright, blinding white light. Her vision was blurred and the brightness was causing her eyes to tear up, but it was an improvement. As she realized she was lying on her back she tried to sit up, only to find out that she couldn't move a muscle. Her limbs felt heavier than lead, and the darkness pulled at her again, welcoming her with a warm embrace. Determined to stay awake, she drew in a deep breath. She couldn't hear the sound but it seemed to have an effect of some sort.

"She's awake! Nurse!" Voices. Screaming. It was all too much, and the light was too bright. She gave in to the darkness, letting her eyes slip closed again. Voices, hands, then silence.

"She's still weak. She needs rest." Those were the last words before she slipped back into the familiar warmth of darkness.

"Yamuko." Yamuko? She blinked but it was dark. Her eyes soon grew accustomed to the darkness, though, and she was able to discern the room around her. There was a window on the left that allowed some moonlight to pour into the room. It had to be night, then. The room was almost empty. There were nightstands on either sides of her spacious bed and a television hang on the wall across from her. She recognized the wire in her arm as an IV drip. So this was a hospital. But there was no one else in the room! Who had said Yamuko, then?

"Yamuko." It was a soft voice. She looked up and saw a translucent woman standing beside her bed. Her hair was long and black, and she was dressed in wat seemed to be a cotton dress. "Ra be praised you're awake. We don't have a lot of time!" The shadow smiled.

"What?" Her voice was weak. The word passed her lips as little more than a whisper. "Yamuko… Is that me?" She added. The thought occurred to her that she should be screaming in fear, but the shadow seemed familiar and she had the feeling she could trust her. Aside from that, she couldn't gather the strength for a scream. The shadow stopped smiling.

"You don't know?"

"I don't know anything anymore." The girl sighed as she lowered her gaze. Then she spotted something strange. A golden bracelet on her upper arm. There were markings on it. It almost seemed like… "Hieroglyphs?"

"You know that much at least. Typical. You've forgotten your own name but you remember what hieroglyphs are." The shadow seemed to be smiling. Her figure trembled along with the laughter. Yamuko, she'd accept that name for now, sighed and turned back to look at the shadow.

"Who are you? Are you a ghost?" She asked. It felt almost rude to ask, and Yamuko felt a slight tinge of embarrassment colouring her cheeks.

"That bracelet connects me to you. My name is Anekshi." Anekshi. That name rung a bell. Yamuko looked at the bracelet again. She recognized the name between the hieroglyphs suddenly. "Yamuko we don't have time and this makes everything more dangerous! Listen to me. Tomorrow they will ask you what you remember." Anekshi insisted.

"Nothing at all." Yamuko smiled bitterly. "But I'm alone in a hospital room. The floor is covered in wood and the sheets are soft. This is a room for rich people. Am I rich?"

"You are but that doesn't matter! Well, it matters a little. Your name is Yamuko Hisakawa, the heir of the Hisakawa corporation. Your birthday is the 21st of March and you're seventeen years old."Anekshi said, she sounded rather impatient. "If they find out that you don't remember anything, then Hisakawa Corp will be stolen from you and you'll never find out what happened to your parents."

"My parents?" It was a lot to take in. Yamuko blinked as she tried to process it. "Heir. Do I have siblings? Who would steal Hisakawa Corp?" The ghost didn't answer her. Yamuko repeated her question, but Anekshi only looked at her with a guilty expression.

"You have… You had a brother. Daiki. They assume that he didn't survive the accident." Anekshi finally admitted.

"Missing." Yamuko nodded. Daiki. The name sounded familiar. Suddenly she recalled a face. It appeared to her more clearly than anything else in the room. Tanned skin, hair bleached blond and eyes as green and bright as emeralds. Daiki. She remembered him. He was a year older than she was, always in a good mood and athletic. They'd argued often enough. Suddenly she felt a tremendous pain shoot through her head, and everything that had seemed just within her grasp disappeared once again. Yamuko bit her lip in frustration before immediately releasing it in favour of biting her tongue. Never show indecisiveness.

"Was I trying to find out what happened to him?" Yamuko asked. Anekshi didn't answer her. Yamuko looked up, and realized she was alone in the room once again. Briefly she turned to look at the bracelet, reaching weakly to touch the metal. It didn't have any other answers for her. Exhausted, Yamuko dropped back onto her pillow and closed her eyes. She had a few hours before the nurses would come wake her again.

"Yamuko?" Yamuko blinked. She still had to get used to her name. If she could believe Anekshi, and if she hadn't hallucinated her, then she had to tread carefully. Yamuko opened her eyes and noticed the doctor standing close to her bedside. Standard uniform, clipboard, hair pinned up carefully. A career woman. Instinctively, Yamuko didn't trust her.

"What day is it?" She asked. That at least was something she could ask. The doctor smiled and Yamuko noticed a couple of guard looking types exchanging glances. Treason? No, it was too early to draw any conclusions…

"It's the sixteenth of June. You were in a coma for two weeks." Two weeks. That means the accident had taken place on June second. Yamuko furrowed her brows and tried in vain to remember anything at all. But the only thing she could remember was Daiki.

"Daiki." The name slipped off her lips before she realized it. "Where is Daiki?" People were mumbling around her. She'd said something wrong, obviously. Did she not remember? Amnesia? How much did she forget? People whispered it, apparently they didn't think she could hear them. Or maybe they didn't care. Yamuko blinked again, feeling a numb pain in her head. The doctor smiled.

"It looks like the accident caused some damage. We'll have to run a few tests just to see what the damage is exactly." The doctor smiled again and Yamuko got a strange feeling. We must limit the damage. Was that the voice of her brother? No, it was someone else. Another name drifted to the surface. Seto Kaiba. This time she didn't say it out loud. Much too dangerous and far too many people. As long as she hadn't hallucinated Anekshi, she might be able to ask her later.

"Don't worry. I'll help you." Anekshi's voice rang in her ears. So she hadn't hallucinated? Maybe she was just a projection of her memories, or the old her. Yamuko nodded, an answer to both women, and cast a glance around her.

"In private, if that's possible? Having all these people here makes it very difficult for me to concentrate. The room is still spinning." Yamuko offered her sweetest smile. It was of the utmost importance that she appeared unthreatening to whomever it was that would betray her. The doctor nodded in return and ordered for the room to be cleared.