Kit: This is my first Yu-Gi-Oh fic, so be nice! I know this chapter may be a bit confusing, but bear with me, please...
Disclaimer: The things that the owner of Yu-Gi-Oh owns, I don't own. The things he/she/it doesn't own, I do! Any questions?
Disclaimer for Dummies: I no own; you no sue.
Mokuba whimpered as he looked up at his brother's best friend. She looked down at him, tears in her eyes as well, "I know, Mokie, I'll miss you too," she bent over to hug him.
He looked at her as he returned the hug, "Why do you have to move, Claire? Why can't you move in with us while your mom and dad move?" he begged her.
She smiled at him, laughing through her tears, "Mokie, I wish I could, but I just can't."
Another voice joined theirs, sad just like his brothers, "I'll miss you, too."
Claire straightened her posture, her eyes falling across her best friend as he stood just a few feet away from her. For the first time in his short life of barely ten years, Seto Kaiba had tears in his eyes. Claire Hawthorne's eyes brimmed with the tears that she'd tried to hold back for Mokuba's sake, but now, they just fell, making shining tracks down her cheeks. As if on a perfect cue, they both threw themselves at each other, catching each other in simultaneous hugs.
Claire sighed as she backed away from her best friend, inclining her head upwards slightly so she could look him in the eye, "Seto, I'm going to miss you, too." She said, trying to keep her voice steady, although it still shook slightly.
Seto smiled down at her, although he didn't look at all happy with the glistening, crystalline tears that welled in his eyes,"I'll miss you, too, Claire. I know we'll see each other again someday. Somehow, some way, I'll make sure of it." He promised her.
She smiled at him, looking over at her mother as she called to her, then she turned back to Seto, "You better hold yourself to that promise, Kaiba. You've never broken a promise to me, and I don't expect you to start now." She smiled at him, gave him a quick hug and then ran to her mother, "Good-bye to the both of you! I'll never forget you, I swear it!"
Seto watched her go, "You're right," he mumbled as the car she was in disappeared down the road. "I've never broken a promise to you, yet. And, I don't plan on starting…That I promise you…"
Yuugi sighed as the bell rang and the whole class took their seats. The teacher was late, as usual. But, there was another thing that was unusual. Ryou Bakura was late; usually the English exchange student was on time. Either the English boy had a reason, or the apocalypse was coming and they'd all better bend over and kiss their butts good-bye. He hoped it was the first of the two choices and that they weren't going to die any time soon.
Just as he thought this, the teacher came bustling in, a young girl following at his heels. Strange, he'd never seen her around here before. She must've been new here. Coming to that conclusion, he looked her over, looking over her clothes and other features.
Her hair was built of obsidian and raven hues, mixed with midnight blue. It fell to her ankles, hanging just inches from the floor, hanging loose and framing her small figure. Her eyes were the color of ruby gems, gleaming like the setting sun. Her skin was tanned exotically and showed no sign of blemishes or flaws. She wore a dark red short-sleeved shirt that stopped to show a bit of her midriff. A short skirt of the same color covered the top of shapely legs. Dark red high-heeled boots covered her lower legs and made a slight clicking sound whenever she walked. An ankle-length sleeve-less black leather jacket was worn over her clothes, but not buttoned or fastened up. A golden chain, barely noticeable unless someone was to really look, was clasped around her neck. Hanging from it was a ruby teardrop. It was the reddest ruby Yuugi had ever seen; it was almost as if it was crystallized blood.
She was abnormally quiet, never once saying a word when the teacher asked her if she was the new student and other questions. She just nodded here and shook her head there to answer his questions.
After a few more questions, the teacher turned to the class, "Class, this is Claire Hawthorne. She's an exchange student from China. I hope you all make her feel at home, or at least help her find a few of her classes." He said as he sat down behind his desk and bent over to pick up some books for her. He hauled them up, apparently having trouble picking them up on his own. He managed to stand up with the books in his arms and dropped them, not so gently, in her arms.
She finally made a sound. She gave a short, sharp yelp as she began to tumble backwards from the weight of the books. Everyone in the class looked on; some worried for her while others laughed silently at her plight. Thankfully, Ryou Bakura picked that time to come in. Eyes widening as she tumbled towards him, he dropped his bag and caught her by wrapping his arms around her stomach and bracing them by pushing one foot out slightly behind them. She blushed mildly as he set her back on her feet. He offered her a smile, as if to say, 'Your welcome' before he picked up his bag, swinging the strap over one shoulder and taking her books into his arms so she wouldn't fall again.
The teacher pointed at her desk, which was right next to Bakura's, but unfortunately, also next to Seto's…Or maybe that was fortunately..?
Later that day, Claire had, had the fortune of meeting the rest of Ryou's friends, or was it misfortune…? Joey and Tristan worried her…in more ways than one. Yugi seemed nice enough, but there was something about him that tweaked her senses the wrong way. Tea was…nice, in a friend-obsessed kind of way…Duke was…different….That was about as lightly as she could put it.
Joey had asked her if she knew how to play Duel Monsters, to which she gave him a grin and replied with a mysterious 'Maybe…Do you want to find out?' His eager reply came quickly as a yes and they joined two desks together to create a makeshift table.
The rest of the class, hearing Joey talking to her, came to see if she could beat him. After all, he was the Duelist Kingdom runner up. There was no way this small-town exchange chick could possibly beat him…Could she?
Halfway through the duel, both were down for the count, but Claire more so than Joey. His life points were down to 500, while hers were at a measly 300. Her chances were slim to none.
"Flame Swordsman, attack her Nightmare Mirror!" Joey declared excitedly, temporarily forgetting about the card she had face down on the field.
Claire grinned, "No, no, no, Joseph. You've activated my trap card, Mirror Wall!"
Joey's eyes widened, "Hey, no! That means Flame Swordsman's attack power gets cut in half!"
"Precisely, Joey, and that makes him perfect bait for my next card!" she paused to set a card down. "The Black Shadow Phoenix!"
Joey winced as his life points went down to 200, "Well, you can't beat me that easily, Claire! I sacrifice my Baby Dragon and bring forth the Red Eyes Black Dragon!"
Claire smiled, "Oh, however will I beat your all-powerful dragon?" she mocked horror and placed the back of her hand against her forehead as if she were about to faint.
"Yes, however will you?" Joey asked proudly.
"She was being sarcastic, mutt." Seto's voice floated from over Claire's shoulders. Joey looked up, and sure enough, standing right behind Claire (someone else had been standing there a second ago, but they must've moved for him) was Seto Kaiba himself.
"Indeed I was, very perceptive of you, old friend. In my 'last ditch effort to win', I play the Polymerization card to fuse my two monsters into an unstoppable beast, or at least unstoppable in this duel! And thus, I create the Nightmare Phoenix of Reflection!"
Ryou sighed, "That means you loose Joey." He told the blond.
"How did…She can't…But I'm the runner-up in Duelist Kingdom." Joey whined as he gathered up his deck.
Claire watched him, having already gathered up her own cards, "How, you ask? Easy, I'm the continental champion of China. That's how."
Yugi glanced at Claire before walking over to her, "Could I see your deck, Claire?" he asked her.
She glanced up at him apprehensively at first and reluctantly handed her deck over, watching him like a hawk as he went over the cards in her deck.
Black Shadow Phoenix, Nightmare Mirror, Polymerization, Oracle Dragon of Darkness…Wait, just one cotton-pickin' minute! How did she…That card is…!
Suddenly, Yugi plucked the oracle dragon card from her deck and showed it to her, "How did you get this card? Tell me!" he insisted. He was sure that there was only one of this card in existence, so how could she have it...?
Claire stared at him, "The Oracle Dragon came from…an old friend…"
Yugi glared at her, "Quit avoiding the question! Who gave you this, I want names!"
Claire glared at him, standing up to her full height, which meant she had to look down at him. She snatched the card from his hand then took back the rest of her deck. She shuffled the card into her deck and pushed the deck into her deckholder, then stomped back to her own desk.
Seto sighed, "You really want to know who gave her that Oracle Dragon, Yugi? I did. When we were younger, before she moved away." He stared at their shocked faces. "That's right; I had a friend when I was younger. And she was it." An angered and annoyed Seto stomped back over to his desk, several students scrambling to get out of his way.
Joey looked over at Yugi, "What is it, Yug? What had you so upset over that card?" he asked his friend.
Yugi sighed, "Joey, I've seen that card before, the same one. There's only one in the entire world, and three years ago I could've sworn I saw it burn in a fire…"
Tristan looked over at Claire, who had opened a book on her desk and was reading it, evidently trying to get her mind of the fight that had just happened, "Then, if it burned three years ago, then how could she have it…?"
Later that day
Yuugi sighed as he thought over the day's events; his thoughts kept coming back to the 'small disagreement', as he'd called it when he'd told Yami, that he'd had with the new girl that day.
Are you alright, aibou? You keep thinking about that girl…I keep getting bits and pieces of the happenings of the day in my soul room. Who is she, aibou? And why are you thinking of her so much? Yami's gentle but deep voice floated through their mind link.
Yuugi sighed, trying to think up a way to explain this to the ancient spirit, She's the new girl; you know, the one that I told you about today? She battled Joey today and beat him-
He was cut off by Yami's deep laugh, Well, aibou; Joey isn't all that hard to beat unless he's got his mind set on something.
Yuugi sighed, That's not the main problem, Yami. There was one card that she had that surprised me.
He could see Yami's eyes flash in his mind's eye, What card was it, Yuugi? Maybe I can look it up in the old scrolls in my soul room for you, just to put your wandering mind at ease for a while…
To Yuugi that sounded like a good idea so he readily agreed, telling Yami of the card he'd seen. Yami shut off the mind link so he could concentrate for a while, and Yuugi was left with nothing to do.
At least half an hour later, Yami cut the mind link back on, Aibou, I think you're going to want to see this…
Minutes later, Yuugi stood outside both their soul rooms, looking up at Yami, who had a book in his hand.
Yuugi gave him a confused look, "What did you find, Yami?" he asked.
His darker half held out the book to him, pointing with a free finger to the picture on that page. In said picture was a huge dragon-like drawing, much like those he and Yami had seen on the stone at the museum. Yami then turned the page, and the picture was more realistic and gave more detail. A huge black dragon floated in the middle of the page. A black scale in the middle of its forehead rose over its head like a horn, and ruby red feather-like things shot out below and behind it, almost connecting it to the head. A red ruby rested in the middle of the part of the scale on its forehead. Twin rubies also decorated the juncture where the two black wings met its body. It had slim arms leading into paw-like front feet. Glove-like scales covered the fronts of the feet, twin rubies embedded in each of the scaly gloves. The rest of its body got slimmer as it got closer to its tail, similar to a snakes body build. Its tail split off into three ends, the outer two shorter than the middle one and ruby red in color. The middle one was black and the longest of all three of them. Forming under its right front foot was an orb of light, hues of black and red mixing as the orb formed.
Taking his eyes off the picture, he looked down at the information on the book, skimming through it lightly.
"This is the Oracle Dragon of Darkness, one of the most powerful dragons in the game next to the Blue Eyes and other such dragons. This dragon is well-known for being the soul monster of a young priestess in Ancient Egypt, whose name is still not known to this day. It is known that the priestess was kind and a trusted member of the court, so why did she have such an evil and intimidating extension of her soul? Was this the true side of her that no one ever saw, or lived to see?
This dragon is used to bring forth the powers of darkness from the future, and sometimes can bring forth past darkness as well. This dragon has not been seen for centuries, just a drawing on the wall of a pyramid here and there, but nothing other than that. It is greatly rumored that this dragon is the harbinger of dark forces the pharaoh himself couldn't even stop. Another rumor tied in with this one is that the only one able to stop its great power after it had been called, was the priestess herself, or her secret love, High Priest Set…"
Yami turned the page to allow Yuugi to read the rest. Much to his surprise, the next picture on the next page was of the young priestess mentioned in the earlier paragraphs. It was in color as well, which added to Yuugi's surprise. Long black hair cascaded long passed the end of the picture, leaving his imagination to guess where it ended. Bright ruby eyes were narrowed, a flame burning deep in her eyes. Her skin was almost a caramel color; her face completely flawless from the looks of it.
'But, that looks like…?' Yuugi thought to himself as he looked at the picture, awestruck, and then managed to come back from his stupor enough to skim through the paragraph below her picture.
"This is the beautiful priestess mentioned earlier in the book. Her name is unknown, but rumored to be Clara, according to many scrolls found in tombs and the hieroglyphs on the walls of pyramids and other such buildings found in Egypt. She was a great and powerful priestess, very trusted by the pharaoh himself, which was almost impossible in that day and age. She was also the youngest of the priests and priestesses that served the pharaoh during his short reign, but she was also a force to be reckoned with, which no doubt earned her the favor of the pharaoh himself.
Unlike the other priests and priestesses, she did not have the power of a millennium item. She received her power from a jeweled necklace passed down in her family for generations. It is rumored to have been some sort of gem stone, and the color of blood itself. It was likely to have been a garnet or a ruby, but to this day the necklace has yet to be found, so this theory is debatable."
Upon closer inspection of the picture, Yuugi noticed a golden chain hanging around the neck of the young priestess. Hanging at the end of it was a large red gem stone, cut like a teardrop…It was the exact same necklace he'd seen on Claire earlier that day when she'd first entered the classroom!
Yami watched him, waiting for him to say something, "Have you found something, then?" he asked.
Yuugi looked up at the spirit of the pharaoh, "I think I may have…I think we may just have to pay this Claire Hawthorne girl a visit…"
Kit: Did we enjoy it? Did we hate it beyond all imagination? I WANT TO KNOW! REVIEW! I know if someone reads my story now, so don't get me ticked off by reading my story and not reviewing!