Okay, this idea bit me about halfway through the Earthbound Gods arc, and refused to let go. So now, I'm going to torture all of you with it, too. Main pairing will be Yusei/Aki… if you want anything else, toss me a review and I will consider your suggestion.

Summary: When Izayoi Aki flees the condemnation of her teachers and peers at the Duel Academy, her homecoming shatters what little hope she still harbored of ever being accepted, anywhere. And then, to make matters worse, karma decides to throw its two cents in. And so, a thirteen-year-old girl awakens to a fate arguably worse than death... in Satellite. Will she live long enough to make it home?

Timeframe: This is starting about three years prior to the start of the series. As of now, I'm planning on writing to at least the end of the Fortune Cup, and probably to the end of the Earthbound Gods/Dark Signers arc. I have only watched this anime in the original Japanese (experience has taught me that Yu-Gi-Oh anime tends to be butchered in translation to make it more 'kid friendly' or 'more accessible to an American audience'.) I abhor censorship. That said…

Rating: This story has a Mature rating for a reason, and not just because of gratuitous swearing. There will be lots and lots of violence and some rather mature themes. This is not recommended reading for innocent minds. I trust you all to know your maturity level. That said, enjoy.

Concrete Briars

Prologue: Downward Spiral


The multicolored wash of neon and harsh fluorescent light that banished the darkness of the typical Neo Domino night to a few isolated alleys and the docks was muted somewhat in Tops, where the rich paid a great deal of money for the illusion of peace and quiet. After half a night of walking and the nerve-wracking experience of traversing the city's subway network (something she was

not eager to repeat) the sudden silence was… unnerving. Foreboding, even. Delicate fingers hesitated over the touchpad which would manually open the mansion's front gate, twitching back and forth between the numbered display and the call button as she, once again, felt her nerve failing.

Don't be stupid, Aki. If they'd really abandoned you, you'd never have gotten past the security at the first gate. Even if there were some awkward questions about why I was here, at eleven-thirty at night, instead of at the Duel Academy, where I'm supposed to be. And speaking of where I'm supposed to be… She could punch the entry code, or use the intercom to summon one of the servants to let her in, but she should probably make up her mind soon. Because she couldn't go back to the Academy, not after what she'd done. Her instructors had made it quite clear that they would not tolerate any more of her classmates ending up in the infirmary after a duel with her. And what had she done, less than a week later? Brought down half the gym roof on that idiot Ken and his cronies. And then sent Ken's crying, revenge-driven little sister to join him in the infirmary. The headmaster had told her that they would wait until tomorrow to contact her parents and render a final judgment, but she'd seen the decision in his usually kindly eyes… she was too dangerous, too monstrous to have around the other students. So, she'd committed two more expulsion-worthy offenses, and reclaimed her confiscated deck and duel disk before sneaking off the school grounds. She remembered the last time she'd been expelled for 'fighting', just two years ago, and the expression on her father's face when he had hit her. And also the horror and remorse, as he had stared from his hand to her prone, crying figure sprawled on the floor. I… want to go home. That's all. I want to curl up in my own bedroom, under my own blankets. And yes, maybe I do want to be screamed at… they can't be afraid of me if they're willing to risk making me angry, can they? Her fingers did not tremble as she punched the eight digit code and held her thumb in place for a fingerprint scan… but she did issue a small gasp of surprise as the gate swung noiselessly open.

They… haven't changed the code. In three months. I can't imagine Papa's security was happy about that… Did he do it on purpose? So I would always be able to come home, if I needed to? True, she had never gotten a single phone call or email when she was at the Academy, ever… and it was true that when she did come home during semester breaks, that the house was usually empty by the necessity of her parents' demanding social schedule and her father's duties as a senator… but…

Almost against her will, her feet dragged her to the front door as her left hand fished for the key, but a noise froze her in her tracks. Laughter. At this hour? Who…?

She noticed, absently, that there was light streaming from the living room window and found herself creeping toward it like an abandoned kitten. It was only the work of moments to get a view of the occupants of the room… her parents. Two glasses of red wine sat mostly empty on the mahogany table as they shared a joke. Her mother's eyes were alive with unguarded humor and the complete absence of worry lines on her forehead combined with the pinkness staining her cheeks took years off her age The tenseness had left her father's shoulders, his tie had been discarded and two of the buttons on his dress shirt had been undone in a display of informality that she had never seen him adopt. Furthermore, that air of distraction that always clouded his eyes when she was with him had vanished. The entirety of his attention was on her mother.

They're… happy. Tones of conversation rose and fell, and only the laughter seemed to reach out from behind the glass. They get so little time to themselves… the minute I walk in there, I'll ruin that. And when I tell them why I'm here, it'll only be worse. A noise somewhere between a whine and a whimper escaped from her lips… and even though it must have been too soft a sound for anyone inside the house to hear, her father looked over in her direction and started, nearly knocking over his wine as he lurched to his feet. "Aki!" she heard him call faintly from the other side of the glass as her mother turned to look at her, both of them shocked. And… annoyed. And soon to be angry.

It wasn't fair.

fuck this! She snarled inside her head, the obscenity springing from memories of some of the crueler taunts the upperclassmen had thrown at her. She angrily pulled a card from the top of her deck, only stopping to register the green border of a magic card before she slammed the card home in the proper slot on her suddenly active duel disk. Her right arm throbbed and the hologram didn't materialize properly, but the pretty glass window shattered, raining razor-sharp shards on everyone as her mother screamed and she turned on her heel and fled.

"Aki!" her father bellowed at her back. "Izayoi Aki, you get back here at once!" But he didn't follow her. He wouldn't. Because her mother was probably hurt, probably bleeding, and that was more important than chasing after his monster of a daughter. "AKI!"

She ran.


By the time her senses cleared, she was already lost. She had no idea where she was; it wasn't Tops, or the area near the Academy, and none of the store names looked familiar. And even if she did know how to get back to the Academy from here, she was almost certainly expelled. And as for going back home…

I attacked Mama. I've never hurt her with my powers before. And she knew, by doing that, she'd crossed a line. She'd never be forgiven now… she couldn't go back. And, to top it off, she had only a few hundred yen left in her pockets after an ill-spent early evening getting lost in the subway. She barely had enough money for a can of soda, let alone some sort of hotel room to spend the night in. I know some of the upperclassmen sneak off campus at night and duel for money… but I doubt anyone would be willing to risk being blown through a wall or buried under a pile of rubble for a measly five hundred yen. And where would I find a gambling hall that would let a kid like me in, anyway? She could feel eyes clinging to her uniform, wondering what a child was doing out at this hour of the night. I guess I'll need new clothes, too. Her stomach cheerfully chimed in, reminding her that she'd skipped dinner for this disastrous misadventure. And something to eat. Which brings me back to the problem of money, and how I can get some legally. Or… maybe extra-legally. Which left her with two options: stealing, and… the sorts of things that girls from nice families like hers weren't supposed to know anything about. The later was repellant for obvious reasons, while the former would probably involve busting things up with her duel disk, since she didn't know the first thing about picking locks or pockets. And the tiny detail of holograms coming to life would probably get her caught pretty quickly.

Tears started to prick at the corner of her eyes. Is there any way for me to do this? She sat – or maybe collapsed – on a nearby bench. Her feet were sore, her eyes stung from holding back tears, her arm was throbbing…

Wait. She quickly pushed back her jacket and sleeve to bare the claw-shaped birthmark seared on her arm. It looked somewhat redder than usual, but it wasn't glowing. Thank God, finally a little bit of luck. Whenever that mark started to glow, the usual chaos around her tended to go up from bruises to property damage. She still didn't know of the mark was some sort of indicator that her powers were surging, or an amplifier, only that the two of them were linked. The mark had only appeared after she'd almost set her father on fire, the first time she'd used her powers.

The first time she'd been called a monster.

Her fingernails bit into crimson lines, almost hard enough to draw blood. Sometimes she wondered if destroying the mark would get rid of her powers. She'd set out to try, once, knife and all. Her mother had caught her before she started cutting, however, and made her promise to never, ever hurt herself for any reason, and that was one promise she'd been able to keep. But… I'm alone now. If I didn't have these powers, could I go back? Would it be worth it to try?

"Well, well, well… look what we have here. This is the last place I'd expect to find you, Aki-chan," a vaguely familiar voice sneered. Before she could even turn around, someone hit her head, hard, knocking her off the bench onto the sidewalk in a cascade of illusory neon-green sparks. "I guess you really did get expelled. Did you want to go someplace where no-one would know you so you could mope in peace, or did you get lost while running back to Daddy?" She managed to crawl to her knees and look up long enough to register a boy's Duel Academy uniform and a mop of untidy green hair before someone else kicked her in the ribs. The force of the blow brought her down again, this time on her back and gasping

"It's lucky we found you," added another boy as he flicked red-dyed bangs out of his eyes. "This isn't the best part of town. You might have hurt someone." He stomped on her arm hard enough to make her scream, pinning her duel disk to the ground and effectively sealing her only means of defending herself. "We are, after all, your senpai." Crap. Are they more of Ken's little toadies? She wondered as a surge of terror flashed through the pain.

"Former senpai," reminded a third thug that she couldn't see as he spat at her face.

"Yes, well she's still in uniform. So her actions still reflect on the reputation of the school… and I hardly want people to mistake me for some sort of witch-thing just because of you, Izayoi. And it is our responsibility to make sure that you behave yourself in a manner that doesn't tarnish the Academy's reputation," Red-stripe explained, stomping on her other arm as she tried to move it towards the foot pinning her down.

"I doubt… you care about… the school's reputation," she gasped. I think I'm going to die.

"Well… no, not really," Green-head admitted as his friends laughed. "Aside from the whole not wanting to be a freak by association bit. Mostly, we're just pissed. You almost killed Ken, and a bunch of our friends with that little stunt in the gym this afternoon. Then, you go after Kasumi, and what the hell did she ever do to you? Breathe in your general direction?" he sneered. "Not to mention all the other people you've hurt over the past two years. And everyone's too scared of your daddy the senator to even punish you until you almost murder half the senior class." He stomped on the left side of her chest, hard, driving out the breath she would have needed to scream.. "And then, we sneak off campus to blow off some steam, and what do we find? The Princess herself, all alone and dead to the world. Opportunity knocks and all that."

"If… you're going to… kill me… then get it over with already," she managed to choke out. "Better than… listening to… your ranting…"

"You don't get any say in the matter," a fourth voice sneered. Another foot was suddenly looming in her face before it was knocked aside.

"Oi, oi, oi! No permanent damage!" Green-head declared.

"Hey, I thought we were going to burn this witch!" Red-stripe protested.

"Well, we're certainly not going to do that now that you shouted it in front of at least thirty witnesses!" Green-head hissed. "I'm not planning on going to jail over this bitch. Besides, I had a better idea just now. Remember that little… problem… we have with the heavies at the Seven Star? I just figured out how to fix it."

Pain, and then oblivion.


"…you think? Young, pretty, and I can guarantee that the parents won't miss her. She's already run away. Little girls do that all the time and are never seen or heard from again." The voice was loud, grating on her aching skull, but she couldn't move her hands to rub the lancing pains on the back and side of her skull, and even through the pain, the thought of making a noise filled her with terror.

"I don't know kid. Living commodities prettily heavily frowned on by Security, if you know what I mean. You and your little buddies are the ones who owe me eight hundred thousand yen. Why should I stick my neck out for you? And let's not forget that the merchandise is damaged."

"We didn't do anything that'll leave scars."

"I'm more worried about the concussion, which will leave a corpse if we're unlucky. And do excuse me if I don't put too much faith in your luck, brat. You were trying to convince me that I should risk being marked and tossed into Satellite so I can break even on your debt. If I break even."

"Because you're already doing this sort of thing, for one."

"…you don't have any proof."

"I have ears. And secondly, how else are you planning on getting your money back? My father's in Security. So yeah, you could shake him down, and yeah, he'll probably beat me black and blue, but what do you think is going to happen to you once you go down that road? I could probably draw you up a list of charges as long as my arm for just the stuff I've seen when I come here to duel. Satellite will be the least of your worries. I guess you could try just going after the other guys, but when you go to their parents they'll squeal on everyone involved to spread the blame around. And you still get my father pissed at you. Third… what's this breaking even bullshit? Sell her to the right people, you could end up ahead. Well ahead."

"Or, I could put a bullet in your brain for being a cocky little brat."

A pause. "You could. But I think we both know why that's a bad idea, don't we?"

Coarse laughter. "If you weren't such an arrogant piece of shit, I might be tempted to offer you a job. Just so happens I have a shipment taking a hop across the pond to hell tonight. We'll see what my associate's willing to offer me for the magenta-haired wench, and how far that'll go to settling this little… misunderstanding between the two of us." Another pause. "What did she do to piss you off this much, anyway?"

"Let's just say the arrogant bitch had it coming." Someone picked her up and swung her… some way. Her injuries protested the violent motion, and the surge of pain obliterated her consciousness once again.


According to the currency converter I found, eight hundred thousand yen equals about nine thousand, seven hundred dollars. Figure we have at least four people, and the green-haired teen's trying to settle for his buddies at the same time… I can see them managing to rack up that much debt, especially at the sort of place seedy enough to let minors gamble.

I blame this prologue on too many episodes of Law and Order, especially SVU.

And yeah… I think I'm going to leave things there. You know you love to hate me.

Feed Me?