Coral: I'm finally back in writing fanfics after seven years! Hopefully you'll enjoy the journey as much as I do!

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

Chapter One

"Kaiba, you bastard, you can't just go around disrespecting my friends like that!"

"Hmph. You're just as moody as ever, Bonkotsu."

"What was that?! I'm not a Bonkotsu!"

"Could have fooled me, Bonkotsu. Oh, did I push a button, Bonkotsu? You'd have to forgive me because I can't stand the sight of failure, Bonkotsu."

"GRRR! You prick!"

"Proletariat."

"Moneybags!"

"Dirt kisser."

"Trench coat voyeur!"

"Red eyes fetishist."

"BLUE EYES FETISHIST!"

"Gambling dog."

"CEO prick that's married to his company!"

"Mangy mutt that's married to friendship."

"That doesn't even make sense!"

"Is thinking too much for you?"

"Better than a guy that overthinks and stares at screens all day!"

"Now that doesn't even make sense. What does that have anything to do with the ability to actually think? Too much for you, mutt?"

"GRRRRRRRRRR!"

Yugi and others sighed as Jounouchi and Kaiba once again clashed at school. It was really starting to become a typical norm to see at least one daily fight between the two. Sometimes the small duelist wished that the two could get along...

Now Jounouchi did have at least some restraint despite being impulsive as heck. If ever the fights would go too far, he would be the first to break it off and walk away, despite the punch to his pride and all since of course he didn't want to get to the point of expulsion. The fact that Kaiba always did his signature villain laugh in the end never helped. Soon, the day like any other came to an end.

Kicking a couple of cans after school while cleaning kind of helped expel his frustrations and Jounouchi laughed as he and Honda decided to make a game of shooting cans in the basket. CLINK!

"Score!"

"Damn it Honda! You cheated!"

"Haaaaa, what was that? Can't hear you over the loud sound of victory!"

"You are so dead to me bro!"

His best friend proceeded to give a noogie while Yugi laughed. It was times like these that the small duelist wished could last a lifetime. He patted the millenium puzzle hanging around his neck with a smile. Even with all the extraordinary events that occurred following completing the puzzle, he could never forget how it came to grant his wish of making good friends.

The boys decided to have a man's day out and they mostly hung out at the local arcade playing games before arriving at the Kame Game Shop. The three of them sat down eating chips while commenting on whatever was on TV.

"Holy crap, look at her!"

Whistle.

"I wonder if she can tell my forecast? Eh? Eh?"

"Naw, I'm more into that anchor, Jou."

"Are you kidding? She's got make up caked up so bad, it's hardly even cake, just icing!"

"Now I wanna lick it off, hahaha!"

"GROSS!"

"Hey, what do you think, Yugi?"

"I-I, w-well..." Blush.

"Pfft, Honda back off, we already know Yugi's into real women... Like that forecaster."

"Like hell, Jou!"

Yugi laughed for a while as the spirit of the puzzle smiled approvingly by his side. It was nice to just enjoy youth for once without worry about someone trying to steal his puzzle or cause trouble to his friends.

Yami floated over to one side of the couch and sat down. Peace was usually take for granted too easily. He frowned for a moment. He couldn't shake off the feeling that even though things were calm, something was wrong... Shaking off the frown he resumed watching the three interact. It's probably nothing, he told himself.

"Kaiba! I challenge you to a duel!"

"I accept, only to show you once and for all that the place where you belong is at my feet, you cur!"

"Bring it on, Bling-bling kisser!"

Anzu slapped her forehead. "How in the world did we let this happen again?"

Honda sighed. "Well you know Jou. Once Kaiba does his usual snapping Jou always reacts..."

Yugi groaned. "And considering they both just happened to have brought their duel disks to school..."

"HAHAHAHA! Just try to stop this! I summon the Blue Eyes White Dragon! Now I have all three on the field!" Kaiba cackled with glee, almost as if he was back to being the old Kaiba who wasn't mind crushed by Yami. It was quite terrifying really, even to himself although he wouldn't admit it. He ordered the three dragons to attack, eradicating the blond's three remaining scapegoats. "Now you have no monsters on your field! Draw your next pathetic card dog!" The CEO declared, taunting with his index pointing straight at Jounouchi's face.

"Grrrr! My turn! I draw!"

Jounouchi gazed down at his hand and suddenly brightened with a smile. "Hehehe! Kaiba, you may have all three of your blue eyes here, but I've got something that will blow you away in an instant!"

Kaiba's azure eyes widened in surprise. Something that would blow him away? What did he mean? He had all three of his aces on the field and to boost, a banner of courage magic card active on the field... Unless... Like a splash of cold water hitting him he gritted his teeth in realization. It can't be...

"Gyahaha! Take a look at this! I call forth Time Wizard!"

"OOOOHHH!" Now Jou's friends really started to take interest in the duel. Jounouchi did have a knack for interesting turn arounds apart from Yugi.

"Then, I play magic stone excavation, discarding two cards and bringing back a spell card in my hand! And I choose scapegoat to activate!" With glee he raised up his fist in triumph as the rest of his field was full of goat tokens. "Hahaha! What did you think of that?!" He shouted in triumph as his friends cheered and whistled.

The moment of elation was cut short by Seto Kaiba's villainous laugh which grew louder and louder.

Scowling, Jou raised up a fist. "Hey, what's so funny?!"

Kaiba finally stopped with a big smirk. "You." He replied snickering. "I'll admit that you have guts and a small amount of skill to pull a potential comeback, but your follow up is short lived and proves that you are a rather imbecile of a duelist!"

Jounouchi blinked in confusion before once again scowling. "What are you talking about?!"

The brunet scoffed and shook his head. "You really don't get it? You wasted your cards, idiot!"

Honda blinked before pondering, "Hey, what exactly does Kaiba mean exactly? Jou has a full field now and Time Wizard..."

The meaning of Kaiba's words did not fall short on Yugi's ears who proceeded to frown. "Jounouchi did go too quickly. There wasn't anything wrong with his moves but rather the timing of his actions... He activated scapegoat before Time Wizard will use his effect!"

Widening his eyes in realization, Jounouchi looked back down on the field. Time Wizard's effect... If he hadn't activated Scape Goat until after Time Wizard's effect, he could at least have a fallback in case effect didn't end in his favor. But since he activated it... Time Wizard could destroy his tokens. He wouldn't lose life points, but his field would be clear, perfect for three blue eyes to have a head on attack straight to his points!

"See now, Mutt? This is the difference between you and me!"

"Che! Well it doesn't matter anyway since it's all or nothing from here!" He retorted. Like hell was he going to let Kaiba have the satisfaction of Jou losing his confidence. "Go Time Wizard!" He raised his hand in the air as if declaring an attack.

"IDIOT!"

Jou flinched at the angry brunet who pointed furiously at the blond duelist. "If you're using your Time Wizard's effect then get your coin out already!" He blinked before scrunching his face in annoyance. Trust Kaiba to ruin his moments of trying to look cool. "Yeah, yeah! I'm getting it, sheesh!" Rummaging through his pockets, he pulled out a 100 yen coin. "Good enough for you?!"

"Hmph."

Sticking his tongue out, Jounouchi decided to call heads and flipped the coin. All the while, Time Wizard raised his staff up high, roulette spinning faster and faster. It was as if everything was in slow motion as the coin began to land on the ground, flipping, falling... The arrow landing on skull, skull, crown, skull... And then... Jou gaped at the coin's final landing in the crack of the pavement.

It landed perfectly on its edge.

At that moment, Time Wizard's hologram began spurting out of control, the arrow on the rod having landed on the border between skull and crown. Brighter and brighter Time Wizard grew, spouting multiple colors and rapidly spazzing left and right growing more and more distorted. Soon it was as if Time Wizard exploded within the array of bright lights.

"AUGHHHHHH!" screeched Jounouchi. "Kaiba! What's going on?!"

"I-I don't know, what hell did you do, Mutt?!"

"I didn't do anything!" shouted Jou back loudly as if it would turn off the blasting lights. "Fix it!"

But there was no reply from Seto Kaiba, even as the field eventually disappeared along with the blast of light.

"K-Kaiba?" Jou whispered in shock. Where the brunet once stood, there was nothing... No traces, not even one. "H-hey... He ran away right?" He turned in horror at his friends who were rubbing their eyes. "Right?!"

"Calm down, Jou! Kaiba's probably fine! Maybe he did run off..."

"W-wait, no, he wouldn't run away like that, no..." Jounouchi stared in horror at his hands. This... He... "I... Made... Him... Gone...?"

"Wait hold on, Jounouchi, don't jump into conclusions like that!"

"Anzu's right! You didn't do anything wrong!"

"But..." He stared at his Time Wizard card, brown eyes swimming within pools of guilt, horror, and fear. "If I didn't play this... What happened?"

"Look Jou, it's ok, we'll all split up and search for him, he couldn't have gotten far!" Honda declared, slapping the boy on the back. "You can look around here, alright? Anzu will look in the court field and me and Yugi will search the hallways and gym."

Biting his bottom lip, he nodded. "Right. Moneybags was probably just scared and ran off."

"See, there you go! This'll make a good bragging story later on too! You're way braver than Kaiba!"

Cheering up a little from the words of his best friend he grinned. "Alright! Let's look for him!"

The four nodded to each other before splitting up.

Jounouchi sighed. Even though Honda and the rest tried to cheer him up, he couldn't help feeling he did something wrong... He gazed over to the spot that Kaiba stood. The spot they chose to duel was a sandy area, so if he did run off, he would have at least seen traces of footprints... It was empty save for Kaiba's footprints when he was last standing before the coin flip. Speaking of which... Jou picked up his 100 yen coin from the pavement crack.

What were the odds that it would land on its side like that? As he pondered on how in the world it could have happened, his thoughts were instantly interrupted by a pull on his blue uniform slacks. His head quickly whipped to his left. No one?

The pulling increased insistently and Jou widened his eyes in horror as he looked down... To the biggest blue eyes he ever saw.

"Hello mister. I'm looking for my little brother Mokuba. Have you seen him?" A brown haired boy with large innocent sapphire eyes stared up at him with a big smile.

Coral: So how was this as a first chapter? I'm sorry if it's short, but I wanted to get the ball rolling as soon as possible. XD Explanations may come next chapter, I will update soon! Please let me know if you like it so far!