Right, so I had some issues with trying to upload this on fanfiction...Anyway, this is the only chapter of In The Heart of Life that will be published until I finish my Harry Potter story (I only have two more chapters to go on that story)

And...I'll be doing this along the american anime, but I'll change Tea/Anzu's speeches if I feel it gets too...friendshippy (is that a word?) mainly because I don't have enough of the manga to go by and if I was making transcripts of the anime, it was a little too hard to tell their voices apart in Japanese.

So, read if you want and leave some comments if you wish!

Full Summary: One upon a stormy night Yugi wakes up to find his Grandpa talking with the police. It seems that his good friend had died suddenly and his granddaughter had nowhere to stay. Out of the kindness of his heart, Inari was welcomed to the family although she couldnt be adopted due to her parents in jail. Can Yugi heal her battered soul and can Inari bring Yugi out of his shell?

In the Heart of Life

Prologue

It was a strangely stormy night. The forecasters had been wrong about the weather, not that failure was anything new, but for a storm of this intensity to suddenly blow up…well, it was strange.

A crash of thunder woke a little boy from his bed. It was around two thirty in the morning so the boy, ten years of age from the looks of it, tried to go back to sleep. But, as he attempted to drift off back into the darkness, he thought that he heard voices from downstairs.

Now, the boy lived in a three level building. The top level had four bedrooms – one for him, one for his grandfather, a guestroom for his friends when they spent the night, and the third one was used for storage most of the time. There was nothing much in it at the moment.

The second level housed the kitchen, bathrooms, and the living room, and the bottom floor housed a pretty decent sized game shop. His grandfather owned the Kame Game Shop.

The boy heard the voices again and, out of curiosity, threw back the covers of his bed. He wandered down the stairs, yellow-black-red spiked hair askew, and stopped short at the scene in front of him.

Bad feeling starts now.

Two policemen were talking to his grandfather while a third was keeping a girl on the couch calm. Not that she needed calming – she wasn't making a noise at all. Silent tears were streaking down her cheeks, causing her startling silver-grey eyes to become red rimmed. Her lilac colored hair was short and tangled, reaching a little below her chin, but the boy still thought that she was pretty. A small blush formed on his face when her eyes met his own and he realized that he was in his sleeping wear. He calmed slightly when he realized that her small dark purple nightgown was ripped in places. Dark bruises were scattered on her porcelain skin and there was one on her neck. It almost looked like…handprints.

"Yugi." His grandfather's voice caught his attention. He felt a hand on his shoulder and he looked up into his grandfather's face. What was weird was the fact that in his grandfather's eyes were filled with tears.

"Mutou-san, we'll take our leave now." One of the policemen said as the third stood from the couch. All three of the policemen bowed before they left the girl alone with the two strange men.

"Grandpa? What's going on?" Yugi asked in a small, confused, and scared voice. His grandfather only held up a finger. He approached the small girl and began to stroke her hair. Yugi hopped up on the couch as well, looking at the stoic girl with worried eyes.

"Inari, why don't you go take a bath while I explain everything to Yugi, here. He's my grandson, remember?" the girl, Inari, hadn't taken her eyes off Yugi, but at the sound of Mutou Sugoroku's voice, she slowly nodded. The older man easily readied her bath and led her to the bathroom. He left the door unlocked just in case he felt something was wrong. He also gave Inari a pair of Yugi's old pajamas.

"Grandpa?" Yugi prodded again. His grandfather sighed and sat down next to the boy.

"Do you remember a friend of mine who went by the name of Seijiro Kouryuu?" the old man asked with a tired expression on his face. Yugi nodded. He took care of his granddaughter like his grandfather was taking care of him.

"He was killed last night. The same person tried to kill Inari as well." Sugoroku explained with a sigh. The small boy named Yugi gasped – how could anyone want to hurt that little girl?

"Who…?" Yugi trailed off, not able to finish asking his grandfather the dreaded question.

"Her father." At that Yugi drew in a sharp breath. His eyes widened and his fingers curled into fists.

"Did they catch him?" Yugi asked, eyes almost pleading with his grandfather. Sugoroku's eyes were downcast and the little boy knew that he had raised his hopes for nothing.

"No, but Inari is from Kyoto. There is a chance that he won't follow her here with all of the police roaming about. There is a warrant for his arrest, which means that he won't show his face for a while. Let's hope that he's caught, alright?" the older man said with a tight smile. A few moments of silence passed before Sugoroku spoke again.

"Yugi, I'm counting on you to be a good friend to Inari. She'll be staying here for a while. Show her around and protect her." The old man said. Yugi thought to when he first saw Inari's blank, tearstained face. He felt a tug in his chest and looked up, a determined gleam in his eyes.

"I will, Grandpa. You can count on me."