Everything that had happened up to this particular moment, and all that was happening right now…those were things that he couldn't quite understand, difference nor remember.

The only thing he felt was that strange, yet so common feeling everybody gets during the mornings; of being conscious of the world and its surroundings, yet still somehow only seeing what your mind showed; all with eyes closed so tightly and so eager to fall back into sleep they hurt. So right now, he was in a particular kind of pain.

"…Wake…!"

The only real thing he remembered clearly was being at the academy and going to sleep after neglecting piles of schoolwork; he knew so because he did it so often. Pondering long enough on it, he realized that after managing to fall asleep, suddenly, instead of usual dreams and nightmares he forgot by morning time, there were eerie visions on his mind; blurs of colors, the feeling of cold wind—of flying, even-, and noises he could only make out as voices and roars.

"…Up!"

Not as much as then, but there were only noises now. He didn't understand what they were, or why was he hearing them. This particular noise resembled a voice- but it was as if it was too far, too close, or underwater, or as if it was only an echo that he could barely understand.

"Wake…Up!"

There it was again. A voice that little by little managed to make itself clear beyond all the colors and all the noise he was so lost into. He recognized the voice as a soft female's. Young. Was it Blair? Piecing it all together, he figured that maybe he had something weird for dinner and all the kaleidoscope-like memories and current sight of noises and blurs of colors were just the result of a very crazy dream. Here's where he started acknowledging the memories that didn't seem important- ergo, the schoolwork and obligations-, the familiar faces of friends, teachers, monsters and rivals, and his daily routines. A Good sign for knowing that this was nothing but a weird nightmare!

Alright, if this was just a dream and he was already aware of it, then right now he supposed he was in bed, with eyes tightly closed and sheets covering him up to his head.

"He's not waking up at all…" The voice murmured. It sounded worried.

'I hear ya. Loud and clear.' Was his first clear conscious thought, 'Just five more minutes, okay? I don't want to take today's tests…I didn't even do the assigned works, either way…' He thought, thinking that maybe when Blair would notice the lack of answers, she'd hurry to her own classes and he'd get there shortly, after preparing a mask to wear at class to sleep some more in there.

"What can I do? This is the first time I've seen this happen…" The voice said, again seemingly concerned.

'Seen what happen? I oversleep almost every day, don't I?'

This time, instead of hearing the girl's voice in response to his inner sayings, he heard little noises. But instead of the roaring, cackling or the ambiguous nothings he could've sworn to have heard before…was this cooing? And really familiar cooing, to top. This was getting extremely weird.

Before he knew it, the feeling of being tackled by something soft- yet still heavy on its own managed to finally wake him up. When his eyes opened, the colors and noises he kept on seeing instantly got removed from his sight, as if he had just woken up from a weird dream. But the new sight in front of him made him wonder if what he was seeing right now was the actual dream.

Not only was the concerned girl not Blair. This place was also definitely not the Slifer dorms.

He realized that he had been lying on the floor of some sort of plaza- that he had probably been moved in a way that his back was lying against a white pillar, and behind the girl, there was the sight of some other pillars- statues of creatures that looked oddly like duel monsters, a big white fountain on the center of the tiny place, old-styled wood houses, and most importantly, passing citizens that alike the statues, oddly looked like duel monsters.

"Oh, thank goodness you're finally awake!" The girl said, catching Jaden's attention. He tried really hard to remember if he had seen her somewhere before, but the odd green-ish hair made in pigtails and the golden eyes were far too showy for him to have forgotten. This was probably their first time meeting.

"Uh…" He could only say, trying to gain a better look at her, "Not to be rude or anything, but…Who are you, and where are we?"

Before she could answer, the cooing he had heard before started sounding close again, and following it, a small and fuzzy brown creature floated next to him, examining him with curious green eyes.

"Whoa!" He managed, taken aback by the fact that the little thing circled him and pressed itself against him so suddenly, "It's sort of different from the one I know, but…Is this a Kuriboh?" He asked the girl in a surprised tone, trying to hold back chuckles from the unintentional tickling the creature would do as it circled him around his face.

"Well…almost. Kuribon." The girl said, smiling lightly, "I'm pretty amazed that you're taking her presence and liking to you so lightly. She seems to be glad that you finally woke up." She acknowledged, as she saw Kuribon rub her tiny self against him.

"Well, to make a long story short, she reminds me a lot of a friend of mine!" He confirmed with a big grin, trying to keep Kuribon aback by holding her back with both hands, his expression turned just a tad serious when he remembered that he had no idea of what was happening. "Err, and about my questions…?" He asked the girl, turning to her.

"Oh? You're right, I'm sorry." She started, smiling very lightly, "My name is Luna."

"Luna? Okay; the name's Jaden Yuki!" He replied eagerly, sneaking in his casual trademark 'gotcha' sign as he still held the very jumpy Kuribon back, and smiled in a way that managed to make Luna smile back as quickly as she caught the glimpse of it.

"It's nice to meet you, Jaden." She said, "And about where we are…well, you might have noticed by now that this is the Spirit World."

"The what?"

"…You mean this is your first time here?" Luna asked, clearly amazed at the fact that even though Jaden seemed at such ease with Kuribon being there and the passing monsters, he had never even had contact with the Spirit World for once. Jaden only responded by shaking his head. She thought that perhaps he had the same abilities she did, but he wasn't ever really needed in there…?

"But it doesn't really matter knowing where I am right now, because this is just a dream…right?" Jaden asked, sweat-dropping as he smiled. Kuribon flew back from Jaden's hands to Luna's lap and stood there, cooing sadly when she noticed Luna's concerned expression.

"I'm afraid this isn't a dream, Jaden… As hard as it is to believe, this is reality." Luna softly said, eyeing Jaden carefully, "And the way things work over here is pretty mysterious. It's rare to ever have a human over here, or so I was told."

"But you're a human too, aren't you?" Jaden asked, and from his suspicious tone, Luna couldn't help but to chuckle.

"Yeah, I am, don't worry about that." She said, smiling, "Anyways, I can come over here because of some sort of power I have. I don't understand it that well, but it allows me to be here whenever I'm called, and I can see and talk to duel Spirits even on the human world."

The second Luna had mentioned the Duel Spirits, Jaden's look perked up. "Wait, so you're like Chazz, Jesse and me? That's awesome, I totally feel like I know you well already!" He said, enthusiastic to have found someone like him and his friends- one could tell at this point that he already considered Luna a new friend, just by seeing his pumped look and his straightforward mannerisms. The girl only smiled nervously at this, yet still kept her composure high enough to talk seriously to him.

"Okay, knowing that you can also talk to the Spirits and see them is good to start. Next is figuring out why you're here…" She said, to which Jaden only raised his eyebrows.

"I have to have a reason to be here? What about you?" He asked. Luna only shrugged.

"I'm called here either at random times, like when I was really young, or when Ancient Fairy Dragon needs me."

"Ancient Fairy Dragon…?"

Before Luna could begin telling Jaden about her Signer Dragon, she noticed for the first time what he was wearing. She recognized the bright red jacket as the uniform students from the first Duel Academy in history used- the ones from the Slifer ranking. The parts of her classes at her own Duel Academy and the late-night studying with her brother that included theory and history briefly mentioned the old school as the base to the one she attended… but that school had been heavily remodeled and amplified many years ago, so the fact that Jaden was wearing the old uniform was extremely unsettling.

"Um…sorry this is so out of the blue, but…" Luna started quietly, "Where are you from, Jaden?"

Jaden only tilted his head. "Domino City. Why?"

Luna's eyes grew wide at the response. "D-Don't you mean 'New Domino', Jaden?" She tried, her voice shaking as she held Kuribon close to her. Jaden shook his head, and Luna could only bring a hand to her mouth to cover a gasp.

"Impossible…!" She murmured. "Then does the Spirit World cross time-lines or…?"

"Wait, what? Sorry, but you're not making much sense… Is everything cool?" Jaden asked, trying to put a hand on Luna's shoulder- before he was able to do so, the girl looked up to him with a really alarmed expression.

"I don't know how to say this any other way, but I think you time-traveled to get here, Jaden!"

The abrupt saying got through after a few seconds of silence. Jaden was shocked indeed, but mostly because it was about his third time dealing with time-travel. The first time had been for a duel ,and the second as well, so maybe this time was going to be the same, but… at least he had time-travelled on his own world the previous times. This made everything a lot more confusing and difficult. He groaned and rubbed the back of his head, looking just a bit annoyed- he also finally stood up, since the pillar he was leaning in was starting to become more bothersome than helpful.

"Ugh… not cool, then." He said, trying not to upset Luna, who seemed worried enough, "Any idea how or why?"

"No, but…"

Before Luna could finish, she looked up at the sky, and let go of Kuribon, who now floated between her and Jaden. Seeming in some sort of trance, she had stopped speaking, making Jaden a little worried.

"Are you okay?" He asked.

"I'm getting called back." Luna simply said, still looking at the sky, "Don't you hear that? It's Leo's voice. I think I made him worry again…"

Jaden, unable to understand what was she hearing or just who this Leo was, could only watch in awe as a semi-bright light circled around Luna.

"Wait! You're going back to the human world? ! Please tell me how!" Jaden shouted, and Luna just turned her head to his direction, looking as serene as possible.

"You just need to get called back, that's all." She simply said, and as the light started to quicken the speed in which it moved, she raised her voice just a little, "Don't worry, I'll help you out of here- I know just the person who can help me think of something…!"

And with that, she was gone, leaving behind a worried Kuribon, and a confused Jaden.

"…She knows just the person…?" He could simply repeat, staring blankly at the place where the girl had been just a few seconds ago.

As he crossed his arms to start trying to think of what to do until he heard again from Luna, he noticed how Kuribon had flown towards his face, flailing her little feet and tail and cooing in quite the desperate way.

"What's up with you, are you okay?" Jaden tried, taking Kuribon with both hands. "Are you upset because Luna left?"

The little creature shook frantically, and kept adverting her look from Jaden to its right, as if whatever was setting her off was close.

Jaden only realized what Kuribon was trying to warn him from when they were both under the shadow of a duel monster unknown to him.

.

To be continued.