I clicked the last piece of the puzzle in place. I took a deep breath and let it out in a sigh that did nothing to convey the immense rush of joy I felt in that moment. Above all, I felt free. The stress of recent events, the fear, melted away. I knew how to deal with the problem, now.

The bully was different, I had to give him that. He didn't think of himself as a bully. However, there was no escape for him from the Shadow Game that revealed his greed. I felt immensely powerful. The dark knowledge and power of the puzzle was mine, now. I could do anything. The judgement of evil was in my hands.

The next day at school I felt tired of course, thanks to being up most of the night. I pretended not to know what had happened to Ushio-san, just like everyone else. After all, I didn't need to explain to everyone that I was a master of Shadow Games.

My wish was granted. It felt wonderful to have friends, especially such wonderful friends like Anzu and Jounochi.

I will never forget the first time I realized...

Some time had passed since I had solved the puzzle. Everyday I grew more confident in my ability and knowledge in dealing out judgement to the wicked. No longer was I a target. No longer was I weak. In fact, with the Shadow Games I could protect my new-found friends. However, normal life also had its duties. I was sitting at my desk, working on my math homework. I had solved the problem I was on, but my hand held the pencil loosely as I stared blankly at the page. It was odd, but I didn't think anything of it until I heard myself speak out loud.

"I wonder why I can't remember."

Why was I saying that? There wasn't anything I couldn't remember. Nothing important, anyway. I could remember how to do the math problem in front of me...but I couldn't get my hand to write down the answer.

"That time at the restaurant, and when the library shelves tipped over on me. Why can't I remember?"

I threw my will into writing down the answer to the math problem, and I saw my fingers slightly twitch. What's going on!? Unreasoning terror gripped me, yet my heart didn't pound, my blood didn't run cold, and my mouth didn't open to scream. I retreated to the back of my mind, my conciousness trembling. It was then, in that horrific moment, that I realized that my mind was not my own. These eyes that I was seeing through were not entirely mine. There was someone else with me. Someone who knew nothing that I knew.

I fled.

There was a division. I hadn't noticed it before, but now I hid behind the wall that sliced through my mind. It was dark there, and cold, but I could think and feel. The fear I felt overwhelmed me, the darkness and shadow reached out to drown me. Through my anguish, I could hear my grandpa calling me to dinner.

My grandpa? Me?

In all of my shared mind's memories, I had never felt so alone.

I hid in that room for as long as I could, agonizing lonliness paralizing me. It was during that time that I realized that I was nothing more than a watcher. The body I thought was mine behaved exactly as it always did, even though I tried everything I could do make it do what I wanted, which was lock myself in my room and never leave. Even without me, my body went to school and played with my friends and laughed and smiled and joked. My life was not mine. My closest friends had no idea I existed. I could not scream. The deep, endless dark claimed more of me.

As the days passed, I sank deeper into an agonizing apathy. If could only make myself not care, if this cold, unfeeling shadow would simply drag me into oblivion, then it wouldn't hurt anymore. Fate moves forward, however, whether we will it to or not. There came the day when a man entered my mind.

I froze, watching him as I watched everything else. He carefully walked down the narrow space between me and the one who was not me, his eyes cautious yet curious. For a moment, he looked into the other side of my mind, the side I had thought was mine, what seemed like an eternity ago. Then, he turned toward the door I had shut. I knew I had to do something. A faint memory of freedom and might returned to me like a breath, and I opened the door.

"Looks like I have a visitor," I said with a smile, remembering my mission. "If you are brave enough, why don't you come in? The game is already in place."

I had a visitor. "Welcome to my mind's room." He hesitated, obviously nervous. "What, scared?"

He stepped in, and a small amount of light entered the room. I resisted the urge to look around, instead focusing on the strange man. "I don't know what sort of power you have, to be able to come here," I said. "How did you do it?" How did someone find me?

"I am unexpected, then? I suppose I must answer out of courtesy," he said quietly. He told me of how he wanted to know of the Millenium Puzzle's power, and how he had two items of his own, one of which allowed him to enter other's mind rooms. As he spoke of things ancient and powerful, I felt a thrill run through me. I let my eyes wander to the walls of my room, which were covered in ancient egyptian hieroglyphs.

"You have a key," I repeated. "But why enter my mind?"

"To find the power of the Millenium Puzzle."

I challenged him to a Shadow Game to see if he could find the real room in my mind. After all, as I had hidden in there in the darkness, I had never found my real sanctuary, my real mind. In the cold shadows, the depression I had sunk into had convoluted me. I was a maze. I was lost in my own mind.

As much as I longed for the man to help me find myself, he lost the Shadow Game and left my mind to myself again. However, I was not left in darkness. I watched the man through the eyes which were not my eyes as he stood pale and trembling.

"I owe you a great debt," he said.

"In my debt for what?" the one who was not me asked.

"I owe a great debt to the other you."

While the one who was not me laughed at the idea of there being another one of him, I sat quietly. A burning light rushed through me, and I felt an awful, heart-clenching hope appear. Someone knew about me. I existed.