Chapter One: Lost Change

At Domino High the next day, the four heroes Yugi, Joey, Tristan, and Téa gathered around a desk in the back corner of the room. Since they were going to discuss a few 'magical' items, they needed to make sure that nobody would be able to easily overhear them.

"Guys, I tink dere's a really big problem in our world," Joey whispered to the others. "It's been nearly two weeks since we went to dat dimension of pure magic, and since den, we haven't met up wit one evil villain lookin' ta take over de world or steal any artifacts or just plain cause some trouble!"

"I'm not complaining," Tristan replied. "Nearly two weeks that we don't have to go out at night or hang out in some creepy warehouse or fight some evil psychopath seem like nearly two pretty good weeks to me."

"Dat's true, but it's still a little weird…" Joey suddenly looked a bit shocked. "Oh man…did I just practically say dat not using magic to beat up a couple a magical beings is weird?"

Yugi laughed. "I guess we've gotten so used to magic that not using it would be weird for us."

"Oh, great. So one a dese days, I'm gonna wake up and find out dat I've painted all dese pentagrams and stuff around my room, and as I get outta bed I'm gonna put my foot inta some potion which causes burns or turns de skin blue dat I left out on de floor last night."

"That won't matter so much, Joey," Tristan said, "you've already hurt your foot a dozen times on all the other stuff you leave out."

"Har, har."

"Guys, hold on a minute." Téa said, "If we go for too long without using our magic, we might lose a little bit of our skills and be unprepared for the next villain that comes our way."

The other three paused for a moment, reflecting on what she had just said. "Dat…would not be so good," Joey said, "especially if the villain's plannin' a take-over."

"Well," Yugi said after a few more minutes, "maybe after school today we should go over to the warehouse at the docks and spend some time using our magic and abilities."

"Good idea, man," Joey said. "I've been wantin' ta practice usin' my shiftin' powers a little. Dere's some new tricks dat I wanna try out."

"Joey, I don't think it'd be right to shift your brain into a smarter one right before you need to take a test," Tristan said.

Joey glared at him. "Actually, I was thinkin' of practicin' some of my fightin' moves wit some muscle-enhancin'. And I tink dat I've just found a nice punchin' bag dat I can use."

A couple of more insults, and the two were once again brawling with each other. Téa sighed and muttered, "This is why I need some female friends…"

Once Joey and Tristan had finally stopped fighting, Joey said, "So den, should we all just walk ta de docks togedder after school?"

"Oh, I actually can't come right away," Yugi said. "I promised Grandpa that I'd hurry home after school and help him out a little at the Game Shop, so I have to take the bus."

"He finally convinced ya ta help im out a little after you've been so busy for de past couple a weeks?" Joey said.

"Mmm-hmm. I had to do so when he finally told me that it was a very sad thing when a grandson didn't have enough time to help out his poor grandpa out with some work."

"Ooh, de guilt trip. Harsh," Joey said.

All of a sudden, a loud alarm resounded throughout the entire room. The kids looked up from their chatting in shock at the sound of the noise.

"De fire alarm?" Joey said. "Man, why couldn't it ave gone off while dere was actually some class goin' on?"

The kids got up and started walking out of the classroom in groups, leaving their various bags on the floor or their desks. The last kid out made sure to pull the door shut behind them.

For a few minutes, class 2B's room remained empty and silent. Then, suddenly, a shower of grey sparks soared in from underneath the doorway. The grey sparks flew a little around the room until they came to a particular group of bags. Slowly, the sparks managed to somehow open all of the bags' pockets and remove any sort of loose change which they could find. Once the sparks were done, they soared back under the doorway and vanished.


"Welll, dat was fun," Joey said sarcastically as the teens were moving back towards their room. "Walkin' all de way outta de school, bein' forced ta stay quiet outside or else, and walkin' all de way back inta de school to go back ta class 'cause someone had just pulled de alarm as a stupid joke and somehow managed ta get away widdout gettin' caught."

"Well, at least nobody got hurt," Téa said.

"Yeah, but…" Joey suddenly got a shocked look on his face. "What if dis was some way for some evil being ta come inta our school and do sometin like zap up a couple a invisible portals inta anodder world, or trash all a de classrooms, or-"

"Or go looting through our backpacks?" Tristan cried, stopping in class 2B's doorway and staring at the back corner where the four had been sitting.

"Yeah, or-Wait, what?" Joey said.

The four teens dashed over to where they had been sitting. Their bags were lying in different positions than when they had last left them, and all of the pockets were wide open.

The four quickly started looking through their respective bags. "Well, it looks like everything is still here," Téa said. "They didn't even take my cell phone."

"I'm not missing anything either," Tristan said.

"Neider am I," Joey said. "I tink…"

Tristan glanced inside Joey's bag and found a large pile of books, food wrappers, and a couple of gym socks. "How could anyone tell if something's missing from there?" he asked.

"Oh no!" Yugi cried out, desperately rifling through his pockets.

The other three looked at him. "What's wrong, man?" Joey said.

"I took some change with me today since I needed to take the bus, but…" Yugi turned his backpack upside down and gently shook it. A couple of books, papers, and pencils fell out. "It's gone."

His friends stared. "If someone goes tru de trouble of riflin' tru our bags, why in de world would dey just take a couple a yen?" Joey asked.

"Hey, wait…" Téa paused. She pulled a wallet out of her bag, opened it up, and frisked through it. "All of my loose change is gone, too."

"Hey, so's mine!" Tristan cried, looking through his pockets.

Joey pulled his wallet out of his backpack, opened it, and turned it upside down. Nothing came out except a tiny moth which flew away. "Aww, man…dey took all of mine, too!"

"This is so weird…" Yugi murmured. "Why would somebody do this?" He sighed. "Well, it looks like I'm going to be walking home after all. Grandpa's going to be so mad…"

"Sorry, Yug," Joey said. "I'd lend you some change if I could, but since whoever did dis cleared me out…"

"Why does that make a difference? You're cleared out so much of the time that moths have started making homes in your wallet," Tristan said.

"WHY YOU LITTLE-"Joey yelled.


Unbeknownst to the four teens, someone had been watching them while they were rifling through their bags. Now, when Joey and Tristan had started fighting once more, the teen looked around to make sure no one was watching, opened their own bag…and poured a whole bunch of loose change into it.

Sorry, Yugi, the person thought, but you'll see that what I did was far better than the alternative, I hope.