Taking a deep breath, Cat stepped through the school gates.

It was a new day and Cat's first day as a Domino High School student.

Of course, she was feeling very nervous.

Watching all the other female students, most of them seemed to have the white knee-high socks with the brown shoes, like the girl she saw yesterday did.

Good. Cat was wearing the same shoes and socks, so at least she was wearing something common.

The only thing she was wearing was uncommon was the silver cartouche she kept around her neck.

Cat took a deep breath again and continued walking. She was wearing the school's uniform for the first time and her hair was in it's usual ponytail, ending at her waist.

Some of the other students glanced at her. Even though Cat didn't like the attention, it was only natural. She was a new student after all.

She gripped her new brown, schoolbag tightly.

Stepping in the shoe locker area, she pulled out a piece of paper with her locker number on it. After a moment of looking around, she finally found it.

Opening it up, inside was her brand new white, inside school shoes. She always though it was weird that Japanese schools had different shoes for inside and outside. She figured that they just wanted to keep their floors clean.

Taking her current shoes off, she slipped on her new ones and placed her outside shoes in her locker, shutting it.

After she stepped away from her locker, the first bell rang.

It was time to go to her classroom.

It took only two steps before Cat wanted to turn around and leave the classroom.

But her feet betrayed her, making her stay put.

The reason for her sudden shock was the fact that there was four certain people sitting and standing around a small group of desks.

It was the group of friends from yesterday.

The blond haired boy, the brown haired girl, the brown haired boy and the spiky haired boy were all there. They hadn't noticed Cat though.

"Ugh...why do I keep on running into them?" She thought to herself as she slowly continued into the classroom, hoping not to draw attention to herself.

She was supposed to talk to the teacher...but he wasn't there. Where was he?

Cat stood nearby the teacher's stand, confused.

Her thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a young man, tapping her shoulder. She jumped and quickly looked at the boy.

"Um...you're a new student, right?" He asked.

Cat nodded once.

"Y-Yes." She answered.

"Then...aren't you supposed to meet the teacher in the teacher's office?" He asked.

Cat didn't reply for a moment before she gasped.

"Th-that's right! Oh no, I forgot!" She cried to herself.

The boy laughed.

"It's no problem. That mistake is made every once in a while." He said.

"Thank you for letting me know. I-I'd better go." Cat said quickly before rushing out of the room.

A heavy sigh filled the air as Cat slid down against a tree until she was sitting on the grass.

It was finally lunchtime.

Putting her lunch on her lap, Cat reviewed the day. So far, it wasn't that great.

After she went to the teacher's office, the teacher made Cat stand up in front of the class and introduce herself. She wasn't too happy about doing that, even though she should have seen it coming.

Not only that, but when she was asked to write something on the chalk board, she tripped and fell on the way to the board.

Cat sighed again and rubbed her head.

"I just keep on embarrassing myself." She mummered to herself. "Hopefully the day will only get better."

After she was finished talking to herself, she finally started eating her home made lunch. Since she couldn't cook, it wasn't anything special.

Half-way through her lunch, she heard some students sitting down for lunch behind her. Peeking from behind the tree she was sitting at, she couldn't really see who they were because of the bushes in her way. Sitting up a little more, she could finally see the top of their heads. Once she saw that, she immediately sat back down and pressed her back against the tree.

"Why...why...WHY? It's THEM again!" She groaned to herself in her thoughts.

Indeed, behind her and the bushes, was the group of four.

It sounded like they were already talking about something.

"Oh MAN! I can't wait until school is out! It's time to register for the Battle City tournament!" One of the boys cried.

"I'll bet you'll only last two minutes in the tournament, Jounouchi." One of the other guys said.

"Shut up, Honda! Just you wait! I'll be one of the finalists!" The one whose name was apparently Jounouchi, snapped.

"Don't start arguing guys. Don't forget. This tournament will be much more than just a regular tournament." The girl said.

"Yeah, yeah, we get it Anzu. There's going to be someone really evil there, blah, blah..." Jounouchi said, obviously not caring of Anzu's comment.

"Anzu's right, Jounouchi. The tournament may even be dangerous." The last guy said.

"I know, man. But if it's anything like Duelist Kingdom, then it'll be a piece of cake!" Jounouchi said with confidence.

"For all we know, it'll be worse than Duelist Kingdom. And we had trouble getting through that tournament." Anzu said.

"That's true." Honda said. "Hey Yugi. What does the Pharaoh think about all this?" Honda asked.

"I haven't really talked to him about it. But so far, he thinks the same thing we do." The boy, who's name was Yugi, said.

Cat frowned a little.

"Pharaoh...? What the heck are they talking about?" She thought to herself and looked at her necklace. "Hm. Everytime I hear the word, "Pharaoh", it reminds me of the story grandma told me about this necklace..."

"Yeah. But whatever happens, happens. Even if it does worry me." Anzu said. "Hey guys. Did anyone else realize that the new girl is the same girl we saw yesterday?"

This caught Cat's attention.

"Huh? Oh, yeah. I noticed." Jounouchi said. "But if you ask me, she seems like one of those creepy shy girls."

Cat winced.

"Ouch..." She thought to herself.

"C'mon Jounouchi. That's not a nice thing to say." Yugi said.

"I know. Sorry. But that was the first impression I got from her." Jounouchi said, a careless tone in his voice.

"But you have to admit, man. She was kinda cute." Honda mentioned.

Cat sweatdropped.

"Since she seems shy, I wonder if she'll have any trouble making friends around here." Anzu wondered out loud.

"I don't know. But that seems to be the case with most shy people. Maybe we can talk to her sometime soon." Yugi suggested.

Cat didn't move.

"They seem like nice people. Hm. Well, I'd better stop eavesdropping...it's rude." She thought to herself after she finished her lunch.

Quickly and quietly gathering her stuff, she left the area. But not unnoticed.

"Hey guys...did you hear something?" Jounouchi asked.

"Kinda." Anzu admitted.

"It sounds like someone's behind us." Yugi said.

Honda stood up and looked around the area.

"Maybe it was an animal or something, because I don't see anyone." He said, sitting back down.

"Probably." Yugi said. "Well...if it was someone...I hope they didn't hear what we were talking about."

"School's over...finally..." Cat sighed to herself, replacing her indoor school shoes with her normal ones.

Cat had left the classroom quickly. The rest of the day didn't get better like she had hoped and all she could think about was going home and resting.

After she put on her shoes, she quickly walked down the front path and towards the school gates.

While she walked down the streets of Domino, she didn't give a second thought about school. She was tired and was letting her mind wander.

In fact, she was letting her mind wander too much and wasn't paying attention to other people passing by. She didn't didn't snap back to reality until she ran into someone.

"WATCH IT!" The man yelled.

Cat looked up at the man.

He didn't seem...normal. The man was tall and strong looking, but his whole outfit was a long purple robe with a gold chain on the front. The man wore the hood over his head, so she was unable to clearly see his face, for it was hidden in the shadows. But what she could see from his face, was that he looked almost...evil.

"I-I'm sorry." Cat stuttered.

Instead of continuing on, the man examined Cat for a moment until his eyes locked onto something. It took Cat a moment to realize that he was staring at her necklace.

The man's angry look soon turned into a scary grin.

"Hmph." Was all he said before continuing on.

Cat watched him as he left and put a hand to her quickly beating heart.

"Who..." She couldn't finish the question. Instead, she felt that it would be better if she just returned home. Quickly.

"The new girl left the school pretty quickly." Honda said.

The four friends were now walking home.

"Maybe she had somewhere she had to be." Yugi guessed.

"Probably. Or maybe she really is just a creepy shy girl." Jounouchi said with a grin.

"Shut up." Anzu said.

Honda Hiroto was the brown haired boy with the beak-like hair. He was 16 and was best friends with Jounouchi.

Out of the group of four, he was one of the two that didn't play the game, "Duel Monsters". But he cheered for them on the side-lines.

Honda tends to be fairly normal. If you don't count his huge love of food.

Anzu Mazaki was the brown haired girl. She was 16 as well and like Honda, she didn't play Duel Monsters. She loves her friends very much and would rather cheer for her friends on the side-lines than duel. She was closest with Yugi and had a crush on him and his "other-self".

Anzu was kind-hearted and was the voice of reason within the group. She's very smart and tends to be the responsible one, keeping Jounouchi and Honda (mostly Jounouchi) in line when needed.

Jounouchi Katsuya was the blond haired boy. He's 16 as well and is best friend's with Yugi.

He loves to play Duel Monsters and aims to become a great duelist.

Jounouchi used to be a troublemaker and bully Yugi. But when Yugi stood up and was beat up for him, he became his friend. And after they became friends, Jounouchi changed and stopped being a troublemaker.
Jounouchi isn't all the bright, but he has a kind heart and is loyal to his friends. Like Honda, he's a huge food lover.

Yugi Motou was the spiky-haired boy. Even though he didn't look like it, he was 16 as well. He was just short for his age. Yugi loves and cares for all of his friends.

He's also the best duelist out of them all. And currently the best duelist in the world. The last Duel Monster's tournament he was in gave him the title, "King of Games". Even though he doesn't seem to get to play the game for fun very often, he still loves to play it.

Yugi is very kind-hearted and always puts his friends and family before himself. Yugi was also an owner of one of the seven Millennium Items, which were created in Ancient Egypt.

Yugi owned the Millennium Puzzle, which held the spirit of a 3,000 year old Ancient Egyptian Pharaoh within it. Yugi always wore the Millennium Puzzle around his neck on a chain.

There was a problem though. The Pharaoh had lost his memories when he sealed his soul within the Millennium Puzzle. So he didn't know who he was or anything about his past. They only knew he was a Pharaoh because of a visit to a museum that had some information about his past. A woman named Ishizu, who was the owner of the Ancient Egypt exhibit, explained some things to them. She was also an owner of a Millennium Item as well. The Millennium Necklace, which allowed her to see the past and future.

The Pharaoh shared the title, "King of Games" with Yugi, for he was a master at the game. But that wasn't the only thing they shared. Yugi and the Pharaoh shared the same body.

With the upcoming Battle City tournament, the Pharaoh and his friends were on a journey to learn more about who the Pharaoh was and to defeat a certain evil...

Since Yugi and his friends didn't know the Pharaoh's real name, they either called him:

"Spirit", "Pharaoh", "Other Yugi", "Yugi" or "Yami".

"Y'know guys...maybe she's the type of person who likes to be left alone." Honda suggested.

"Maybe...that would be kind of sad though." Anzu said. "Hmm. Do you think she's interested in Ancient Egypt?"

"Why do you ask?" Yugi asked.

"Well...I noticed that she was wearing a cartouche. You know. The Pharaoh's in Ancient Egypt would wear those. It always had their names carved on them." Anzu explained.

"Oh I see. She could be. Or she could have gotten that as a gift or just because." Jounouchi said.

"Possibly." Yugi said before stopping. "What the...?"

The other three stopped and looked at Yugi.
"What is it, pal?" Jounouchi asked.
Yugi was staring at something across the street.

"Look!" He exclaimed, pointing at someone.

The others followed where he was pointing and spotted a man in a long purple robe!

"Hey! That guy...he looks just like Bandit Keith did!" Honda cried.

"What's he doing here?" Anzu asked, surprised. "Is it Bandit Keith?"

"It might not be. It could be a follower of whoever that man was." Yugi said, remembering the day when he met and dueled against Bandit Keith, who was being mind controlled by someone. He frowned.

"Should we approach him?" Honda asked.

"No. That could be dangerous." Yugi said. "Battle City is just around the corner. So we shouldn't be surprised to see these guys walking around."

Without another glance at the man, Yugi continued on, his friends following.

The next day seemed to come quickly...and yet so much had happened.

After Yugi and Jounouchi registered for the Battle City tournament and got their Duel Disks, Jounouchi went off by himself to see his younger sister, Shizuka at the hospital. She was having a surgery for her eyes and Jounouchi promised her that he would be there.

But on his way to the hospital, Jounouchi encountered a group of strange men. They were all wearing the long purple robes with the gold chains on them. They called themselves, the "Rare Hunters".

One of them forced Jounouchi into a duel and won. After knocking him down, they stole his favorite duel monsters card, the "Red-Eyes Black Dragon" and left.

Feeling a personal failure of sorts, he felt like he couldn't face his sister and didn't go to the hospital.

Since he didn't go, Shizuka refused to have the operation until Jounouchi was there.

Shizuka and Jounouchi used to live together like normal brother and sister when they were children, but their parents got divorced and Jounouchi's mother left with Shizuka, leaving Jounouchi with his drunk father.

The siblings still loved each other very much and were saddened by their separation.

Because Shizuka refused to have the operation until her older brother arrived, Shizuka and Jounouchi's mother tried to find Jounouchi.

Unable to contact him, she contacted Yugi.

She reported that he was missing and Yugi, Honda and Anzu went out to find him.

After a while of searching, Honda found Jounouchi at the beach and knocked some sense into him. Afterwards, he took Jounouchi to the hospital, passing by Yugi and Anzu, letting them know that Jounouchi was found. He then arrived at the hospital to apologize to his sister and stay there to be with her.

Yugi and Anzu decided to head back to the Game Shop; which was also Yugi's home. His grandfather, Solomon Motou, owned the gameshop. The Game Shop sold Duel Monster cards.

"I'm glad that Honda was able to find Jounouchi. I think Shizuka will be happy to see her brother again." Anzu said as she walked down the sidewalk with Yugi.

"Yeah." Yugi nodded.

The two didn't say anything more for a while.

Once they were about to pass a bookshop, Anzu stopped.

"Hey, Yugi? There was something I wanted to see at the bookstore. So I think I'm going to go inside for a moment. If you want to go ahead, you can." She said.

"No, I'll go with you." Yugi said walking into the bookstore with Anzu.

After walking through some hallways, Anzu wasn't sure if she was going to find what she was looking for. But that didn't matter when she spotted a certain someone.

"Yugi...look!" Anzu exclaimed, pointing to the other side of the room. "Isn't that...?"

There, flipping through a book, was Cat.

Since there was no school that day, Cat wanted explore the city and she happened to stop by the bookstore.

She yawned.

"Maybe I should have slept in today instead." She muttered to herself, putting the book back on the shelf.

"It's...Cat! The new girl." Yugi said. "Let's go say hi."

Yugi and Anzu walked up to Cat.

"Hey! Cat, right?"

Cat jumped, suddenly being snapped out of her thoughts and looked at the two.

She immediately recognized them.

"O-Oh...hello." Cat said.

"We're in the same class, so we wanted to say hi to you at school, but we couldn't find you." Anzu said with a smile. "It's nice to meet you. My name is Anzu Mazaki."

"And I'm Yugi Motou. It's nice to meet you." Yugi said with a smile as well.

Cat smiled weakly at them.

"Nice to meet you two. You probably already know, but I'm Cat Tsuru." She laughed weakly and stopped when she remembered what Jounouchi said about her. "U-um...sorry if I appear creepy...I'm just kinda shy with people I don't know."

Yugi and Anzu sweatdropped, also remembering Jounouchi's comment.

"N-No! You're not creepy at all!" Yugi laughed nervously. "Where did you get that idea?"

"Y-Yeah! You seem pretty normal to me!" Anzu laughed as well. "Being shy is common in some people. Don't worry about it. We understand."

Cat smiled.

"Thanks." She said.

"So you're new to Domino City, right? How do you like it so far?" Anzu asked.

"Well, this is only my third day here...but it seems like a nice city so far. Although with me being shy and all, it's...hard to make friends." Cat replied.

"No problem! Maybe we can become your first friends here." Anzu said.

Yugi nodded in agreement.

"I'd like that." Cat said.

"There's so much to talk about. Me and Anzu were heading back to my grandfather's shop. Wanna come with us?" Yugi asked.

Cat thought for a moment. She thought it was odd that they wanted to be her friend all of the sudden. But they seemed friendly...maybe chatting with them for a while wouldn't be such a bad idea.

"Sure." Cat said. "I have nothing else to do anyways."

"Great! Let's go!" Yugi said.

The three walked out of the bookshop.

"So...what kind of shop does your grandfather own?" Cat asked Yugi.

"Have you ever heard of the game, "Duel Monsters"?" Yugi asked.

Cat thought for a moment.

"Yes...I have. But the game wasn't very popular where I used to live." She answered.

"Well, my grandpa sells Duel Monster cards. The game is very popular here in Domino City." Yugi explained.

"That's what the Battle City tournament is about, right? Duel Monsters?" Cat asked.

"Yup. And I'm competing in it with another friend." Yugi replied. "Me and Anzu have two other close friends named Jounouchi and Honda. We'll have to introduce them to you soon."

"Oh...I see. I'd like to meet them." Cat said. "So, you're a fan of Duel Monsters?"

"Uh-huh. I grew up with my grandfather since my father is always overseas on business. And my grandfather used to be a champion of the game. So he taught me everything he knows." Yugi answered. "I can't help but love the game now."

"Not only that but Yugi participated in a recent tournament called the "Duelist Kingdom" tournament. Yugi won that tournament and earned the title, "King of Games"." Anzu said almost proudly. "So currently, he holds the title of the best duelist in the world."

"Wow, that's pretty amazing! It's an honor." Cat said with a light laugh.

A while later, the three finally reached the game shop and went inside.

"Grandpa! I'm home!" Yugi called.

A short, old man walked into the room.

"Welcome home, Yugi! And hello to you too Anzu." He greeted and glanced at Cat. "Ho, ho! Who's this?"

"This is a new friend of ours, Cat." Yugi introduced. "She moved to Domino a couple of days ago."

"H-Hello. It's very nice to meet you Mr...uh..." Cat wasn't sure what his name was.

"I'm Solomon Motou. But you can call me "Mr. Motou" or "Grandpa"." Solomon chuckled. Cat smiled.

Solomon had big violet eyes and spiky gray hair. He kept most of his hair in a dark green head bandanna though. He also had a little gray mustache too.

He wore a light gray shirt with dark green overalls and black boots. Solomon was a little chubby as well. His bangs were similar to Yugi's.

"Make yourselves at home, kids." Solomon chuckled. "I have to get back to work and sweep the front of the shop." He grabbed a nearby broom and walked past the three and out the front doors.

"Follow me." Yugi said to the two other girls and walked through a side door in the shop. The two followed.

Once Cat stepped through the door, she realized that it led into the house that was connected to the game shop. Yugi's house.

After removing their shoes and leaving them at the front door, they walked into the living room.

"We can talk more here." Yugi said, sitting down in one of the chairs.

Anzu sat in another chair while Cat sat down on the sofa.

"So Cat...there's something I've been wanting to ask you for a while..."

Well! There we go! I'm not going to post everything at once. But I hope you're enjoying this so far. :D
And things finally started moving! Yay!

See ya next chapter! :D