Chapter 3
Seto Kaiba sat at his computer advertising Kaiba. Corp products while Mokuba watched T.V. Then the news came on. The reporter explained how two people (proff Hawkins and Rebecca) had fallen off of a bridge in the middle of Domino city, as well as saying that the search went on for the two missing children (Maiya and Ryou). Seto was intrigued by this news, for he knew how all four people where friends with Yugi. He had this suspicious urge to go visit him in his helicopter. It wasn't every day someone like him wanted to go see Yugi without challenging him. He was amazed at how the idea had come into his head, but he decided to follow the idea any way. He invited Mokuba to come too, since they hadn't been doing much together. Mokuba was pleased to receive this invitation. He always looked forward to helicopter rides with Seto. And despite how many times they viewed it, Domino city from the sky was an amazing sight.
They sat next to each other with Mokuba by the window. As Seto looked down upon the city over Mokuba, he thought he saw someone standing on one of the tall buildings watching them. Before he could fully focus on the person a slight pain entered his head. Nothing serious, just the kind that makes you grab your head and use a small grunt. After he recovered, the helicopter made a sudden jolt, which nearly threw him off of his seat; if it weren't for the seat belts. "AAAHH! What's happening?!" cried Mokuba, holding on to the armrests for dear life.
"I don't know. I'll check with the pilot." Seto bravely unstrapped his seat belt and made his way to the control part of the helicopter where the pilot was trying desperately to take back control of it. The helicopter continued to make completely random twitches here and there. "Hey, what's going on? We're having a really bumpy ride back there." Seto scolded the pilot.
"I have absolutely no idea. The steering just isn't working any more, like the copter is just flying itself." Cried the pilot as he pushed all sorts of different buttons to try and correct the machine. At this point the vehicle started to aim downwards. Facing a busy motorway, if it crashed there was no chance of every one surviving. Seto retreated back to the cabin where Mokuba held on tightly to the arms of his seat. With the helicopter angling downwards it was hard to stand up. Seto hung on to the nearest chair as his feet slipped away. Mokuba's seat belt snapped and he fell to the passenger chair in front of him. Seto tried to climb towards the emergency button at the other end of the cabin, but he failed. He fell back to the wall that separated the cabin from the control area. The entire helicopter was almost perfectly vertical as it plummeted towards the casual drivers below.
Mai Valentine sat in her taxi, also on her way to see Yugi about the news she'd heard. She looked out of the window and at the pedestrian's bridge that was built above the road she was on. She saw someone standing on the bridge, watching the exact car she was in. She couldn't fully focus on the figure because whenever she did, it gave her a horrible pain in her head. Next to the figure she could see a helicopter flying surprisingly low to the ground. No, it wasn't flying, it was falling! And straight towards the taxi she sat in.
Seto had many attempts at getting to the button, but failed each time. After falling backwards about nine times he gave up. He lay on the wall (you read correctly he lay back on the wall!) and watched the area that he had been attempting to get to. Then he saw a shape forming in the area he watched. The shape of a girl. She stood with her feet planted perfectly on the floor of the helicopter as if it were horizontal again. She wore a strange mask that looked like part of her face with a smiling, fanged smile. Then everything went black.
Mai Valentine watched in horror as the helicopter headed straight for her. There wasn't any way for the driver to get out. He didn't seem to notice either, as if he were in some kind of trance. Then they passed under the bridge and moments before the collision of helicopter and car, Mai saw nothing, but the mask the figure wore on the bridge.
The damage was devastating and appeared all over the news. They reported that three people died in the crash. Seto Kaiba, Mokuba Kaiba and Mai Valentine. Yugi felt internally depressed as he watched the T.V with Joey, Tristan, Duke and Tèa. This wasn't a very good time to just play duel monsters. In fact, Yugi had turned down all of his challengers since Maiya put her mask on, which not only disappointed Yami, but told him something was very different about Yugi. Recently he had become so much quieter and was constantly in a blind daze. Like the energy had been taken directly out of him. Yami was worried about him, but whenever he tried to tell Yugi he was daydreaming and didn't listen at all. For a while, all of them sat in silence as they thought about what to say next and break the awkward quietness. Then their attention was pulled back to the T.V with a new subject. "Yesterday was a horrible earthquake that has left the eastern part of Tokyo in ruins. Fortunately, everyone survived except for a teenage girl called Mia." explained the news reporter and in the corner of the screen appeared the picture of an innocent looking girl with purple-y blue hair. As he heard this, Tristan felt a deep sadness wash through him as he thought of the past. "What's up with you?" Duke asked.
"That girl who was reported dead used to go to our school," Tèa explained. "She was Tristan's first girlfriend before she moved to Tokyo."
"She was not my girlfriend."Tristan said clearly. "We were just close." He immediately left and didn't say anything to the others. Even at Christmas no one felt that joyful. After the school disco to mark the end of term, Tristan arrived home feeling tired. Their heating had broken so the house had to be warmed by a plain plug in radiator in the hallway. Tristan went to bed earlier than usual as a strange tiredness came over him. He felt so exhausted that he was asleep and dreaming in seconds.
He woke with a sudden realisation that something wasn't right. He sat up and looked around. His feelings were definitely correct; he was in a strange darkness that didn't end. The only things he could see were himself and black. Was it a dream or somehow real? Those were the only options in his head. He scanned the nothingness that surrounded him, looking for at least a tiny bit of life. Then he found it, a strange shape that stood in the distance. He ran towards it feeling hopeful and wondering if it was a way back to his warm bed. As the shape came closer, it divided into eight other shapes. Those shapes became familiar people that stood before him. They were all very glad to see him and called out his name in their familiar voices. They stood in a row side by side. At the right end was someone completely unexpected. Mia. A girl who he had always fallen for in school. Then the familiar voices suddenly sounded worried and scared. Tristan's smile faded and he stopped running. Now he could see them all. He could see Ryou, Serenity, Rebecca, proff Hawkins, Seto, Mokuba, Mai and Mia. They were all shouting at him to get away and at some point he heard escape, that was swiftly muffled by something that wanted him to stay. At that same moment they all disappeared into a cloud of dust. They were then replaced by one person that stood directly before him. Yamikoneko!
The second he saw her eyes he woke once again with a strange feeling. He looked around and gladly found he was back in his room. He gave a deep breath to calm himself down. Then he sniffed; he thought he smelled something strange. As he smelled a bit harder he realised that something was burning. He ran to his bedroom wall to see the hallway on fire. At the centre of the blaze he saw the plug in radiator. On top of the radiator was his coat. He remembered he had thrown his coat onto the radiator after coming in. The coat had grown hotter the whole time he had been asleep and eventually caught fire. It blocked the way out so he ran back to his room and closed the door. He looked out of the window, but he only saw the hard concrete ground. His window was too small for him to get anything suitable out to land on. He was trapped! He sat down and gave up. He took precious pictures of his family, friends and other precious things out of their special places in his room. He held them all tight as he choked on the unforgiving smoke. Once again he saw Yamikoneko stand before him. He sat there; too weak to be terrified and braced himself for the worst.