Chapter 4

Kinakao: Hi there folks! We're here for another chapter. Yay!

Charity: Don't we have to say we don't own anything? I don't want to be sued.

Kinakao: Yes, yes. Here we go:

I do not own YuGiOh or any of its characters or places.

I do own the real world mentioned here, the chants, Mari/Rhea, Tamora/Joan, and Charity/Daida.

Charity: You don't own me, woman!

Kinakao: We'll get this worked out. Enjoy!

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Chapter 4: Restored Dreams

"What did you say?" Charity asked, staring at me with wide blue eyes. The shocked blonde could not believe her ears. After just admitting to both myself and out loud that the world I had always dreamed about existed, I now no longer wanted to have anything to do with it.

"You heard me." I said, my dark brown eyes colder as I looked up her. She was standing in front of me, entirely confused. Her look made me feel like as if someone had granted me my wish, and I was suddenly throwing it away. "I can't go back." I breathed out, breaking the stare to look to the ground. It made me feel guilty, which part of me knew I should be. I stood up, putting a hand on my hip as I tried to explain as I looked back to her. "I…We…Don't belong there. It isn't our world!" I had thrown up my hands in an attempt to explain myself.

Charity was unconvinced. "Mari…" She said slowly, and I vaguely wondered how she even knew my name. "We do belong in that world too. If we didn't, why could we go there?" She pressed her glasses to her face with her middle finger as she looked at me. "We were chosen." She added, being somewhat cryptic.

I shook my head, "If you believe Ryou, then fine. His normal self might be what's appearing, but you and I know how his other side is." I spoke as I moved my hand to point to my abdomen, about the place where the millennium ring would be. This seemed to confuse Charity. "You got to meet Ryou? I haven't had the chance yet." She tilted her head to place a finger on her cheek. "He says we're chosen too?"

I had too many moments of saying more than I should have around people in the past few days. I placed my hand on my forehead as I spoke. "Look. We do not belong. How long could we really stay there? It would just be a hello, then a goodbye." My heart gave a small ache, which I ignored. Once was all I needed.

Charity became serious. "Are you telling me, that just because we cannot live our dreams forever means we should not do them at all?" She walked around me and almost as if I was some exhibition, began to study me. I cringed. "No." I replied softly, letting down my guard. "Look, I want to go back. I didn't even get to say goodbye." My eyes filled with tears unwillingly. I rose my hand up and pressed against my eyes with enough roughness to squeeze the tears away. Charity gave me a smile.

A pat on my shoulder and a skip away, Charity nodded and started towards the school building. "Listen, I'll explain more to you tonight. Come over and stay at my place for the night. It's just down meadow lane. You can't miss it." Before I was about to protest, she added cheerfully, "Don't worry, we'll get back there as soon as we can." My mouth closed and she skipped away, obviously cheerful about my decision.

I stood there for a moment dumbly, before turning around, grabbing my lunch. "I wonder how she knew my name…" I wondered aloud. However, I shook it off and following the path the blonde had left behind to return back to my classroom. I never knew that at that moment, the goddess of luck that had overseen the whole ordeal, summoned one faint drop of water loose to run down her cheek, her face frozen between happiness and despair.

…

Convincing my mother that I planned to spend the night to study with one of the smartest people I could find in my high school was probably one of the easiest things I had ever done in my life. Sneaking out to go duel, not cool, spending a night with a girl who could tell me to care about chemistry, a total go. It was further than what I was used to, so I rode my Next bicycle down meadow lane, seeing many very fine and ornate houses, all ones Charity could have lived in. I sighed, having the feeling I was going to get lost very easily.

It was then I saw a large, two story house a bit apart from the rest, but still able to be considered part of meadow lane. This one had a perfectly made garden and large iron gates. I parked the bike against the gates, securing it there with a lock. I opened the free gate with ease, allowing it to close behind me. The sun was just setting, and the porch lights greeted me with luminosity.

As if on cue, the door was opened by the bubbly blonde and she welcomed me into her house with the simple ceremony of grabbing my arm and dragging me in, almost making me leave my bag of clothes behind. Charity dragged me through the long hallways of her house and up to a room that was essentially blue and pink. A large king size bed had blue bedding and a comforter, with pink pillows. Much of the room was decorated the same way. She sat me down on a blue beanbag pillow on the floor, and rolled a pink one over and made it into her throne.

"Okay." I finally said after she had nestled herself across from me. "Do you promise to answer all of my questions?" I gave her a stern look to know that I wanted answers, and now.

She smiled and nodded, which in turn made her push her glasses back up on the bridge of her nose with the tip of her finger. "If I have the answer to give you." She promised. She leaned back and crossed her leg over the other, sitting almost as if she was a psychiatrist. It got on my nerves a little.

I breathed out slowly. "First, how do you know my name?"

Charity was quick. "I know everyone at the school." She nodded, but grinned at me. "I also found your school ID in your pocket."

I wanted to bang my head against a desk, but nothing that could help me, blue or pink, was around. "Okay. When did you go to the other side?" I asked, keeping pace.

Once again, she was right with me. "Yesterday, sometime after midnight." This time, I did not allow her to go any further. "How?"

At this point, she dropped her posture and leaned in close to me. "I honestly don't know. I was asleep one moment, then I woke up and I was in front of the museum. I want to know how you got us back." She now turned the tables on me. She looked at me with a very serious gaze.

My jaw dropped. "How should I know? I came to you for answers!" I hung my head. If I had known how this all worked, I wouldn't be in this situation in the first place.

Charity put a hand on me. "Yes, but we need to think of this together." I looked up and nodded. "So," She continued. "How did you get there in the first place?"

I thought about it. I spoke the whole story aloud, "I went to the woods to go to a duel set for 12:21AM, and I found a note there, where it said to…There was a chant I said!" I exclaimed. "It was on a note that Ryou sent me somehow…What was it…?" I asked myself, trying to remember. The paper had burned up, so I could no longer had it.

Charity clenched her hand a little and it actually hurt a little. "You have to remember." My eyes narrowed at her as I pushed her hand off of me and took a step back. "Whoa, wait," I interjected. "One last question before I try to get us back." She looked at me and nodded slowly, retracting her hand back towards her own body. "Why do you want to go back there so bad?"

Charity looked down at her hand and curled it into a fist. "I want to be able to meet him. I got to meet other people, but I want to meet…" Her eyes went up to a poster of the characters I had become so acquainted with: Yuugi, Yami, Anzu, and Joey. They were set up where Yuugi was between the two taller characters, and Yami was behind him. Her eyes lingered on the character on the left, which was a taller blonde male.

My jaw slackened. "Joey? You like Joey?" I said with disbelief. They were complete opposites, besides the hair color. The blonde jokes piled up in my mind.

A faint red coated her cheeks as she smiled at the poster lovingly. "He's just so cute…And sometimes so stupid, which is why I like him so much." I could not help but give a small laugh. So, she wanted the chance to meet him. I would have been more than happy to grant that.

"Alright, alright." I said, holding up my hands. "Well, let's see…I think it went something like this." I recalled what I remembered, looking up at her ceiling for the circle that was to come, "Narau Saki La Sou Otu!" I called out. I waited for the portal, but nothing happened. We waited a few more moments before Charity asked, "Was that just gibberish?"

I shot her a deadly look. "Shut up, it was not." I shook it off. "How about…We try when we came back. I said something different." I nodded and tried to remember. Those bubbles were around. "Let's see…I think it went…" I began to sound out what I remembered, "Sou…Ruwa….Oushi…Tara…." As I progressed, I could feel a surge of energy moving through my body. It felt like a cool current rushing about me. "..Honoshi…Taei!"

That moment, the energy stopped going through me, and time seemed to freeze for the moment. However, it was only that moment, then it was gone, and nothing had happened. I sighed. "I know that was it.."

Charity suddenly grabbed my wrist and stared at my watch. She looked at me, still holding my wrist, and spoke with great urgency. " Say it again. Now!" I stumbled for words, but nodded, repeating myself. "Sou Ruwa Oushi Tara Honoshi Taei!" This time, I was confident. I looked to the poster with Yuugi and Yami and smiled. I'm coming back…

The space above the two girls became a blue portal, swirling with bubbles surrounding them. Each bubble seemed to be moving up towards the portal, not popping when they touched it, but instead going through it. Charity smiled brightly and called into the portal, "Domino, here we come!" Those words were the final ones before I once again felt the velvet dark come over my eyes.

…

I felt like I was floating. I could hear voices around me, yet time seemed to be standing still for me. I could feel no movements, no life. "…help.." Help? Who needed help? "…She's…" She who? I couldn't understand, but I could not seem to move any part of my body. My eyes were still closed, but I felt the soft touch of another forehead on mine, and the warmth made me try to part my lips. Yuugi…? I thought, wishing I could even speak it softly, just wondering if I had finally passed the barrier between worlds. "No." A female voice whispered back, unfamiliar, yet I knew it somehow. "But you need to wake up." Wake up? How had she even hear me? I could feel a tug on my body, making me feel like time suddenly started once more, and I felt the pressure of a bed underneath me.

…

"She's coming to!" I heard Joan's voice cry out next to me. Slowly, I opened my eyes and allowed them to gaze at each of the faces around me. Each one was animated and familiar. On my right side were Joan and Anzu, both looking over me with some relief, Yuugi and Ryou were on my left with the same expression. I turned my head more to my right to see Solomon speaking with a blonde girl, whom I knew on the other side to be Charity.

I sat up slowly and looked at them, confusion crossing my face. "Guys. What's going on?" I took further inspection of my location. I was inside Yuugi's bedroom, in his bed. My cheeks flared red.

Yuugi moved closer to grab my hand and explained. "Daida found you knocked out outside the shop. Luckily we were all here to help pick you up. You weren't out for long, maybe an hour or so." He seemed happy to see me awake, and I could almost sense a hint of pride at something. I did not bother to ask, but I did however ask, "Daida?" I glanced to Anzu who pointed to the blonde girl. I understood now. It was her name here.

At the sound of her name, the girl now dubbed Daida excused herself politely from Solomon and moved over to the bed. "Hey, good to see you feeling better. You had me worried. My name is Daida Raizen." She gave me a small bow of her head and smiled to me. "Think you can get up now?" She asked, only slightly worried.

I pulled my hand away from Yuugi tenderly before sliding myself fully off the bed and into a standing position. "Yeah. I'm good." I looked at Joan, who seemed to be nervous about something. I looked to the rest of them. "Say…Would you mind giving me a chance to talk to Joan and Daida alone?"

Each one had their own reactions to my question. Solomon gladly agreed and left the room without a word. Ryou seemed hesitant, almost as if he was afraid, and nodded slowly, leaving the room second. Anzu seemed glad for the chance to get away and reached around the side of the bed to grab Yuugi by the arm to drag him out. Yuugi went, but seemed to be content with leaving for the moment, aside from barely being able to keep up with the dragging.

I looked at the two of them for a moment, each becoming more expectant. As soon as I opened my mouth to speak, Joan leapt at me and hugged me around my neck. At least this time she was not armed with anything potentially lethal. "Mari, I've been so worried!" She exclaimed, allowing my real world name to slip once more. "You've been gone for almost four days! We had no idea what happened to you." She pulled herself back to look at me and analyze if I was actually alright.

I widened my eyes at her. "Did you say, four days?" I looked at Daida, who shared my same expression. "We only left last night and came back before even it had been twenty-four hours. That's impossible." I said, in complete disbelief. But, Joan persisted with the notion.

Daida then piped up. "It could be possible, if our worlds are running on separate times." She put her hand to her chin in thought. "See, we see this world in thirty minute to hour increments. Imagine how much time lapses. Our worlds cannot be running at a constant and equal state due to this." She nodded, thinking this to be the simplest explanation.

Joan looked at her, scowled, and then looked at me. "Rhea," she said, finally getting my name right. "Who the heck is this clown? How does she know where we're from?" She seemed to be getting ready to put on her knuckles, when I put my hand on her to stop.

I raised a hand to gesture towards Daida. "Joan, this is Daida. Also known as Charity Braxton." The look on Joan's face was near priceless and I wished I had a camera so I could keep it. "Daida, this is Tamora Strong." Daida smiled, knowing who Tamora was and shook her hand. Joan looked at me with an unbelievable stare and I nodded silently, confirming the screaming questions she had in her head. Neither one of us had ever met her formally before this whole ordeal.

After introductions, I finally got down to business. "Look, we need to make a plan for this world if we are going to be here for a while and figure out why we are here." Daida looked at me with a look that told me she had no intention of doing work until she met Joey. "We need a place to stay. Joan, where have you been staying?"

Joan shifted her weight, almost unwilling to tell. "Well…" She stared. "I've been living with Anzu, but I doubt she'll accept you there, Rhea." This puzzled me, and Joan gave a sigh as she explained further. "Look, she doesn't like the fact that some of the guys around here have been giving you some attention. She especially didn't like you calling out Yuugi's name while you were asleep." She rose up a hand and scratched her head.

I could not believe this was happening. My face was turning red and I had to think quickly. "What time is it, guys?" Joan grabbed my watch, turning my wrist upside down and essentially twisting my arm the wrong way, since I was the only one with a clock in the room. "About nine at night." I pulled my arm away from her angrily. This whole arm grabbing thing needed to stop. I gave her a brief nod though. . "Alright…I'll ask Yuugi if Daida and I can stay here, tomorrow we will go out to find some more information from the museum and downtown. Agreed?"

The other two nodded, and we went ahead and moved to the door. I grabbed the handle and looked down, and saw a shadow shift from under the door. I did not wait for the shadow to disappear and I flew open the door. I stuck my head out quickly, looking inside the hallway for who had been listening in. No one was anywhere around, and they would not have had time to get away. "What's wrong, Rhea?" Daida asked. I shook my head. "It's nothing." I replied, moving down the hall and stairs to the game shop area. No need for them to think I was crazy.

Joan raced me down and when I got there, I saw the four others gathered around the counter, checking out some new cards Solomon had received in a shipment. Joan ran up to Anzu and hooked her arm in hers, startling the tall brunette. "Come on, let's go home so I can get up early to get out of your hair." With that, Joan practically dragged Anzu out, everyone staring as Joan brandished her brass knuckles. I wondered how on earth Anzu had survived the past four days.

I turned to Yuugi and clasped my hands together in almost a begging sort of fashion. "Look, I promise to explain everything that has happened to me, but I really want a chance to rest. May Daida and I stay here until at least the morning?"

Solomon put down his newly acquired product and put his hands down on the glass case in front of him. He managed to speak before Yuugi could even open his mouth. "You girls are more than welcome to stay as long as you need, as long as you don't mind sharing a room." Yuugi gave a bright big smile at his grandfather's words, and took my hand and I grabbed onto Daida's arm at my captor's words. "Come on, I'll show you the room."

With no more words spoken, we were whisked away to the guest bedroom of the Mutou house, to have a good night of sleep and relaxation. I wanted to ask Daida so many more questions, but I knew they could wait until morning. As we went to bed, a shadow watching from a window retreated silently, disappearing into the night without any trace of ever even existing.

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Kinakao: Wow! The longest chapter so far!

Charity: That's what happens when you actually get to your writings.

Kinakao: Go back to your room.

See you next chapter! Please review!