Disclaimer:

As usual, I don't own Yugioh, the Zune – though I may one a Zune one day (OK, so I won't. But I can dream...) – the iPod Nano, the iPAQ, Apple, or Microsoft. Though I wouldn't mind owning any of these things…

Other Stuff:

Thanks so much to all of you for reviewing! I honestly didn't think people would like this fanfic. enough to review (tears of joy). OK, seriously, back to the story...

Define…Reality

It's a Yugioh World, After All…

The sun's pale honey-tinted fingers trickled over Khaia's leather boots, slowly seeping from the museum's sheer skylight and creeping towards the hidden nooks and cranny's of the Ancient Rome Exhibit. The bored teen leaned against the wall nonchalantly, an exasperated hand brushing through her hair the only hint of her impatience. A spill of dark tresses poured through her fingers as her eyes endlessly scoured the room.

Either the Tokyo Mall managed to remodel itself in less than thirty seconds…she mumbled once again to herself, not even daring the complete the thought. This is ridiculous! Her eyelids lowered, and Khaia tried in vain to pay attention to the music her new iPod Nano was droning out like an annoying, buzzing mosquito…

Khaia yanked the useless headphones out of her ears and angrily sent them into their grave at the bottom of her backpack. She didn't like traitorous technology, especially when she had switched from listening to the same repetitive music to her Zune, her mom's iPAQ, and checking her cell phone messages for two whole hours. Not only that, but the people streaming into the exhibits were staring at her as if they had never seen someone bored out of their mind before. Not to mention the raised eyebrows that, she thought, could easily pass as the result of some sort of brain tumor, she was getting at her "entertainment". As if they had never seen an ad for Apple and Microsoft's latest technology before!

"Who's that girl sitting by the swords?" A curious guy with an outrageous hairstyle whispered to his goons.

Khaia mentally rolled her eyes. You know you've been transported to the world of Yugioh, she thought sarcastically, when everyone you see has a psychotic hairstyle. At least, that's what the museum curator and all her senses were trying to coerce her into believing – but Khaia wasn't an idiot, and she knew she'd be almost insane as the Yugioh convention followers if she believed it.

Right?

The green-eyed girl shifted uncomfortably and winced; apparently, as she had been standing there, her foot had decided to betray her too and was shrieking with numbing pain. Groaning, Khaia slumped down onto the floor. "Perfect!" She snapped in English, cursing her luck. "Mom should have called security over an hour ago – and why did the convention clear out? Did someone pull a fire drill?" She had been mulling over the thought as if she were contemplating the meaning of life. "Or even better, did the curator promise everyone Yugi's leather dog collar?"

Spitefully, she used one of the pamphlets the manager had given her to wipe her brow. Her fist scrunched it into a mutilated ball, and Khaia flicked it into the trash can nearby.

Question One: Why did the convention vanish into thin air? Not that I'm complaining…

Question Two: Who bribes the mall to pull this prank on one single person?

And last but not least, Question Number Three: How did everything in this mall morph into a passable museum?

Absently, she recalled the facts she had read about in the pamphlet; they matched the facts that her teachers had forced her to regurgitate on tests. Whoever did it was clearly a history buff.

"Oh forget this!" She finally exploded, invoking a few startled looks from innocent bystanders. Khaia expertly ignored them and strode out of the exhibit, snatching another fake pamphlet from the Reception and exiting the museum. She glanced at the sign at the entrance; instead of Tokyo Mall, it now read Domino City Museum. "Someone really went out of their way for this one," Khaia muttered, flinging the bag over her back and staggering backwards in a mix of amazement and horror. Even the city had changed!

A torrent of giddy giggling chortled from someone; Khaia realized with a start that it was coming from her. "I'm dreaming," she announced to herself. "A very, freakishly real dream, but I'm still dreaming. That's the only plausible explanation for this…" she made an absent motion to the madness blaring back at her. "Lunacy."

…Well, if this is a dream, Khaia reasoned with a grin, you may as well mess around with things and explore.

She smoothed out the pamphlet in front of her and stared at the map showing directions to the museum, and ignored the museum entirely. Kaiba Land, Domino High School…The girl almost laughed. Brilliant! Well, if this is a dream, you have nothing better to do, right? And that 'Shadi' character did say something about – she glanced at her wrist, frowning. Why did I dream that Bracelet here? Oh well. Whatever.

Humming to herself, Khaia mindlessly followed the map, turning corners and hopping railings. Evergreen trees poured their shade over her head as the sun beat down on her, and Khaia stared at the thousands of apartment buildings lining the streets.

It was so unbelievably real that for a moment Khaia truly believed she was awake. Then she shook herself back into reality.

I wonder if that Shadi creep pulled a Houdini and made a getaway? Khaia mused as she fingered the gorgeous Bracelet. The silence that could only universally belong to classrooms of suffering teenagers snagged her attention, however, and the Bracelet bearer looked up. A mass of pallid rectangular buildings sprawled before her, a solemn archway in front of her reading Domino High School in large letters.

Laughing to herself, Khaia took a step forward, when abruptly an invisible lash leashed around her, pulsing an intoxicating sensation of pure, raw power into her veins. A shaken gasp seized her lungs, and Khaia pelted the archway with her hands, trying to support herself.

"What in the heck-?" She breathed to no one in particular, and without thinking her eyes darted toward the glowing Millennium Item clasped around her wrist. The golden gem in the Eye of Horus burned mildly, and Khaia let out a dizzy laugh as yet another lasso of energy latched on and soared through her.

It's looked like she'd entered Loneyville, population: her.

"Get a grip!" She ordered herself, feeling stupider by the second. Her body tingled and her wrist burned, urging her to do something to get rid of this annoying boost of energy, but she didn't know what. Muttering something about how the world hated her today, Khai commanded her feet to race her toward the entranceway of the school. It didn't help much.

Angry at the weird edge her extremely realistic dream had pulled on her, Khaia stuffed her gleaming wrist deep into her jacket, hoping it would block out the Bracelet from view, which seemed to have decided to dub itself Khaia's new pet light bulb.

The tap-tap of Khaia's boots struck the dizzyingly bright floor as she walked down the hallway, reminding her of those blinding jail lights that always seemed to conveniently jump out of nowhere in clichéd cop movies.

She ignored the Attendance Office and the half-dozing secretaries gossiping about random students inside. If any of them noticed a semi-tall girl not wearing the Domino High school prison gear stroll past, none of them showed it.

Howling shrieks screamed from somewhere above like a wild animal. Khaia jerked around, finding the second closest thing: the school bell. Students, who had previously been locked up in their cage-like classrooms for over seven hours, fled from the nearby chambers, celebrating glorious freedom.

The two bridles snaring her with energy shifted, moving. Khaia was uncomfortably reminded of being the rope in a sadistic game of tug-of-war.

Nervously, she checked her watch and the beat up ancient artifact vaguely resembling a clock tacked up across the hall; her watch was two hours off. Shrugging, she tweaked it to the appropriate time and moved against the tide, feeling the sources of energy her Bracelet was going parasite on traveling, one away…and the other toward her.

Anxious pupils barreled past, shooting Khaia admiring looks while others gave her stares that suggested she was on death row for not having a uniform on.

One nearby murmured, "New student…"

"She better hope the Hallway Monitor doesn't-"

"Miss! Miss!" The bellowing of a harpy pinned somewhere behind her, perfectly on schedule. "Halt, I demand to speak with you now!" Khaia froze; she ducked around a corner as the hideous sight of a teacher giving chase assaulted her.

"I don't have time for this," Khaia muttered as the jackal began hunting down its prey. To her amazement, wild whoops and cheers exploded from around her, egging her on as she dashed through the parting crowd.

"You go girl!
"Out run that old air bag!"

Khaia loped over a backpack or two, smirking widely. The Hall Monitor must seriously be suffocating her students daily if her high speed chase was getting this reaction.

"Take the back exit!" Someone advised.

The sea of students gave way as if she were on the Red Carpet, and Khaia slapped a high five to an awaiting guy as she leaped gracefully around a bend…into a dead end.

"No!" Khaia fumed, slamming the bolted door that was sneering at her with her palm. The girl sighed, closing her eyes as the chasing Medusa/teacher hybrid strode up behind her.

"How dare you run from me, young lady!" The teacher seethed, clenching and unclenching her claws.

Khaia retaliated in annoyance, "Do you honestly know someone who hasn't run from you?" She quietly mumbled to herself, "Why did my dream having to invent this banshee?" The woman, who was crumbling from age and spewing a vendetta against student kind, stuttered loudly.

"E-excuse me!" She finally roared.

Aside from the fact that Khaia was convinced this woman was an annoying character worthy of an anime soap opera, she wasn't sure what made her say the next, intolerably insulting words. "After all those moments, 'excuse me' is the best you can think of? Goodness, this dream is getting lame…"

"'Dream?'" The Hall Monitor squawked.

"Yes, dream, madam, since I'm certain no man less than a masochist would choose to spend the rest of his life with you." A triumphant glee rippled through Khaia, and her lips broke into a radiant smile. "I've always wanted to do this," she grinned to the teacher. Finally: a time when she could get back at all her teachers for being arrogant prates.

"Oooh," a girl giggled from the corner; it seemed that half the hallway had clamored over each other to watch the drama. "I can't believe someone spoke to Miss Tamaka that way!"

Khaia tilted her head to a side, letting a rainfall of her inky hair unfurl over her neck. "Now, as highly amusing as this is…" A breath caught in her chest; the previously locked door behind her clattered open, and the ridiculous amount of energy pouring into Khaia became enrapturing – one of the sources was so close. "I have places to go," she managed to finish, the rumbling energy tempting her into running an impromptu marathon. What is wrong with me today?

Satisfied at the gaping teacher before her, Khaia whirled around, only to stagger backwards in shock. "Akef-?!" She choked on the words before she could blurt out his name, gawking at the arctic white hair falling past his broad shoulders, and the dark russet eyes searing her with a cold, scrutinizing gaze.