Atem bursts through the front door to his house calling out his daughter's name. The house surprisingly looked untouched and just as it always has. But there was still no sign of Cairo anywhere. There is an eerie silence as he walks further into the house, surveilling each room.
"If you're playing hide and seek, now is not the time, Cairo," Atem calls out. He walks up the stairs and slowly opens the door to her room.
Empty.
Panic starts to set in and his heart starts to pound. He frantically reaches into his pocket, fumbling with his phone and dials her number. Maybe she had left out without his permission he thought. He pleads in his head for her to pick up and is shocked to hear her ringtone. His head whips around to the closed closet door where the source of the ringing is coming from.
"Cairo?" he calls out, approaching the door with caution. "Cairo, this isn't funny. Answer me when I call you." Placing his hand on the doorknob, he closes his eyes, taking a deep breath before quickly opening the door to reveal none other than Cairo standing there.
"Cairo!" he exclaims in relief. That relief quickly goes away when he realizes the state that she was in. She was covered in cuts and bruises and her eyes appeared to be in a daze. Her normally tamed hair was slightly messy with strands sticking up in various places. "Cairo, what happened?"
"T-too strong," she stammers before falling forward into his arms in exhaustion.
"CAIRO!" Atem cries out as he holds her in his arms. He crouches down, bringing her close to him and she opens her eyes to look up at him.
"I'm sorry, dad. Y-you told me…not to use my magic…and I did," she explains in between breaths. "But he was just…too strong."
"What are you talking about? Who did this?"
A magical blast suddenly comes hurtling toward them and Atem quickly dives out of the way before it could make contact. He quickly looks over his shoulder to see the source of the attack to see a tall bulky figure within the smoke.
"Who are you? Show yourself!" Atem demands. He gasps as he sees a ball of light forming through the smoke, signaling at another attack.
"Be gone," says a deep voice from within the smoke as it launches another blast. He holds his daughter even closer to shield her from the impending attack and braces himself for the pain that would await him. But it never came. Opening his eyes, he is shocked to see Mana there protecting them with a shield she had formed. She stood with her legs wide and arms outstretched. Her eyes glowed a bluish green color similar to her normal eye color.
"Mana!" Atem exclaims. He didn't expect her to actually follow him to the house. But he was surely glad she did.
The shadowy foe prepares yet another attack and launches it toward them. Mana quickly whips out her wand and launches a counter attack to intercept the blast in the middle with ease. She crosses her arms over chest and her body starts to emit a pink glow.
"Come forth, Dark Magician Girl!" she yells. A ball of light appears in front of her forming a feminine form wearing light blue and pink magician's clothing and a spiky hat similar to that of Atem's Dark Magician. She bared similarities to Mana except she had pale skin and blonde hair.
Atem couldn't help but look in amazement and think back on the past. It had been awhile since he had seen Mana in action, using her magic and summoning her ka which was an ancient tradition that traced back to their roots in Egypt. He had once been able to do the same thing, but since being in so much stress over Mana's situation, he has had to rely on using duel monster cards in the same manner that duel masters used them.
'I can't let her fight this battle alone,' Atem thought to himself, placing Cairo down and standing to his feet and pulling out the card of the Dark Magician.
"Dark Magician, come forth!" he calls out to Mana's surprise. She watches as the male version of her magician forms beside him.
'The Dark Magician?' she thought to herself. 'So I was right. He is a duel master. What an interesting choice.'
"I won't let you get away with this!" Atem shouts to the shadowy figure.
The enemy yet again prepares another magical attack and Atem and Mana prepare their monsters for a counter attack.
"Not much of a talker is he," Mana comments before outstretching her hand. "Go Dark Magician Girl! Dark Burning Attack!"
"Dark Magic Attack!" Atem chimes in and both magicians point their magical staffs at the intruder and sends out an attack together. The attack was a success as it made contact, causing the unknown figure to groan in pain.
"Now tell us why are you here," Atem demands, taking one step forward. The smoke from the previous attacks finally started to clear, revealing a bald, bulky man wearing a black shirt and matching dress pants. He slowly lifts his head with a smirk as if the attacks had no effect on him at all.
"What? He barely has a scratch!" Mana says in disbelief.
"I won't ask you again," Atem continues. "Who are you and why are you here?"
"My name is Manic," the man finally responds. "I was sent here to retrieve the girl and to get rid of you."
"What?" Atem says.
"Master says you will only get in the way of his plans. He is in search of powerful magicians to extract their magic to make him the most powerful magician in the universe." His eyes slowly scroll over to Mana and he grins. "And he also has special business with you."
"What are you saying?" Mana asks as his eyes start to glow red causing a shiver to go down her spine. As he prepares for another attack, a feeling of great fear starts to suddenly overcome her and she felt frozen in her tracks.
'Those eyes…where have I seen those eyes?' she thought to herself as she started to tremble.
A dark alley flashes in her mind. She was on the ground as a dark figure with red eyes approaches her. Right as he is about to reveal himself, there is a bright light.
At the lost of her concentration, Dark Magician Girl starts to fade in and out as she tries to regain her focus. But the sight of his eyes was causing her too much distress and therefore Dark Magician Girl disappeared.
Manic suddenly launches his whole body at Mana, his entire hand enclosing around Mana's face as he slammed her against the wall. She holds on to his large arm, trying to get him off of her so that she could breathe. But it was no use.
"I'm coming, Mana!" Atem shouts, running to her aid. Manic evilly grins at him and uses his free hand to launch a magical attack at him. Dark Magician quickly comes to Atem's rescue to deflect the attack. Mana's eyes widen with panic as sweat drips down her face. The grip that she had on his arm slowly started to loosen until it finally dropped down to her sides.
Manic loosens his grip and in one swift motion he lifts her over his shoulder. "You're coming with me."
"Oh no you don't!" Atem clenches his fist and delivers a strong blow to Manic's face, catching the foe off guard and dropping Mana to the ground. "Quickly! Dark Magic Attack!" The Dark Magician raises its staff and shoots its attack directly at Manic who grits his teeth.
'This is not what I planned. He is more of a nuisance than I thought. I will have to retreat…for now.' A dark aura appears below him and he disappears into it just before Dark Magician's attack could make any contact.
Atem narrows his eyes. 'He's gone. Just who was he and what did he want with Cairo and Mana?' He looks around to all of the damage the battle has caused in the bedroom. The walls had holes and cracks and the bed was pretty much nonexistent. A groan from Mana brings him out of his thoughts. She sits up holding her head and Cairo comes to shortly after.
"Dad, who was that guy? And why did he attack us?" Cairo asks as Atem kneels down to her.
"I don't know Cairo," he answers. "I'm just glad you're alright." He watches as Mana stands up to her feet and limps over to a portion of the room where there was a lot of damage.
"What a mess," she says to herself, placing her hand on the damaged wall.
"Maybe you should rest," Atem suggests and she shakes her head. She walks over to Cairo and bends down on one knee, extending her hand out to her and closing her eyes. As a light appears around Cairo who looks in wonder, her scars and bruises gradually started to heal to her and Atem's amazement. Mana then stands to her feet, stretching out both hands.
"Cairo, go to my room and wait for me there," Atem instructs Cairo who frowns.
"Aww, but I really wanna see Mana's magic," she pouts.
"Cairo," he says in a warning tone and she finally gets the point and dashes off. He observes Mana as she starts to bring the room back to its natural state using her magical abilities. What she was demonstrating did not surprise him. After all, he had witnessed this many times when they were together. Her powers were outstanding and it was no wonder there was someone out to get it. But what surprised him even more was that there was someone after Cairo.
"There," Mana says, finishing up the room. She drops her hands and deeply sighs.
"Thank you, Mana."
"No problem."
"Are you alright?" he asks with concern.
"Hm? What do you mean?"
"Back there…when Manic revealed himself you seemed to have lost your concentration and got caught off guard."
"Oh…" Mana recalls what he was referring to. "I guess…I got tired."
Atem raises his eyebrow. 'She's lying,' he thought. 'We may not have been together for a while, but I know when she is lying…If only I could get her to open up to me more. But…how?'
"I should probably get going. Tea's throwing a surprise birthday party for me tonight."
"How do you know about your own surprise birthday party if it's supposed to be a surprise?"
"Ah you know," Mana chuckles putting her hand behind her head. "She's not good at keeping secrets and surprises."
"Or you went through her phone," Atem mutters under his breath with dimmed eyes.
"What was that?" Mana asks, tilting her head to the side.
"It was nothing."
"By the way…" Mana says as she turns to the door. "I want to speak with you later."
"Hm?"
"This is just me thinking out loud, but I feel like you will be able to help me somehow." She turns her head to him. "There must be a reason as to why you keep appearing in my dreams and in real life."
"I see," Atem says and she turns to walk away.
'I know it won't happen overnight,' Atem thought. 'But maybe this will bring me one step closer to helping Mana regain her memories.'
YGOYGOYGOYGOYGOYGOYGOYGOYGOYGOYGOYGOYGOYGOYGOYGOYGOYGOYGOYGOYGOYG
Mana slouches over the counter at her job at Burger World with a groan. The festivities last night proved to be a little too much for her. Maybe partying and drinking the night before an opening shift wasn't such a good idea after all.
"Oh my gosh, Teaaaaaa," Mana whines, placing her head down on the counter. "Why'd you get me so drunk?"
"It's not my faultttt," Tea defends, drawing out her sentence. She leaned on to the wall and held onto it for dear life. The bright lights in the restaurant definitely didn't make her pounding headache feel any better.
Luckily it was a Sunday and therefore it was slow and no one could witness how bad in shape they were.
"So tell me," Tea begins, closing her lids to shield her eyes from the light that seemed brighter than usual. "What exactly happened yesterday besides your little run in with Arcana?"
"Well even I was confused about what all went down to be honest…" replies Mana, not moving her head from her current position. "I believe all three of these thugs were working together to kidnap Cairo or at least cause her harm."
"But why?"
"No idea. And apparently their master wanted something to do with me as well." Mana finally gains the strength to stand up semi-straight. "Atem was able to scare him off after I lost control of my magic."
"That's been happening a lot more lately, huh?"
Mana nods. "Whenever I am in some sort of distress, I can't concentrate. And something about that guy that Atem and I fought caused a reaction in me."
Tea wobbles over from the wall to join Mana at the counter and she leans her back and uses her arms to prop her up. "That's so weird. Even weirder that you're able to use Atem's name in a sentence seeing as you were scared of him a while ago." She looks Mana's way with a more serious expression. "But you know, there has been a string of magician kidnappings."
"Yeah…I guess it's finally caught up to me and now Cairo and I seem to have targets on our backs. We're going to have to be more careful…"
"Yeah you're right," Tea agrees. "But I do have a question though."
"Hm? What's that?"
"How come the sudden change in relation to Atem?"
Mana turns to Tea who finally stands completely straight after getting the strength to do so. "A gut feeling I guess," Mana finally replies. "He appears in my dreams and in real life. And no matter what danger I'm in, he's always there to help."
Tea stays silent for Mana to continue. Apart of her couldn't feel a sense of hope that Mana was finally in the stages of getting answers to her lost memories.
"His attempts to talk to me weren't normal desperation attempts that a man would do if he wanted to get some girl's number. No…his desperation was different…as if his very life depended on it. And I just feel that maybe he can help me out somehow. I don't know how…but it's just this feeling that I have…"
"Mana…what if I told you…you're absolutely right?" Tea says with hesitation. She didn't want to freak Mana out, but she knew Atem could use all the help he could get. She just wanted things to be back to normal
"What do you mean?"
"I mean that—"
The bell hanging near the entrance to the restaurant rings and a small figure comes dashing in toward the counter. Her long black hair trails behind her with her quick movements. Tea turns around to see none other than Cairo standing there.
"Oh hi, Cairo," Tea greets with a smile before quickly frowning in realization that she was alone. "Are you wandering around again by yourself?"
Cairo shakes her head. "No, my dad is around. He said he needed to take care of some things and he let me stop by here!" Her amethyst eyes scroll from left to right, examining the two ladies in front of her. Their hair wasn't as tamed as usual and they had slight bags underneath their eyes. "Why do you guys look so crazy?" she asks with a blank stare causing her to receive two glares from Tea and Mana.
"We do not look crazy!" Mana exclaims with a pout.
"My dad says you should never stay up late past your bedtime," Cairo says innocently.
"Considering the many overtime shifts he works, he's in no position to talk," Tea murmurs, looking the other way with dimmed eyes.
"I heard that," Atem says walking through the door and approaching the counter. He examines them both as his daughter did previously before commenting, "You two look—"
"SHUT UP!" they both shout in unison, causing Atem and Cairo to flinch at their angry expressions.
"We're going to the beach now, right?" Cairo asks with enthusiasm. "You promised remember?"
"Indeed I did," Atem says, slightly regretting making that commitment due to still being exhausted from the prior day's events. But if going to the beach was going to help Cairo keep her mind off it all, then so be it.
"Can Mana come too?" she asks, catching him off guard. He looked to Mana who seemed unaffected by the girl's sudden question.
"I don't think Mana can go, Cairo. She has to work."
"Aw man," Cairo says with disappointment, dropping her shoulders.
Mana smiles at the young one. She seemed to be down at the fact that Mana would not be joining them. To think at one point they didn't get along at all. But ever since Cairo found out that Mana was a true magician, her fascination with her grew. Mana looks over to Tea who shrugs her shoulders.
"Your shift's almost over anyway," Tea says, making Cairo perk up a little.
"Alright then," Mana says, first glancing at Atem who looked at her questionably, before setting her eyes to Cairo. "I'll go." And it was at this moment where Atem's heart took the plunge. She actually agreed to go, he thought to himself with surprise.
'This could be my only chance. I can't mess this up…" he thought looking down at Cairo who was now beaming with excitement. "…for Mana or for Cairo."
The next chapter is gonna be super interesting! I'm gonna finish this story, I promise!