Dear Amane,

Wow. I seem to have forgotten to write to you for a really long time. This time my excuse really isn't as amazing and out-there as some of the others that I've come up with, it's, at the very least, a half-decent excuse.

It seems like I've just been so busy with my summer job and everything that I simply forgot about it. Well, I suppose I should catch you up to speed on what's been going on.

First of, Yugi and the others finally decided to show back up to school. They filled me in about Yugi losing his soul in a duel and winning a tournament hosted by Kaiba Corp. They all talked about how amazing Yugi was. How brave Yugi was, and he's not even the one who ever duels! The Pharaoh is the King of Games, and he's just a frightened child cowering behind someone stronger than he is.

I glared at the wall, not saying anything. Joey asked if something was wrong. I stood up and walked out of the building. Not a good start to my senior year, but still.

This leads me to what I want to tell you about. Lately I've been having the same dream every night. It starts out with me running. I don't know why, or what I'm running away from. All I know is that if I stop running, I'll die.

I take a turn, trip, and fall down some stairs. I scramble back onto my feet, clutching a bloody wound on my cheek.

I turn around and see people being thrown into a giant cauldron of boiling gold. I want to scream, but I can't. And then there's this priest chanting something, and then I wake up.

I (sort of) got an explanation for it when I went to the museum. I needed somewhere to go after I walked out of school, and that was the first thing that popped into my head. Ishizu Ishtar was generous enough to leave her collection here in Domino when she, Marik and Odion went back to Egypt.

I was staring at the giant rock, and the picture of what I assumed was my other half battling the Pharaoh with Diabound.

Then I felt a hand on my shoulder. I jerked around. It was that Shaddi guy I met here a year ago.

"Why have you come here, boy?" he asked.

I told him pointedly about the dreams I'd been having. He nodded, as if he understood. He pulled the Millennium Key from around his neck and laid it across my forehead.

It glowed, and we were standing above a burning village. A little boy had a slightly younger girl by the hand, and they were running.

"Take note of the boy, young one," Shaddi told me.

I felt myself shaking as I watched them. An explosion blew them apart. The boy tried to make it back, but soldiers got to her first.

"Amane!" the boy screamed, tears filling his eyes. "Amane!"

"Big brother!"

I think this is when it became hard to breathe. Amane.

The boy stood there for a moment crying before running away; possibly knowing he couldn't help her.

He turned and fell down some stairs.

The same stairs I fell down in my dreams.

Shaddi and I were somehow transported to the inner chamber where the final events of my dream took place. And I just watched. There was nothing I could do.

There was an explosion, and everyone cleared out. All except for the boy.

It was only after everyone else was gone that he screamed. Oh, God almighty, I will never forget that scream.

I felt dizzy. Black dots started creeping into the corners of my vision. I vaguely felt someone shaking me, shouting at me, telling me to breathe. I felt myself falling, everything getting blacker and farther away, the boy's mournful crying still echoing in my ears.

When I came around, I felt a hand on my forehead and fingers at my throat, my blood pulsing under the pressure.

I don't know why, but I could have sworn Shaddi looked relieved that I was still alive.

"Are you feeling alright?" he asked, sitting beside me.

"Been better."

He then proceeded to explain to me what I'd just seen. He told me that I was seeing events from my previous life.

He then explained that when a spirit is sealed within a Millennium Item, the trauma of the process rips the soul in half. The half that remains unsealed then gets reincarnated in another time. He said that I would be playing an important role in the Pharaoh's destiny.

That's when I got angry.

"Well, that figures!" I shouted. "You may have told me that I had a destiny just for me, but obviously you were lying through your teeth! I don't get a story of my own, but yeah, I can 'play an important' role in the grand destiny of the almighty Pharaoh!"

Shaddi looked irritated. "You will get a story of your own, but only when the story of the Pharaoh is complete."

"Right," I smirked, walking out of the museum. I should have just gone home in the first place.

Anyway, yeah. Great story, huh? I just wish any of it made a bit of sense.

Love,

Ryou