Sometimes Yugi dreamed of it, even though he hadn't witnessed it—a city of marine grey stone and electric blue lights, his childhood home. A shockwave tearing through the architecture as if it were paper mache, and seconds later, the sound of an explosion. Seawater seeped up through the ruins, dissolving the blood, swallowing everything. He sat with the skeletons on the bottom of the ocean, suffocating and crushed by pressure.
He woke with a sharp cry that made him glad to have his own dorm room, although it was loud enough that he worried he'd woken his next-door neighbors. For an addled, frightened moment, he lay paralyzed on the bed, unable to move. The fear slowly leaked out of his body, and he sat up. Feeble spring sun peeked through a gap in his curtains, illuminating a floating sea of dust motes. He crawled out of his soft wooden bed and turned on the lights, revealing a plain beige carpet and an equally dull desk. He hadn't lived here long enough for the room to pick up any of his spirit or scent, and it still felt like somebody else's place.
He washed up and then pulled his new school uniform off a hanger. Navy blue blazer and pants, with a white undershirt and a black belt and boots. The only flourishes on the garment were a few silver studs around the collar and sleeve. As he dressed, he wished his grandfather could be there to see him off to orientation, but Grandpa was two hundred miles away, studying some ruins in the Atiri Mountains.
It was too early to leave, but Yugi was at a loss for anything better to do, so he exited his room, walking softly down the carpeted hallway of his dormitory. The walls were outfitted in brown wainscotting with velvety blue-green wallpaper—colors meant to be soothing, he imagined, but at this moment they just reminded him of his dream, and he rushed downstairs into the outdoors.
Clean white streets. Simple buildings painted in vibrant reds, blues, and yellows. Overhead, delicate white clouds glowed where the sunlight touched them; the sky was pale, and the air frigid. His dorm was closer to downtown than it was to campus, but Rivelia Academy was still just a few blocks up the hill. Surrounded by an impressive brick wall, it took up less of a footprint than he expected. The buildings had been built tall to compensate, most six or seven stories high.
The main building was the first to greet him when he passed through the gate. To his left, the auditorium, where he was due at 9. Alongside that were the athletic field and track, where some students were already practicing archery with longbows, and others were out for early morning runs. The library to his right was also active, and of course so was the student union building, where the cafeteria was located. He made his way there for breakfast and caught sight of the gymnasium in the back.
The air in the cafeteria was steamy and smelled of sweet and savory foods. When he was with his grandpa, they ate as they had back in his hometown of Atlantis—a light, salty meal comprised mostly of fish and vegetables, sometimes with a little brown rice. Now, Yugi supposed, he would have to eat as the locals did, lots of breads and animal products. They didn't even serve vegetables with breakfast. That would have made him happy as a child—he'd found greens to be bitter—but he'd just started liking them last year, and now they were gone.
He got some eggs and fruits and sat by himself by the window, watching the second-years eat with their friends. Only a few people sat alone. One in particular caught his attention—a brown-skinned man, which was unusual for this country. He was reading while eating an enormous spread, despite being fairly petite like Yugi was. He must have felt Yugi watching him, because he looked up, and Yugi instantly flinched. HIs violet eyes were so intense it was almost physically painful to meet his gaze. The man returned to his book, but Yugi suddenly wanted to be absent.
A few minutes later, an equally fierce storm cloud of a man swept into the room. He had a physique like a scarecrow and eyes like ice; he was wearing a white duster over his uniform. As he collected his food—a small breakfast sandwich, which seemed too little, given how tall he was—he cast a searing glance at the brown-skinned man in the corner. The brown-skinned man looked up again, regarded him over a slow sip of coffee, and then returned to his book. The man in the white duster huffed, picked his sandwich off the tray, and left.
Yugi rested his elbows on the table and anxiously laced his fingers. He didn't belong here. Rivelia Academy was a place for people who were, at least, decent with magic. He'd only gotten accepted by virtue of his ability with technomagic, and he'd only achieved that because of his childhood in Atlantis. It was sterile and academic field of study, like everything had been back home, requiring only a good head for geometry and absolutely no raw power. He could sense the power in everyone around him, hanging over him like a weighted blanket.
He ate quickly and wandered the grounds until it was time for orientation. He sat in a severe metal chair surrounded by dozens of other first-years, who at least had the decency to look as nervous as he felt. The instructors stood flanking the stage, an eccentric bunch. Another person with brown skin, this one a woman, who was smiling as she surveyed them. But the smile had a slightly predatory nature, as if the students were her breakfast. An older man with a white mustache and twinkling eyes. A young, muscular man wearing sunglasses; over them, his brow was knit as if he were in some discomfort. Hungover? A man with long white hair and an eyepatch in an expensive-looking red suit. A severe-looking man with a grey mustache. A chipper woman who looked altogether too young to be an instructor, with voluminous blonde hair that fell to her waist.
The headmaster glided onto the stage. He was a man with an effeminate air intensified by his graceful movements, androgynous clothing, slender fingers, and long blue hair—so long it almost reached his ankles. When he looked up at the crowd, Yugi was surprised to see that his eyes were two different colors, one green and one yellow. Headmaster Dartz.
He welcomed them to the academy and gave some stirring speech about pride that Yugi was too distracted to notice. He was watching his classmates—one of them, blonde, had quite obviously fallen asleep, with his mouth open and his head tilted back. A brunette next to him was trying, and failing, to nudge him awake, until finally the blonde started snoring, and the brunette gave him a hard strike on the leg. The blonde sat bolt upright with a confused, wordless mumble.
They were dismissed to go attend the club fair. As soon as Yugi emerged from the auditorium, he was accosted by a din, a stark contrast to the silent, sleepy campus he'd walked this morning. The second- and third-years had taken the past hour to set up booths and brightly colored banners, and were shouting and waving flyers. Yugi had two weeks before he had to commit to joining one, and he knew that he should, as it was an easy way to make friends. Problem was, he didn't have many interests outside of school.
Cooking club, dance club, art club, music club. Cooking didn't sound awful provided he could make the food from his homeland, but as for the rest, he'd never been particularly creative. Athletic clubs, like track, swimming, and archery. Yugi remembered how early the archery club had been practicing this morning and knew it wasn't for him. Then there were the magic clubs, in case one hadn't gotten enough of that in school. Yugi looked around—no booths for technomagic.
He saw the brown-skinned man from the cafeteria sitting at the booth for the combat club, where Yugi presumed that students enjoyed beating the stuffing out of each other with spells. His ferocious stare was scaring people away, undermining the work of the suntanned man next to him who was making attempts to recruit. After a while, the suntanned man said something to him, and the brown-skinned man nodded and got up and left, heading off-campus.
Yugi wasn't passionate about anything he was seeing, so after another hour, he too left campus. The store-owners downtown, piggybacking off the tumult of the club fair, had set up tables and signs to advertise their wares to the new crop of students. The bookstore was having a deep sale, although Yugi didn't buy anything. A local café, which looked and smelled charming, was offering samples of coffee cake, which Yugi gladly accepted. There was a small community space, where locals could teach classes and hold tournaments, where he found-
"No way," he said aloud. A Duel Monsters club! A young woman was struggling to erect a large cardboard cutout of a Duel Monsters card; it was larger than she was. "Let me help," Yugi said quickly, and pushed it upright with her. She pushed up her glasses, smiling sweetly, and Yugi felt his heart skip. She was pretty in that painful way, her beauty the kind that made him ache. He couldn't articulate what, exactly, made her so arresting—her tawny hair, which looked so soft, or her honeyed eyes—or maybe it just the fact that she seemed so happy.
"Thank you so much!" she said. "It was heavier than I thought!"
"N-no problem," Yugi managed, feeling his tongue turn to gum in his mouth. "You like Duel Monsters?"
If possible, she brightened even more. "Yeah! I run a parlor here on Saturday mornings. Do you play?"
"Uh... Not very well..."
"You should come!" she said. "It's welcome to all levels. The truth is"- she scuffed her loafer on the floor sheepishly-"it's not a very popular game, so I'm really grateful anytime somebody stops by."
Really grateful. The words melted him. "Y-yeah, I know what you mean," he stammered. "I'll come on Saturday for sure. Promise." There was that smile again. He didn't want to leave, but the longer he stayed, the greater risk he took of making a fool of himself. He nodded goodbye and quickly left, but caught his mind drifting to her throughout the rest of the evening.