Reika groaned softly, opening her eyes and lifting her head against the blinding sun's rays. Glancing around, she pushed herself up and took a few careful steps to get an idea of where she was.
Right outside the card shop… but something was wrong. For it supposedly being the middle of the day, Domino was awfully quiet. For a virtual world, this wasn't the same.
Which meant someone could easily spot her if she wasn't careful.
Pressing her ear to the back door of the game shop, she exhaled in relief when she didn't hear anything before slipping inside and up the stairs to her bedroom, dropping the cloak and mask on the floor and replacing it with the dark brown wig she wore to disguise herself for work and tucked her bracelet over her sleeve to conceal it from view.
"Miss Reika. What are you doing in this place?"
Reika's eyes widened, mind whirling. Ten minutes into this place and she'd already failed at stealth. But she was willing to try one more time…
She cleared her throat, swallowing before turning around slowly.
"I'm afraid I don't know what you mean, sir. My name is Sakura," she said softly.
His eyes narrowed. "Don't play games, Reika. The moment you opened your bedroom door we knew you were here. I am surprised your hair is suddenly one color though."
"If you knew from the minute I opened my door that I was here, I'm sure you've figured out why I have a wig, Mr. Leichter."
"Those damn agents brought you here, didn't they?"
"I came here willingly."
That seemed to catch him off guard, his jaw dropping briefly before he put the stern façade back on. "What lies did they try to sell you, Reika? Once we get out of here, I'm sure Johnson will be able to end them in court."
Reika slipped the wig off, considering her options. "They didn't have to sell anything, Leichter. I saw it for myself. You lied to me. You all lied to me. Noah's alive, isn't he?"
"It wasn't supposed to be this way…" Leichter said, snapping his hands, making the black nothingness digitize to a Kaiba Corp boardroom, Leichter taking a seat at the head of the table and gesturing for her to sit. "You weren't supposed to find out until all of this was complete."
She remained standing, her gaze cold. "Find out that my best friend was alive and that my boyfriend, cousin and friends were dead?"
"We had no intentions to kill all of them…"
"Did you stop and think about what even killing one of them would do to me?" she asked. "You claim you care about me but between this and what happened at Duelist Kingdom… it makes a girl think."
Leichter raised a brow. "Of course I cared about you, Reika."
"But no longer, right? That's why you didn't bother to gives me the heads up about any of this?" she asked, sighing. "Where's Noah? I want to see him."
"Master Noah is occupied at the moment. But since you're here anyway, Miss Reika, why don't you fill me in on all of the adventures you've been on the past year or so?"
"It was just school, Leichter. Not all that interesting."
Leichter chuckled under his breath, snapping his fingers again. They were suddenly in Loguetown – the first town she'd been sent to on her mission for T.A.I.D.R. Reika felt the color drain from her face as she looked at him again.
"This doesn't look like school to me, Reika."
"Leichter…" she whispered, body beginning to tense.
"In fact… this doesn't look like anywhere on this planet. I think it looks like a whole different world entirely," Leichter hummed, stroking his jaw in mock contemplation. "It's strange that you have a memory of this place…"
"Get out of my head."
"You're the one that hooked yourself up to this world. But I get it now. You weren't just brought here by those agents… you are one of them."
Reika said nothing, watching as her past disguised form ran by.
Leichter clicked his tongue. "You poor thing. You have no idea how dangerous these people are, Reika."
"I don't care."
"You should. This is bigger than you and I combined. These world have been connected much longer than you ever could have thought. And certain people know how to take advantage of that," Leichter explained.
Reika's eyes widened slightly. "Kaiba Corp."
"Indeed. You're just like your mother, Reika. So perceptive… you really could have been brilliant on our side. It's just a shame you're not."
She shook her head. "Seeing how many innocent lives have been destroyed by the Marines. All of the chaos and destruction that was supposedly in the name of justice. And all in the name of Kaiba Corp."
"You keep going on and on about how much blood has been spilled. It's fair, I suppose, since we sold weapons to the World Government, but what I wonder…" Leichter trailed off as he stepped closer to her, taking her chin in his hand as he forced her to look up at him, "is how much blood is on your hands."
Reika tried to wrench her head out of his grip as she glared at him, but he held firm.
"You can't tell me you're some innocent flower that's never spilled a drop. Not with that look in your eyes."
Her head jerked, trying to get him to release her, again to no avail. "What do you want me to say? You've already read me like a book."
"I don't want you to say a thing, Miss Reika. I want you to go back to being that sweet, quiet little girl you used to be and let us do what's right. And at the end, we'll let you go. I promise."
She managed to get herself out of Leichter's grip, letting out a growl that turned into a bitter sort of laugh. "Keeping Noah locked in here for six years was the right thing? You're a monster!"
"It was for the best. He was so injured, you know. We needed to keep him safe…"
"He's fine now. What's stopping you from allowing him to go free?"
"With a face that no one remembers? Or a face that people believe died? People would ask questions, Miss Reika, you know that. Which is why we're giving him a brand new body. One you are very familiar with."
Her eyes widened, horror streaking across her face. "You can't."
"We can and we will. Oh, but don't be so upset. I'm sure Noah will be a better boyfriend to you than Seto Kaiba ever was."
"No…" she said firmly. "No!"
"This is the way it's going to be, Reika. And you, my dear girl… will be lost in your own memories until the time is right."
With a laugh cold enough to make her skin crawl, Leichter disappeared.
The background morphed to the home she shared with her parents before their disappearance.
"Reika, sweetheart! Can we talk to you for a moment?"
"Mom…" she whispered, gasping as her eight-year-old self was ripped out of her, dropped into the memory as her parents appeared in the doorway.
Her mother, only a hair taller than her, glasses perched on her nose and a kind smile. Looking at her mother now, Reika could see just how alike they really looked. The same nose, the same face shape, and Reika had inherited the upturned eyes her mother had instead of the normal Mutou-wide eyes. Miaka's dark-red hair hung gracefully over her shoulders.
On the other hand, there was her father, who had inherited seemingly all of the height the Mutou male side would ever have, standing a few inches taller than her mother. His longer, tri-colored hair was showing the early signs of fading, but his smile was the Mutou smile she had.
"Reika, your father and I are going on a trip," her mother said with a smile and taking a seat on her bed. "We're going to be gone for two weeks, and you'll be staying with Grandpa Solomon, okay?"
"Okay!" her eight-year-old memory said with a giggle. "Yugi and I can play with Grandpa's games!"
"That's right, my little butterfly!" Genji replied, sweeping Reika up into his arms. "And I heard that Grandpa just got some new games in too. You'll have a great time."
"Where are you going?" little Reika asked.
"We're going to Florida. It's for a conference for Mr. Kaiba," Miaka said. "We'll bring you back something really special. I promise."
Little Reika nodded and smiled. "Okay. I'll miss you."
Miaka smiled back and pressed her lips to little Reika's forehead, a touch that the current Reika was shocked to feel.
Her hand went to her forehead as the memory faded, still feeling the warmth of her mother's kiss as the Game Shop appeared.
Again, her eight year old self appeared, with a six year old Yugi. They were in the living room, cards and game pieces scattered throughout.
Solomon entered the room, pale, and flanked by Aunt Kumi and Uncle Takeo, who had equally pale faces.
"Kids, there's something you need to know…" Solomon started, Reika and Yugi sitting at his sides. "Reika, I'm sorry but… something happened when your parents were in Florida. They – they've gone missing."
Even ten years later, the words were a gut punch, and there was an identical cry from the past and the present as tears stung Reika's eyes.
"Are you happy, Leichter?!" she cried into the nothingness, a ghost in her own memories. "Is this what you wanted?" A sob wracked her body as she slid to the ground as the vision changed again, this time to Kaiba Manor's music room.
"My father is adopting two new children," Noah sneered. "One is our age. He plans to use him to challenge me. Me! Can you believe that?"
"It doesn't sound fair at all, Noah," her twelve year old self replied with a frown, shuffling the piano music on the stand. "What are you going to do?"
Noah frowned as he turned away from her and looked out the window. "There's nothing I can do. I'll just have to deal with it. I suppose it will make father look better, won't it? The media will have no choice but to see that he does have a heart."
Preteen Reika nodded. "I guess…"
"You don't sound convinced."
A sigh escaped her. "You're my best friend Noah but… Kaiba Corp deals with weapons. Wars. They've probably hurt a lot of people."
"That doesn't mean you think badly of me, right?"
"Of course I don't. You can't help what family you're born into."
"And those boys… they won't take my place?"
"Never."
Reika exhaled heavily and ran her fingers through the wig's strands. Well, she couldn't say she didn't fail on that promise.
The music room fell away, replaced by Gozaburo Kaiba's office.
"Mr. Kaiba? Mr. Leichter said you wanted to speak with me?" Preteen Reika asked as she opened the door.
"Sit down, Reika. There's something I need to discuss with you." When Reika was seated, he continued. "Noah was in a car accident this morning."
Reika watched her preteen form freeze in the chair. She remembered exactly what she was thinking during this conversation.
I don't want to lose Noah too. Not after Mom and Dad…
"He's gone, Reika."
"No he's not, you son of a bitch," she whispered as her preteen self broke down in tears. "If only we would have known the truth."
Gozaburo sighed. "I know. I'm devastated too. My wife is beside herself. I know how close the two of you were, so I will allow you to become friends with Seto and Mokuba."
"Who?" her younger self asked with a sniff.
"Did Noah not tell you? The boys I'm adopting."
"Oh. He – he told me, but he didn't tell me their names."
"Mm. Well in any case. You will still be allowed at the manor. But I want to make one thing clear. You will not, under any circumstance, tell them about Noah, do you understand me? One peep about him and you'll be cut off from Kaiba Corp."
"Yes, Mr. Kaiba…" she'd replied as the room dissolved again.
On and on it continued, painful memory after painful memory, until finally, she was teleported to the Alabasta Kingdom and the battle that gave her the scar.
Already weakened from her earlier battle, she was really only providing backup for Usopp as he checked for any snipers as their captain fought against Crocodile.
"You okay? You can go rest if you want," Usopp had asked.
"I'm fine. Nothing I can't handle," she'd replied with a cocky grin.
Usopp grinned back at her. "Good. I'm counting on you to have my back."
"And you know I will. Now keep firing. We have to keep Luffy safe."
Everything else happened so quickly. A shadow had loomed over them. She had noticed it, Usopp hadn't. Crocodile had landed, eyes set on Usopp, but Reika was quicker.
"Usopp, get down!" she shouted, shoving the sniper out of the way inches before Crocodile's hook slashed across her back.
Watching yourself get stabbed is a weird thing. May only had seconds to decide what she'd do differently before Crocodile's hook made contact with her skin, a feeling that the present May felt as well, and the world around her became muted, the only thing she heard were identical screams that had come from the past and the present. Her knees became weak, and she felt herself beginning to fall to the ground before she felt an arm wrap around her to catch her.
Wait. An arm…? There hadn't been anyone here but her.
Weakly, Reika raised her head, and met the identical violet eyes of her cousin, wide in concern and horror.
As the world faded back to the Domino default, all she could think of to do was to let out a curse of "shit."