Noon

Tristan hates Monster World. The unofficially required two hours of gameplay are over the top. And, those little figurines are too round. If someone were forced into one of them, it would be impossible to run around in those chubby little feet. The prepackaged villain monsters are grotesque enough, but the fact that a Game Master can make their own just makes it worse. Any freak can carve some nightmare that will show up in your dreams for weeks.

Yes, Tristan hates Monster World. Hates it with a blood boiling passion that makes him almost demand Mr. Muto to stop selling the game in his store. Tristan might be a little biased. Maybe being shoved into a plastic body by a white-haired demon called Bakura colored Tristan's perception a tad. Maybe getting stabbed in the head with spikes from one of those grisly traps and somehow not dying as he ran around with a gaping, frickin hole in his head made him a touch twitchy to the sight of the game.

Fingers tighten on paper pages. Nah, that couldn't be it.

With this hatred towards the game stomping around in Tristan's head, why on earth is he now reading a creature and class type book for Monster World? The answer to that sits across the room and on her bed. She absently nibbles on the end of the yellow ribbon that hangs from her periwinkle hair. The girl's purple eyes scan the words within the leather-bound book that she holds. The dark brown cover contrasts nicely with the light, delicate fingers that brush against its pages and with the bunched up green shirt that lifts just enough to reveal a sliver of skin.

Tristan gulps and looks back from the girl with her old, German book on divination to a picture of a gypsy girl, drawn closer to human proportions than any of the figurines are. She dances across the guidebook's page in little more than two vertical scarfs on her chest and a long skirt. Miho was a gypsy. In that horrid little world where Tristan was a chubby, shirtless gunman and plastic monsters could blast you away, Miho, the girl whose bare lower legs wave in the air as she lies on her belly, was a gypsy girl who could influence the die roll with her luck talent.

Was? No, is.

Tristan clenches the pages again. Here is another reason why he hates Monster World. The game clings to you long after you have stopped playing. Not even a week after that RPG, the oddities had started to manifest themselves. During the game, Bakura had stabbed right through the hand of his resisting host. Before the week was up, the gaping hole in Ryo's hand had closed to the point that only two shallow wounds remained. The powers of the boy's character, a self-healing wizard, had manifested themselves outside of the game. It did not take long for Miho's luck charm to follow suit.

"Two days later, Miho found three hundred dollars just sitting on the ground outside the school gate. Then, the results for the sweepstakes that Miho always likes to enter came back." As she talks, her purple eyes travel from person to person until they settle on Ryo.

"There have been three prizes so far. Miho now has a four thousand dollar coupon for that high-end clothing store a few blocks from Black Rose Academy, two free plane tickets for a month long trip for my mother and I in Paris, and a new Mercedes that Miho will somehow convince her parents to let her drive really, really soon."

Tristan frowns. His friends were so excited by these "magic powers." Who wouldn't be? But they didn't get it. They got these powers from a Shadow Game, and judging from the tidbits that Tristan had gleaned from both Other Yugi and Bakura's explanations, that was dark magic bordering on inherently evil. You had to be naïve to think there was not a cost to that.

Tristan glances over the list of Gypsy Talents: Luck, Minor Spells, Communication with Spirits, Curses.

What sort of spirits would a girl powered by dark magic attract?

Tristan looks up. Plans to draw Miho away from these books wither when he focuses on her. An absent-minded smile graces her lips. She must have uncovered something that fascinated her because she giggles shortly after.

Tristan's throat dries. Maybe he will distract her later.

The phone rings, and a soft harp noise flitters across the room. Miho taps her phone and the noise ends.

"Hello?" As she shifts to sitting, an unread Romani book beside her almost slides off the bed. "Mrs. Gardner, hi."

Tristan watches the girl sit up straighter.

"Tea…Tea's still sleeping. Is it alright if Miho doesn't wake her? She looks really comfortable." Miho meets Tristan's eyes. A spark of concern ignites in her purple irises. Tea did not spend the night at Miho's, and Tristan was almost certain that his friend was going to spend the weekend at her parent's place instead of at Ryo's with the others.

"Ok. Miho will be sure she gets home before Monday, bye, bye." A button is pressed, and Miho stares at Tristan in silence. He holds out his hand and she gives him her phone. It only takes one ring before Yugi picks up.

"Is Tea with you right now? Her mom said that she never went home last night…"

Miho ends up clinging to Tristan's back as his motorcycle races across Domino. Unfortunately, worry makes it hard to appreciate her warm arms around him.


They all have their places. Ryo and Miho sit on opposite ends of the couch while Tristan leans on the wall next to the girl. Joey stands closest to Yugi. Only a few feet closer and they would be within reaching distance. Still, they are enough distance apart that it is easy to tell that Yugi is the center of attention.

Crimson eyes stare out at the others. Perhaps, it is not Yugi who is the focus after all.

"Who saw her last?" The Dark Yugi's voice slides through the air like usual, but razor edges slice with it.

"I last saw her leave the classroom," Tristan grimly says. His gaze rests warily on Dark Yugi, who stares back without blinking.

"Miho saw her in the library when Miho was checking out books. She was talking to Hanasaki." Miho winces when Dark Yugi meets her eyes. His face lacks expression.

"Maybe, she went home with Hanasaki and lost track of time." Joey throws out. He does not believe his own words, but maybe Yugi will consider them enough to calm down a bit. No, that is not right. The crimson-eyed boy does not yell or pace like someone angry or upset would, but…He is too still, like a statue carved from ice. When Dark Yugi looks Joey's way, those eyes are too empty, not hollow like Ryo's had gotten, but empty of humanity.

"Perhaps, but that would not explain why she hasn't answered her phone." Something flickers in Dark Yugi's eyes.

"Hanasaki might know a bit more than we do. At least, he could tell us where he last saw her."

Yugi's subdued thoughts step softly in their shared mind. Tea is more than a friend. Before the Puzzle, she was the only one who rescued Yugi from the bullies that used to plague him. She is also the first, and only, crush that he has ever had.

Dark Yugi breathes in and out. Tries to put on a more expressive face for one of those breaths before deciding that that is a waste of time. The choice on what to say next is not made before Tristan musters up a sentence.

"Maybe the Ring came back." Tristan resists swallowing when Dark Yugi looks up at him. Those eyes send shivers down Tristan's spine; however, the feelings of fear are nowhere near as strong as when the brunette last saw the Ring. They had just gotten it off of Ryo when the damn thing had burned through its own rope and cartwheeled out of the apartment. Nightmares of that ordeal still haunt Tristan, and he often expects to hear the clinking of metal spines as soon as he opens his front door each morning.

"No." Ryo's voice, although quiet, carries throughout the room. "It wouldn't have attacked her yet. Not when we're still expecting him to come back."

The Ring is not responsible. That only leaves a few possibilities, a couple of suspects. New elements are analyzed and only one, the foreigner, is found to be out of place. Something clicks and crimson eyes flicker to Ryo before Dark Yugi speaks. To Ryo's credit, his calm visage does not waver one bit in the face of Dark Yugi's attention.

"I know who's responsible for this." Dark Yugi's voice stays quiet, controlled; yet Yugi senses the searing spark of realization.

"Wait, what?" Joey's contribution makes no impact on Dark Yugi's attention.

"You do?"

Yugi's comment, on the other hand, reaches the Other's awareness. Even so, it does not elicit a response, at least, not until one more fact is confirmed.

"You saw her after class, correct?"

Miho manages to nod in the force of Dark Yugi's stare.

"The transfer student, Klamath Olser, insisted on drawing my attention immediately after class." Even though the sparks that Yugi sensed before intensify, Dark Yugi's tone remains even. Still, one of the fingers of his crossed arms twitches.

The momentary silence does not even pretend to be surprised. It only exists for enough time for Tristan to mutter, "You have got to be kidding me."

"This insistence lasted barely long enough for us to properly converse after our we had duel." Razor edges slice each word. "Curiously enough, he received a phone call just about the time Tea would have gotten home."

"It might have been coincidence." The hesitation amongst his own words signals Yugi's reluctance to believe them.

"Are you frickin' kidding me? What is this, a thing now?" Tristan scowls. "Hey, guys, I wonder who kidnapped Yugi's grandpa. Oh, look, it was the transfer student. Hey, guys, who set up that killer game? Let me guess, the transfer student." After his rant, Tristan's eyes flicker to Ryo.

"Um, I was still talking about Kaiba and Death-T."

"It's okay." Ryo looks resigned to his place on the transfer student list. "I wasn't offended."

The empty space where Tea would berate Tristan for his insensitivity grows only as much as Dark Yugi allows.

"Although I agree with Tristan that this is becoming rather annoying," The tone dictates that their class will never see a transfer student again. "we need to focus on finding Tea."

"I presume it reasonable to expect that she was taken on her way home?" The dark half's question flashes through Yugi's thoughts.

"Maybe, but it could have happened while she was with Hanasaki." A pause in Yugi's response is filled in by his Other's conclusion.

"So, they may have been taken together."

The phone is in his hand before the others can register. A few nimble taps and the phone rings. Joey, about to ask who Yugi is calling, finds himself frozen shut by an idle crimson gaze. He'll let Yugi finish that call first.

"Hello, this is Yugi Muto."

A woman's voice murmurs out of the phone.

"It is a pleasure to talk to you too. Forgive my abruptness, but is Hanasaki home?"

The phone murmurs more.

"Oh, I see. Well, I hope that he is enjoying his day out with his father."

A few more murmurs.

"Oh, it isn't any rush. I will call back tomorrow…Thank you for your time, good bye Mrs. Hanasaki." Dark Yugi pockets the phone.

"She left the school grounds, so that leaves us from the front gate to her bus stop and then from her other bus stop to her home." Crimson eyes flicker to each tensed person.

"Shall we go then?" Ryo says, his quiet carrying throughout the room.

Dark Yugi nods, crimson eyes alight.


The fact that a tape recorder hangs from the second lamppost before the bus stop is now an accepted fact of life. A flock of sharpened, weary eyes glare at the offending object. The hand that snatches it down is the same hand that has crushed minds for lesser offenses.

Dark Yugi turns it once in his hands. The others crowd around him. No one quite touches another, but loose shirtsleeves almost graze against each other. Except for crimson that hides its thoughts, each pair of eyes stares with apprehension. Dark Yugi presses play.

"If you found this, you have been exposed to waayyy too many kidnappings." Amusement toys with each word, and Dark Yugi's hand tightens.

"Don't crush it." Yugi's inner voice reaches high enough to draw attention but stays low enough to not intrude on the recording.

"Since you did find it though, here are the answers you don't want to hear. Yes, I took your friend, and yes, I want something in exchange for a guarantee of her safety."

Apprehension has faded into burning anger within Joey and Tristan's eyes while worry still lingers in Miho's. Ryo's eyes are guarded while his lips turn slightly in a frown.

"What I want is very easy for you to obtain. It's gold, glints when it really shouldn't, and tends to darken the room far more than necessary…" A pause. "If you didn't get it by now, yes, I, just like who cares how many others, want your Millennium Puzzle. And all you have to do is take your Item, stick it in a box, and leave it right under this lamppost. Within a day or two, your friend Tea will find her way home safe and relatively sound."

"Now, let me set this straight." Amusement hardens. "This isn't a game. I'm not going to show up and challenge you to a game of chance that you will win. If you disagree with these terms, then you have three days to change your mind. Or maybe more time, cool weather does slow down the effects of dehydration." The recorder clicks.

Silence resides in everyone's ears and thoughts. Crimson eyes blink once. An emotion enters then flits away to be replaced by the next and the next until one settles in. The laugh that comes bubbles out like molten gold and sears away the silence. The others stare, too stunned to move away, too unnerved to reach out. Except Joey. He shifts forward, but Ryo's hand brushes the arm of his evergreen jacket, and Joey's attention is drawn to green eyes filled with warning.

Before questions can be asked, the laughter stops, and everyone focuses on the crimson-eyed darkness that stares at the recorder with a touch of amusement.

"This isn't a game you say?" The words are too low and fond to slide through the air. "Yet, you have threatened my friend." The smirk that curls on Dark Yugi's visage causes Miho to shiver once he meets her eyes.

"Miho, have you been researching more about Gypsy Magic?" Dark Yugi tilts his head. Miho nods quickly.

"How good are they at divination?" The Puzzle glints with the question, and a simple game of hide and seek begins.


The sun shines bright above the grey overcast that shadows the suburbs below. Even though it is far past noon, no one stirs from behind reflective windows and no cars idly drive down the streets. Only a single pair of shoes that tread down the sidewalk can be heard over the occasional moans of the breeze.

As the walker turns down a path that leads to one of the houses, two spikes of black hair point up in a wide "V." When he reaches the shaded doorstep, the boy's orange eyes darken in the low light. Once inside, the boy sniffs the air. A couple of sniffs later, the boy ignores the empty, darkened rooms in favor of the kitchen. Like the other rooms, there are no working lights, but enough sunlight filters through the window to give the room muted colors.

Fogged green eyes watch the kitchen doorway as the boy walks through. They glow the same color that they would under a summer sun. The owner of those eyes smiles as he leans back in his chair and places a spotless, empty can of squid on the counter. Orange eyes glance to the probably licked-clean can.

"Hey, Klamath, how did it go yesterday?" Fogged green glints with interest.

"I lost," huffs Klamath. He lets his duffel bag drop to the floor. The kid's shoes scuff the tiles as he shuffles into a chair.

The one with fogged green eyes leans his chair forward. Long black hair sways from the motion then settles. "That's to be expected. None of us have ever beaten Seto Kaiba, so how could you win against the one who beat him?"

Klamath stares at the table. "But you survived five turns, and he had to use crush card on you. I got beat by Beaver Warrior and Mirror Force."

The chuckle from across the table causes Klamath's glare to snap up. "Coppermine, it isn't funny!"

Green sparks and Pete Coppermine grins. "It's a little funny."

"It's not. It's insulting." Klamath straightens his slouched shoulders. "That Yugi doesn't even get what beating me means. I destroyed the Los Angeles Prize Tournament. How could any professional not know about me?" The duelist bristles. "You know what, I shouldn't be surprised. The kid acts like he's been living under a rock. He doesn't even know how famous he is."

Coppermine leans back in his chair. "So, he doesn't know what a Card Professor is."

The thoughtful words do not even enter Klamath's bubble. "He should have asked me to give him a tour of the dueling world for his favor."

"His what?" The words lash out and knock out Klamath's rant.

Klamath's eyes widen when they notice the blank expression of his companion.

"Umm, you said to keep him distracted, so I thought that a small wager would keep him really interested…" Klamath swallows when Coppermine's expression changes to something Klamath doesn't recognize. "I left before he could ask for anything," the boy continues quickly.

Coppermine remains quiet. In the muted room, his eyes glow as the only spot of color. "You're no longer needed here, so why don't you catch a flight back home." The given smile cannot reach the eyes.

Klamath twitches. "But…What about the girl?" He glances at the ceiling. "Don't you need help when she wakes up?"

"Not really, I was just being polite by including you." Coppermine leans closer, and his eyes grow a tad wider. "But now, you owe a Shadow Gamer a favor, and he will be able to use that against you whether or not you ever played a Shadow Game. So, since you're compromised and are very likely to get us both killed or worse, you can run on home."

Klamath leans back as a faint stench of canned squid washes over him.

"Deschutes doesn't want us taking each other out, so it's best if you go now."

Questions of 'What do you mean?' and "What did I do?" do not even cross Klamath's mind as he jumps out of his chair. With the quick thuds of steps and the pattering of a heart, the boy's bag sits forgotten on the floor, and the front door sways on its hinges.

Coppermine sits in his chair. His frown pulls slightly at the edges of his mouth. Klamath should make it to the airport before the Puzzle owner can find him, so the plan is still on track. But…

Coppermine pulls a remote out of his pocket and clicks a few buttons. Somewhere, something in the house blinks on.

…it is better to be safe than sorry.


Her wrists ache. Numbness tingles at the end of her fingers as Tea takes notice of the dull pain. Her neck aches too, but she does not move to roll the pain out. She refuses to open her eyes as, piece by piece, her awareness comes back to her.

There is a chair; she is sitting in a chair while her bare feet rest on a carpeted floor. Her hands are tied behind her back with a circulation-cutting rope, and her ankles are unbound.

Don't freak out. Don't freak out. Don't freak out.

She has been kidnapped. Tea remembers this. She remembers that guy with fogged green eyes as he speaks her name. How long had he been waiting for her to head down that street and to "accidently" run into him?

Ears prickle as Tea tries to discern whether someone else lurks in the room. Aside from the sound of her uneven, quiet breaths, no other noise exists around her. Still, her eyes stay closed.

Come on, Tea. Open your eyes. You're not getting out of here if you don't toughen up.

When she lifts her head to straighten her neck, enough courage is dredged up to force her eyes open. Fogged green eyes sit inches from her true-blue ones. Their pupils are slits.

"Aaah!" She pushes back, but a hand reaches out and clamps down on the arm of the chair before it can fall.

"Good afternoon." The amused glint in those eyes does nothing to stop Tea's panicked gasps.

Tea says nothing, just keeps breathing heavily until her heart slows down and pulls her breaths with it. She has seen worse. This kidnapper does not tower over her while his horns stab into the air. There is no an eye embedded in his chest that will blast a wall of all-consuming dark fire at her and her friends.

In an odd moment of sanity, Tea finds herself glad that she faced the Dark Master Zorc, Ruler of Monster World.

"What are you?" Breaths come out even. Voice stays calms. It even carries an undertone of demand.

The stranger grins. "Good, I see you already know the rules. A duelist is hardly ever a who." He leans closer by a minute inch. His breath smells of squid. "Wow, your heart has calmed down quite a bit." His voice then drops to a whisper. "What have you been through?"

Tea resists the urge to swallow or move back. A trickle of sweat runs down her face. After a length of silence, the stranger leans back. Tea almost breathes in relief when he does.

"Don't want to answer?" He stares and shrugs. "Okay. How about if I feed you?" He pulls a sealed bag of pretzels and a closed bottle of water off the floor beside him and holds them up. His eyes close when he smiles.

What?

The question must be written on her face because it does not take him long to speak again.

"I need to keep you well fed and not dead. Your midget friend won't be able to do that many horrible things to me as long as I don't do anything permanent to you." The kind smile fades. "That's how the Magic works anyway."

"Wait, you're after Yugi?" Tea's fingers clench.

"No, not quite." The kidnapper's eyes glint. "I'm after his Puzzle."

One spark, then two, then anger strikes up from within Tea. For more than a moment, the girl wishes that she was back in Monster World where she could feel the magic well up inside of her then explode out of her staff and at her enemies with their smug expression.

"What gives you the right to kidnap me and demand that Yugi gives you his Puzzle." The barb is not a question.

What gives any of these intruders the right to take Yugi's cards, or his grandpa, or anything from us.

Before her next words can leave her mouth, Tea's thoughts flicker to Ryo and to the pieces of memory and mind that he has lost to people like this. The flicker distracts her enough for the stranger to speak.

"Survival." Any trace of good-humor has vanished from the stranger's face. "Me and my friends have the right to survival, and that can now only be maintained by acquiring the Puzzle."

Tea blinks. Anger halts.

"You see, this word is a little more complicated than you know. There are nice little surprises lurking in the dark." He leans forward again. "I'm guessing that you met a few of them by now."

A shiver crawls down her spine and a flash of Bakura, amber-eyed and grinning as he tears her soul from her body, shoots through Tea's mind.

"Whatever you have seen, that's just the start. Once news of what that friend of yours possesses travels just a little bit further, a lot of those surprises are going to come running up to your door, and they're not going to go through nice negotiations like this. They'll just take what they want, no matter who they have to tear through." Fogged eyes glow. "Trust me. I'm doing you a favor by taking that Item now."

Not a thought stays still enough in her head for Tea to speak. Her heart pounds because, if he is speaking the truth, than people like Bakura and Kaiba are just the beginning. How could they handle more of this? Even the levelheaded Tristan has nightmares a few times a week of what they all have been through. And Ryo… can he survive more of this? Her heart throbs so loudly in her ears that Tea tries to force it to calm so that she can think. Instead, something in the pocket of her skirt beeps and beeps and shrilly beeps in time with her heart.

The stranger twitches.

"What is that?"


AN: The few paragraphs about Miho finding three hundred dollars and such is taken from the prequel to this story, The Ghost. I wrote the Eye of Lose so that is not necessary to read the prequel to enjoy it, but there will be some events and characters referenced that are covered in more detail and/or introduced more completely in the Ghost.