Good Day Readers and welcome to the sequel to One Last Step! Thanks to all of you for the support and I hope that you all enjoy this latest and final edition of the Hope sisters. Due to certain events that happened at the end of One Last Step, this story will solely be told from Katherine's perspective.

Obviously I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh only Katherine Hope, Yumiko Kazayama, the Hope parents and Kylie Hope along with the unique cards within their decks and whatever other OCs decide to crop up. Also italics symbolise a mind conversation, a flash back or anything spoken in a language that isn't Japanese. I would appreciate any responses that you have, please enjoy

Chapter 1: - Our Peace

Time is a funny thing really… sometimes it can take forever for one single day to pass and yet before you know it years have flown by in the blink of an eye. It had been two whole years since the Ceremonial Duel which pitted Yugi and Atem against each other, since the day when Kylie and Atem left this world and us… forever.

It was a truly beautiful day today in Domino City and I couldn't help humming a small tune as I ran the hairbrush through my onyx tresses, I set the object down and grabbed my school bag which I slung over my shoulders. Since I was sorted – clamping the silver bracelet of my sister over my wrist was the last bit – and practically late already my legs swiftly carried me out of the room and down stairs.

The delicious scents of cooking wafted throughout our house as girlish laughter echoed out from within the kitchen, I walked over until I arrived at the doorway into the kitchen and stopped briefly so that I could bask in the heart-warming scene that lay before me as a bright smile spread across my face upon seeing its' occurrence.

Yumiko, mine and Kylie's cousin, was bouncing up and down around the room as she waited for the food to be put down; due to the bouncing her short raven black hair went flying up into the air as her warm blue coloured eyes danced in the gleaming sunlight with a simple blue dress covering her form. Dad was sat at the table attempting to short out his business sheets whilst dealing with the hyperactive little girl causing havoc in the kitchen.

Mum stood at the hob as she allowed a few laughs to escape from her at the antics of the child, I was so happy to see my family slowly returning to the lively group that I had always known them to be… especially after what had happened two years ago; however the laughter stopped when Dad's green eyes fell on me and he rose from the table to come towards me.

"Have a good day my sweet angel," Dad spoke. I nodded to my dad as mum handed me the bento that she had made for the day and an apple that I could eat since I wouldn't be able to enjoy breakfast with them; before I could leave a weight suddenly wrapped around my mid-section and I looked down to see Yumiko smiling at me, her arms embracing me in a hug.

"Later Kat," Yumiko called. I smiled at my cousin and gently ruffled her hair, this action caused the girl to pout and she pulled away to fix it but I used the opportunity to plant a kiss on her forehead and with that, I proceeded to rush out of the door hoping that I'd still have time to take it easy in order to reach Domino High before the bell.

My worry immediately vanished when I saw my boyfriend standing across the street obviously having just left his own home, in the years that had passed Yugi had most definitely changed. Yugi had grown some inches in height putting him at around the same height as Atem with his face having lost some of that childish innocence resulting in his face becoming much sharper in appearance.

I had also changed over the two years, I was still shorter than Yugi but it was now only by half an inch, with my face having taken on the same Asiatic appearance as my mother's which ended up giving me a slightly sharper facial structure and my figure had also taken on more curves now that I was older and taller.

"Oh Yugi," I called out. My boyfriend turned with a smile split across his face as I ran over to him, once we were close enough the two of us proceeded to link our hands and we then took off towards our school even coming across a cat that meowed up at us in greeting, so Yugi greeted it right back causing me to smile at the kindness he always showed to everyone.

"Yugi! Katherine!" Anzu called. We turned to see the brunette girl running down the steps to us, once down she bumped her shoulder against Yugi in a friendly gesture, after a quick exchange of words the three of us continued on towards the school and when we got there, an interesting scene was awaiting us in the courtyard.

Our dear friend Bakura was surrounded by a gaggle of girls all shoving presents at him which left the young boy quite flustered as he didn't know exactly what to do about this situation. The rest of our group of friends still speculated over what aspect of the white-haired boy had caused girls to begin fawning over him as they currently were but we had no concrete evidence to figure it all out.

"Morning Bakura-kun!" Yugi yelled. This drew the white-haired boy's attention and a kind smile appeared on his face as he managed to untangle himself from the girls and rushed over to us to exchange greetings, since we had got here in time, we would be able to spend a small time talking before the actual school section started.

"It's hard to believe that this is our final year," I spoke. Yugi nodded his head understanding my feelings, it still felt like yesterday when I had transferred to this school instead of the two years that it had been, sometimes I wondered what I would be doing if Andromeda and Athena had never told us to come here after Duelist Kingdom.

"Don't do that," Yugi commented. I turned to face the boy wondering what on earth he was talking about causing him to smile as he reached over and gently cradled my cheek. "You always get that look on your face when you think about what could have been," Yugi explained. I sighed and lay my hand over his as I returned the smile to him.

*Yu-Gi-Oh*

Dinner time rolled in and so the lot of us gathered up on the rooftop as we began to eat our food with the warm light of the Japanese sun shining down on the land. I liked being up here since it normally gave us some peace and quiet but today wasn't that kind of a day sadly since other people were here, but I could deal with it.

"Are you serious Anzu? So, you're going to go study abroad after you graduate after all?" Jounouchi asked. Everyone had been surprised when Anzu told us that she had opted to apply to a dancing school located in America to continue her studies after graduation, despite the fact that in order to chase after this dream the girl would be forced to leaving behind everything she had ever known.

"I'm going to get out there on my own and just wing it you know?" Anzu insisted. As she spoke she thrusted out her chopsticks which held an octopus sausage, Yugi and Bakura both gave the brunette girl their support for her chasing this road despite the high odds that were stacked against her and the sacrifices she would have to make in order to achieve it.

"I sure am envious. Only thing I'll be doing is taking over my pop's factory and slaving, day in and day out," Honda lamented. It was saddening to hear that the boy wouldn't be able to follow his own dream, whatever that may have been, but sometimes life doesn't pan out exactly how we want although Honda could always try and run away.

Jounouchi attempted to comfort his friend by claiming that such a job would support Japan, whilst calling it a 'glorious nation' – he wasn't wrong – but, to make it even worse the boy locked one of his legs around one of Honda's leg and proceeded to hook his arms around Honda's throat whilst the brunette boy was eating. I wasn't entirely sure how slaving away in a factory that… actually what did Honda's dad do, or why Jounouchi was performing such a weird move, but the move did actually work since it nearly causing Honda to choke on his food.

"Jounouchi, what happened to all those reckless dreams of you becoming a Pro Duelist?" Anzu asked. A Pro Duelist circuit was opening up soon and it would allow for people to actually pursue dueling as a paid profession, the circuit had been established by Kaiba Corporation and Hope Industries since Dad and Seto were in more contact with each other since the permanent move to Japan.

Jounouchi stopped his strangle hold on our friend and even without hearing his answer I knew that the boy was serious about following this path, he had been entranced by the game ever since he had been introduced into the world of dueling. And I'm pretty sure Mai had something to do with his choice to pursue a Pro career as well, but I kept that comment to myself… well myself and Yugi, who wholeheartedly agreed with me.

"Make no mistake, yours' truly has improved his Dueling skills. First, I'll win the neighbourhood tournament!" Jounouchi declared. It was good to see that Jounouchi had so much confidence in his abilities; fortunately, he also knew to never let it run away from him after the last time it had occurred. Honda cut off the blonde's upbeat attitude by mentioning that he technically had to get his Duel Disk back from the teacher that had confiscated it earlier.

"I should go get my Deck back from them," Yugi admitted. I hummed out an agreement since mine and Yugi's Decks had been confiscated by them, honestly it wasn't like we were Dueling during lessons nor were they a distraction from our work; I was definitely getting my Deck back from them even if I had to use magic to do so.

"Yugi, why don't you let everyone hear what your dream is?" Anzu pushed. The boy froze for a bit before he agreed to do so and moved his bento so that it was set on the concrete seats that lined the edge of the rooftop area as he rose to his feet prepared to reveal to his friends what he had already told me some days ago.

"I want to create a new kind of game while helping out back at the shop. Also you know, there's this game contest in Germany every year. I was thinking it'd be great to win it," Yugi explained. Everyone supported this dream and it made me smile that the one thing that could never and would never change about Yugi was his gentle heart, my boyfriend then extended his hand to me and helped me up obviously insisting I speak as well.

"I'm going to be studying business. That means heading for university and apprenticing with my dad in my free time. I need to take over the company someday. Besides, I need to be there for Yumiko," I answered. What neither myself or Yugi had said was that both of us intended to keep dueling as well, after all it was something that we had a passion before that could never be doused.

"Oh yeah, how is the little princess? We haven't been around lately," Jounouchi asked. The blonde was correct as, ever since exams began our time together had been growing thin and Yumiko considered our friends to be a part of her family, so she had been missing some of them quite a bit however my smile faded away as I looked at the ground beneath me

"She's doing alright. We all are actually, but sometimes I still feel the hole burned into our lives," I admitted. Everyone stiffened up at the mention of Kylie's passing even indirectly, it wasn't exactly something any of us had really talked ever since the funeral, I still found it hard to do so even with my family; strange as it might seem but the Duel Monsters were the easiest ones to talk to regarding that persistent ache.

Arms wrapped around my form and I flicked my brown-black orbs up to see that it was Yugi who held an understanding and kind smile on his face which immediately settled any uneasiness that I might have been feeling. The bell began to toll and so we all packed up our food containers and proceeded to head back into class.

Whilst we headed back Jounouchi began talking to Honda about something I wasn't paying attention to, however as we stepped into our class the blonde suddenly stopped talking and seemed to be fixating rather hard on something causing all of us to begin worrying about what could stop Jounouchi from talking so suddenly like that.

"That guy…?" Jounouchi asked. This caused me to furrow my eyebrows at the blonde's rather odd statement with Honda also becoming confused about what our knuckleheaded friend could possibly be getting at with those two words. "No, I mean it's just that guy. That guy sitting all the way in the back next to the window, you know him?" Jounouchi wondered.

I looked that the person who was causing so much confusion and found that the boy had tanned skin, golden eyes and dark teal hair that spiked outwards in the back, it featured two small spikes pointing upwards in a manner similar to horns and four ponytails with two short ones framing his face and two long ones in the back.

Everyone began wondering exactly what his name was and for some reason I did have a hard time recalling the name that belonged to the young boy, as I looked at him, I felt my magical instincts flare inside of me almost as if warning me to be wary of this boy for some strange reason. Then, almost as if summoned by my magic, his name suddenly burst into the forefront of my mind.

"Aigami, his name is Aigami," I spoke. Everyone turned to look at me when I spoke those words and I placed my head into my right hand, what I wouldn't give to feel the cool cold metal of my Millennium Gauntlet right about now instead of the warmth of the bracelet I wore in its' place, it had always ensure that I was feeling better after my magic flared suddenly but the object was lost and for a damn good reason.

"Right… Aigami-kun," Yugi spoke. The way he spoke made it seem like he was having difficulty coming to terms with it, our eyes locked and I felt like something was brewing inside but I couldn't exactly determine what, with that mystery solved all of us proceeded to sit down in our seats however my magical instincts still wouldn't settle.

*Yu-Gi-Oh*

The day came to an end and so myself, Yugi, Jounouchi and Anzu were walking down the bridge as we headed home with the golden light of the setting sun reflecting off of the river that ran beneath us. My instincts had finally calmed down, but it still worried me a bit as to what could have set them off; however, I refused to trouble my friends with something that might turn out to be nothing important.

Jounouchi was completely giddy since he had managed to get his Duel Disk back which he was quite lucky for if I was honest and I couldn't help but shake my head at the antics of our knuckleheaded friend, especially when he claimed that he need the Duel Disk – even calling it a bad boy – but our attention was soon diverted when I saw Yugi bring out his deck

"Same goes for you and that. That deck is really important to you, right," Jounouchi added on. Jounouchi was quite right with those words, Yugi was greatly attached to the deck that he had spent years building with precious cards which had seen him through so many important experiences, however I was curious as to why my king had suddenly pulled his deck out for, seemingly, no reason.

"Yeah, or rather…," Yugi responded. I wondered what the boy could possibly be thinking about that caused him to trail off, but Yugi's movements stopped causing me to halt as well and a sad expression came across his face. "To my Other Self," Yugi admitted. The other two had only got a little way ahead of us before stopping themselves and turning back to look at the boy with the same shock I was feeling, it was easy to know who he meant.

Atem had become a Taboo subject around Yugi, none of us spoke about him aloud since the boy was still recovering from the pain that his leaving us had inflicted upon his heart; I was the exact same way with Kylie, her name was never spoken, only allusions made. So, it was rather surprising for Yugi to actually bring up the man that had once inhabited his body, teaching him so much about courage and who was taught about kindness in return.

"Oh, it's nothing, sorry," Yugi apologised. I didn't like that he had just brushed off the topic so, easily after bringing it up for the first time in the two years since the Ceremonial Duel; I was not going to let this go so easily and I knew that neither were the other two, we'd all kept quiet waiting for the young boy to heal but with Yugi speaking about it now, we had to say something.

"Say Yugi. There's no need to force yourself into erasing your memories of him, you know," Jounouchi reassured. However, Yugi turned his face down as a sad smile came over his face, his eyes took on a faraway look as he seemed to get lost within his memories of his time with the ancient spirit who became like a brother to him.

Everything had ended so suddenly between the two of them, Atem used to be a part of Yugi but then he wasn't and then they had to face each other in a duel to determine whether Yugi was ready to stand on his own and when my king had been victorious, Atem had just… left, taking Kylie with him. All of us knew it was for the best, but I also knew that Yugi still wanted to see him, to speak to him one last time; even though he had never said anything it was easy for me to see whenever he got that far off look in his eyes, a look I sometimes replicated when thinking of Kylie and wishing for the same thing.

The pain in his eyes was clear to all of us and I wanted to say something to comfort him however the moment I opened my mouth, Jounouchi spotted something that caught his attention. But he refused to elaborate before taking off, so I walked over to the bridge and looked over the edge only to see a sight that caused my blood to burn.

Aigami was shoved against one of the pillars that supported this bridge as a bunch of thugs stood in front of him with one holding a camera up so that he could record this entire thing. It was enough to make an uncharacteristic sneer appear on my lips, fortunately Jounouchi saved us all from me taking any rash action by taking rash action himself and jumping off of the bridge railing.

He went sailing over the heads of the bullies although when he landed, he ended up falling down, but he managed to use his hands to act as a springboard in order to right himself onto his feet whilst easily brushing off the mistake. The rest of us moved off of the bridge so that we could stand at the top of the hill as the bullies departed from the scene, we all rushed to Aigami to check on him who had fallen down against a bridge support pillar and one of the others asked if he was ok.

"I'm just so relieved that I got weak in the knees," Aigami admitted. The boy rose up from the sitting position that he had collapsed into as we came to stand on his left whilst Jounouchi remained on his right. "Jounouchi-kun Misaki-san, and you two, you would be Muto Yugi-kun and Katherine Hope-san," Aigami spoke. A strange look appeared in his eyes when he focused on Yugi.

Confusion burst to life within me as to why he was mentioning our names since he should have known them already, Yugi raised the question if Aigami was truly alright. But the boy brushed it off and he then proceeded to leave us after Jounouchi offered to deal with the bullies if they caused Aigami any more trouble, however the boy gave no response to Jounouchi offer.

From this brief meeting all of us were still confused as to how we knew yet at the same time didn't know the boy – heck we didn't even recall when he joined the class – it was definitely a conundrum that none of us could seem to place together. Even more worrying was that my magical instincts were warning me to stay away from this mysterious boy and I hadn't felt them be this strong in a long time.

'Athena, Andromeda, do either of you have a clue?' I asked the Duel Spirits. The warrior goddess and star maiden had been staring after Aigami with an unusual and concerned look in their grey eyes before both of them turned back to face me with a solemn expression crossing their face causing my muscles to tense up in reaction to such a dark expression on both Andromeda and Athena's face.

"I'm afraid I can't say my lady, that boy, he is… strange," Athena admitted. It was bad enough that my own instincts were against being near Aigami but now my own partner was too, something had to be deeply wrong with that boy if the two things that I trusted the most were completely against him from the get-go.

"I concur with Athena, Lady Katherine," Andromeda agreed. I didn't need any more reasoning to distrust Aigami but here it was, Andromeda would never lead any of us into danger, so to hear her agreeing with Athena readily about her suspicions of this strange boy… it was not looking good for Aigami and I felt a creeping sensation make its' way up my spine.

My train of thought was wrecked when Jounouchi mentioned that I should be treating them to ramen so I took the opportunity to slam my bag into Jounouchi's back. This caused the boy to stumble as I gave him a dry look but soon the other two began laughing with the blonde boy joining in and I couldn't help but let out a few giggles.

'I'm probably overthinking things.' I thought. With our laugh fest over, the four of us continued on our walk back home eventually splitting up from the other two leaving me and Yugi in peace and quiet; however, I decided now would be a good time to talk to him so I reached out and entangled my hand with his own causing him to stop and look at me.

"Yugi, you didn't need to tell Atem how much he meant to you. That's because he already knew how much he meant to you and you know how important you were to him. The both of you helped the other grow and evolved into a more complete person, you guys never needed words to communicate," I spoke. Yugi's eyes widened before they settled back to normal and he took my other hand in his and stood in front of me.

"Katherine, what did I do to deserve an amazing person such as you," Yugi wondered. I shook my head at his question because in my opinion, it was he who was the amazing one based on everything he had done and endured since I met him and from even before then, Yugi took a step close and then leaned down as he pressed his lips firmly against mine.

Like every time we kissed, my heart began to flutter as if it had grown wings and my mind turned to mush as all I could focus on was how perfectly we seemed to fit together, exactly like two pieces of a puzzle that formed a whole picture, eventually Yugi pulled back and wrapped his arms around me in a tight embrace.

"Our peace is perfect," Our thoughts echoed through the soul bond that we had forged so long ago.