Ch. 4: Hitotsu no Chiisai Rei Mondai ... A Small Spirit Problem

Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh. *cries* But I wanna!

A/N: I'm going to call Mr. Moto just plain ol' Grandpa in this chappie 'cause it's easy on poor lil me.

And even though at this point in the season Yami doesn't know his own name yet, for the sake of easiness, I'm going to call him Yami. It's shorter than 'the spirit of Yugi's Puzzle'.

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Grandpa chuckled, his sagacious eyes twinkling. "What, doesn't that all powerful spirit of the puzzle know?"

Yugi looked troubled, and Grandpa immediately regretted having made the joke. "I think he does, but he's locked himself away inside that soul room of his. I can't ask him."

Grandpa flicked off the shop lights and, walking into the kitchen, sat down at the table. Yugi sat across from him, leaning over the table in anticipation.

"A card sprite, Yugi, is simply that— a spirit of the cards."

Yugi frowned. "Like a Duel Monster come to life?" She didn't like like any Duel Monster I've ever seen.

"No," Grandpa replied. "A card sprite is a wandering spirit who goes into random duelists' decks and aids them to victory. Like the spirit of your Millennium puzzle, Yugi. However, card sprites are roaming spirits and cannot be contained in anything, by any magic. They go where they please and help whomever they choose. They take no sides. Some say the sprites do it for fun. Others speculate that they are duty bound, by tradition or perhaps something more, to aid duelists for as long as the game exists."

Then he smiled. "Of course, card sprites are only myths, because no one has ever been able to prove their existence outside of the person they aided. And hearing voices in your head is not a good sign, so most keep quiet about it if it ever happens."

"So she is like the spirit of my puzzle!" Yugi cried, not even intending to say it aloud.

//Yugi!// The spirit shouted. //The less people who know about her, the better. I sense great forces at work here.//

"She?" Grandpa asked, his gaze suddenly intense. "Is there something you've not told me, Yugi?"

Under the heat of both his grandfather's stare and the spirit's silence, Yugi meekly shook his head. "No, sir."

Grandpa sighed.

The next day at school, Yugi couldn't stop thinking about the woman— no, the sprite— he'd found in the soul room. What had the two spirits been doing in that dark, dank room behind the closed door?

And why do I care? Yugi asked himself crossly, sliding into his desk and nodding absentmindedly to Ryou Bakura's cheerful hello.

"Class," the teacher began in the nasal whine that might resemble a voice— if one was drunk. And had nothing better to do than listen to her.

Yugi automatically tuned her out, but looked up sharply when all the young men in the class began whistling low.

The stony eyed girl standing by the teacher regarded them as one might a senseless wretch: poor, helpless, things. Such a pity I'm tramping all over them.

Yugi saw that look in her eye and knew at once that it was a shield. She's hiding something, Yugi thought. But she can't possibly be afraid of showing her humanity?

He inwardly gasped as someone strong shoved his mind's essence into his soul room and locked the door. He felt the spirit of his puzzle take over, but he couldn't connect their minds. He sank to the floor, his back to the wall, tears brimming in his eyes. Never before had he felt so alone.

Yami stood, and walked quickly up the aisle to take the girl by the arm. He was not rough, but she gasped when they touched. A golden flash echoed somewhere in the depths of his mind, but he ignored it.

The teacher tried to intercept them, but Yami swept past her and out into the hallway. Jamming the door closed with his foot, he held the girl by her shoulders. She was pressed between he and the wall.

"I know what you are," Yami said in hushed tones, "but I do not know what you want with Yugi and his friends. I suggest you tell me, and quickly."

To his surprise, she laughed lightly. "Truly, you are not a force to be reckoned with." Then all traces of humor left her face as she continued. "My name is not important right now. My master has sent me to... observe the boy whose vessel you share."

Yami tightened his grip on her shoulders. "If your purpose is merely to observe, then why did you intrude into my soul room?"

She gazed unflinchingly into his eyes, mahogany meeting amethyst. "I told you once before: a strong sense of need emanated from one of the two minds. Which, I cannot be certain. Then before I could even speculate upon it, I was drawn into the hallway between minds."

"So basically..."

"Basically?" She lifted her chin slightly. "Basically I have no idea as to why it happened."

She brought her hands up to rest on her shoulders. To Yami now it was unclear as to who held whom captive. Her eyes seemed to gaze directly into his wildly beating heart. Yami suddenly felt unsure.

What am I dealing with?

She spoke. "Ponder this if you will, o Sennen spirit: from whose mind did the sense of need come? And why?"

She cupped his face in her hands and brought his lips to rest on her own. Then she ducked under his arms and back inside the room.

Yami had no choice but to follow her. He let Yugi's essence out of the locked soul room, but disappeared into his own soul room before Yugi could even speak.

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Ooh, you like? I like! You review.

I tired, I go bed now.

Nighty night!

*O* (big yawn)