-A Pharaoh's Past-

Chapter 1

"Yami please! Listen to me!"

"I have nothing left to say. You have disgraced your position and my dignity as pharaoh. I have a duel to battle. Deal with her as I have said."

"Yes you majesty."

"No Yami! Please! Please you must understand! If you will just listen to me!"

"Enough! She will be gone when I return."

"Yami!"

---

Yugi awoke with a start, damp with sweat. It was that dream again. He had seen Yami have that dream again. Yugi ran his hand down his face and lied back against his pillow, staring through the darkness at the Millennium Puzzle. He had been seeing that dream for a few months now. Always the same pleading voice and the same gruffness that answered it.

"I don't remember who she was." His voice filtered through the room as his translucent image appeared.

"She must have been someone important." Yugi answered, rising to sit crossed legged on his bed. Yami leaned with his arms crossed against Yugi's desk.

"If she was, then why can't I remember who she was?"

"Well," Yugi began hesitantly. "You don't remember a lot from your past, maybe she's-"

"You're right, she's just another one of my forgotten memories." Yami turned and faded. Yugi sighed and laid back, he had to get some rest. Tomorrow started another one of Kaiba's tournaments, and he had a feeling that this one would reveal more about Yami's past than the last one.

---

"OH YEAH! Watch out duelists cause' Joey Wheeler's gonna win this one!" Joey pumped his fists in the air as the whole group walked into the tournament arena, built in one of Kaiba Corps high-rise buildings.

"Can't you ever have a little modesty Joey?" Tea demanded, her hands fisted at her hips. Joey cocked his head in consideration then turned and faced her.

"Nope." He smirked at her expression. Beside her Tristan, Serenity, Mai and Yugi laughed.

"The day Joey becomes modest is the day Yugi becomes a bad duelist." Mai proclaimed. She flipped her hair behind her shoulder and brushed past Joey with a glance. Before she could completely pass him, a duelist from behind her bumped head long into Joey's shoulder, knocking him into her. "Hey watch it will you!" Mai yelled after the person while pushing Joey off of her. The duelist turned revealing the face of a young teen around the same age as them (excluding Mai and Serenity). Her skin was fair and her hair framed her face in a deep brown the same color as her eyes. She glanced over them and then openly stared at Yugi, who shifted uncomfortably under her gaze.

"I'm sorry." She murmured, shifting her eyes to Mai. Then with one more look at Yugi, turned and faded into the crowd.

"What's with her?" Mai asked, perplexed at the girls unhidden fascination with Yugi.

"Hey Yugi, it seems to me as if you have an admirer." Tristan said with a nudge of his elbow into Yugi's shoulder. Yugi stared open mouthed at him.

"Wha…? But she was just…" He stammered. They all laughed and continued walk to the center of the arena where a stage was placed, and a placid looking Kaiba stood staring at the duelists.

"There sure are a lot of people here." Serenity observed, as they all pushed and shoved their way through the crowd.

"Yeah, I hope the dueling isn't going on here. You can barely move, let alone duel." Tristan said, everyone agreed. Before any of them could speak again, Kaiba stood at his perch above the crowd, silencing everyone in the room with a motion of his hand.

"Welcome to the Duelist Tournament. Tournament rules have been given to all of you preceding your arrivals." His magnified voice boomed over all of the, making everyone attentive to his speech. "You've all received a golden pin in the package containing your dueling disks which will count as your advancing passes. There are five levels to this tournament, and to advance to the next levels you must win 10 of these pins, excluding your own. You can only receive one pin per duel- no more. To reach the finals you must attain 50 pins – 10 from each level. Once you've gained all your pins, go to the roof of this building where you will receive further instructions. The winner of the tournament will receive 100 thousand dollars and the title of the Best Duelist. Good luck to all of you and let the best duelist win."

"Oh I will." Joey murmured under his breath, Kaiba paused for a minute and stared at everyone, then raised his arm and quickly brought it down.

"Duel!" The stage and Kaiba disappeared into the ground revealing another large arena where duelists began to filter into. Soon duels began to erupt all over. Yugi watch with interest some duels, the finally deciding to join, transformed into Yami.

"C'mon Yug'! Let's win this thing!" Joey said, thumping him on the shoulder.

"Right." They began walking when Mai appeared in front of them.

"If you think you're going to win, you're terribly mistaken, because I'm going to win this one." She glared at them, smiled, and then disappeared into the crowd ahead of them.

"Guess we'll be seeing her in the finals." Tea said. Then they followed Mai into the crowd.

---

Lookie! Lookie! A new story! Wheeeeeeee! We's gonnas skip almost straight to the finals after this cause we can't write duels for beans without insulting this great show/game and cause we lazy…..please review!

-Star and Glade

9-7-03