Chapter 1
Sitting at the dinner table of the house behind the Game Shop, one very tired-looking Pharaoh was keeping his head up in his hands, trying very hard not to doze off.
Again…
He'd been having the same dreams for almost a week now, and he found himself unable to focus properly. Every time he thought he'd forgotten, the dream would come parading into his head again, giving him a headache. And it was always worse in the mornings. And the fact that it was a schoolday today was even worse.
"It's going to be a long day," Yami mumbled softly.
"'Nother bad dream, huh?" a slightly younger voice asked from the stairway.
Yami simply nodded, not even bothering to look up as his smaller "alter-ego" bounded down the stairs, a pyramidal sphere dangling from a chain-necklace. The much shorter youth came up beside the Pharaoh, and patted him lightly on his back.
"Hey, come on! No big deal! You can stay in the puzzle if you want to. Get some rest," Yugi said, smiling at his friend.
Yami just managed a tired smile, before he nearly toppled off of his chair. Yugi laughed at the sight, catching his friend before he hit the ground.
Whatever happened in that dream, it must've been really tiring.
Calmly, his fingers twined the three strands of hair together, changing it into a rather loose plait, which would no doubt reach to his thighs. After tying it up, he picked up his rollerblades and bag as he made for the door. The plait lazily wagged around behind him, giving off an air of calm while he nearly flew down the stairs with the speed he was going.
Opening the fridge, he pulled out a lunchbox from it, jammed it in his bag, picked up a keyring, and left the house, locking the door as he went. After easily slipping on the rollerblades on his shoes, he was on his way, without a single glance back at his house.
And shining on his wrist, was a golden bracelet with an odd Egyptian eye on it.
"Yug! Over here!!" Joey shouted, waving his friend over from the entrance of the school.
Yugi smiled brightly and rushed over to his friend.
"Hey Joey! What's up?" Yugi asked as they made their way toward Tea and Tristan.
"Apparently, we're going to have an exchange-student from overseas," Joey said, looking a little suspicious. "No one's seen the kid yet, but they don't expect many good things about him, or her."
Yugi blinked a little, then asked: "How so?"
Joey gave a shrug and was about to respond, but just as he planned to, the entire school suddenly seemed to quiet down. Shocked and surprised, both boys turned to see what was wrong. Which didn't seem to be much.
There was a kid walking through the gates, but what made him different, was the long plait of thick black hair that dangled close to mid-thigh length. His bangs still hung in front of his face, shading his eyes in the shadows. He also wore a pendant with a silver image of a Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon around his neck, which dangled with every step, giving off a soft jingle. For the rest, he was dressed much like all teens his age. The shirt was dark blue, close to black, and the top two buttons were undone, revealing barely enough skin to make it show. His jeans hugged his hips snugly, but they were very wide near the ankles and waved slightly as he moved. His shoes were simply a set of heavy army-boots, and to finish the attire, he also wore a black sleeveless jacket.
And two more things that stood out about him; there was a massive black line running across the side of his left forearm, starting at the base of his wrist, and ending just near his elbow, and he was definitely wearing a Millenium Item around his right wrist.
With his bag slung casually over his shoulder, he simply walked across the schoolyard, until he seemed to realize that everyone was staring at him. When he looked up, not much of his face was revealed, but once he moved his bangs aside, a set of strangely glowing green eyes was looking around in question, as if he didn't understand why everyone was staring at him.
Yugi looked around for a moment, before he focused on the new kid and made his way over to him. The kid's eyes immediately locked on him, and strangely enough, Yugi felt some sort of recognition coming from this guy.
Shaking it off, Yugi allowed a smile to appear on his face.
"Hey!" he said, taking the easiest way to approach someone.
The kid blinked, twice, before he offered a nod, and said: "Mornin'."
"You're the new kid around here, right?" Yugi asked, still smiling.
The kid frowned a little, then mumbled: "News travels fast here, doesn't it?"
Yugi looked confused for a moment, but then the kid's expression softened a little and he nodded.
"Yeah, I'm new here. You're Yugi Moto, aren't you?"
Now there was something Yugi hadn't expected.
"Whuh?! How did you---?!" Yugi started, then stopped when the kid laughed lightly at his befuddled expression.
"I'd be a damn bad Duelist if I couldn't recognize your face, now wouldn't I?" he asked, cocking an eyebrow up to nearly make it vanish under his bangs.
At that, Yugi managed to brighten up.
"You're a Duelist?"
"As far as I know."
Joey, having watched for a while, finally gave a shrug of his shoulders and walked straight up to the talking boys. The new kid looked up for a moment, turning his attention to the approaching boy, before he nodded a little in greeting.
"Hi, I'm Joey Wheeler," Joey said, smiling broadly as he shook the kid's hand. "You're pretty unusual. I mean, it's not everyday you see a guy with hair as long as you got it."
The kid chuckled, a little embarrassed as he idly moved a hand through his messy bangs.
"Yeah… well… not my fault it grows at an alarming rate…" he chuckled.
"So, what's your name?" Joey asked, still smiling.
"Oren, Oren Jemobyus ," the kid, now identified as Oren, said simply.
"Well, Oren, let's get going! School's about to start!"
Just as Joey finished speaking, the schoolbell rang, announcing that another day of severe torture and head-trauma, a.k.a. school, was ready to begin.
The day certainly did not go as anyone had wished it to go, as most schooldays tend to go. But to Oren, it was one of the worst days in his life. He was getting way too many looks from both girls and guys; girls drooling all over him, and guys glaring at him hatefully.
But as was told very often, he couldn't help the way he looked. His hair just grew at such an alarming rate, that they had almost been forced to cut it every single day before school. But after leaving it for a few days, as Oren couldn't stand one more person cutting his hair, he suddenly came to a shocking realization that his hair never grew any further than mid-thighs. His bangs nearly reached his chin, but they'd also stopped growing a long time ago.
After several nights of nearly being choked to death by his own hair, he had started braiding it, and only undid the braid when he had to shower. The only time he allowed anyone cut his hair, was to remove the split-ends, knowing each hair would be equal length again within a matter of hours. But even that became history when he learned to do it himself.
He'd been the laughing-stock of several of his other schools, been called names, teased, tormented, and so on, and so on.
But one horrible day in his life had managed to change that.
With a soft sigh, Oren glanced at the thick black stripe running over his left forearm. Nowadays, he made sure that every time he came to a new school, people would be able to see at least one of the three "stripes" on his body.
Shaking his head softly, he returned his attention to class. Not much interesting going on by the way.
The most interesting was Joey bombing Tristan with a few bunched up papers.
He smiled, then frowned. There was something about it all that made the simple scene so deadly familiar.
NO!! he thought desperately. Not here!! Not here!! Anywhere but here!! Get out!! Get OUT!!!
Luckily, it helped, for now, but he was sure they'd return with a vengeance. But he gave a soft sigh of relief when he saw nothing flash before his eyes.
Oren gave the class a good once-over, trying to determine who was friend and who was foe. It was something he did whenever in a new school or class. Unconsciously, his left hand moved to his right wrist to finger his bracelet. His thumb lightly flicked over the eye of the bracelet, and he completely missed the spark that jumped from the metal into his thumb.
If Oren thought the morning was bad… he wouldn't appreciate what the afternoon had in store for him.
Using one of the Decks he always carried with him to school, he accepted Joey's challenge to a friendly Duel. Oren was a very good Duelist, but he wasn't using his usual deck, which not only contained a couple pretty strong cards, but also his three favorite ones. He never took his Main Deck to school, afraid of either losing them himself or getting them stolen. But even so, the Deck he took with him was enough to almost easily wipe out Joey's.
Afterward, Yugi and him discussed several different cards, making various comments on their weak- and strong points. Even though they had different tastes considering cards, they did manage to have a pleasant conversation on the topic.
That is… until…
Oren gave a yelp as he was suddenly hauled from his chair and thrown to the floor, painfully landing on his right shoulder, nearly bruising it with the force. Joey nearly leapt from his chair, in turn knocking it over to the floor with a loud crash. Yugi staid stunned for 5 whole seconds, before he too leapt up, for once, pissed off as hell.
"Just what do you think you're doing?!!?" Tristan shouted, leaping up in anger, almost ready to jump right over the table to aid their braided friend.
"Don't bother, guys," Oren called back, standing back up and dusting off his shoulder. "I can handle this."
Yugi and his friends could only watch as Oren slightly crouched down, not too much, but enough to make it show. They weren't sure if Oren really could handle himself, but they wouldn't step in unless they really had to.
"You should've staid away, ya damned queer," the guy who had hauled him from his chair hissed almost inaudibly.
Oren said nothing and did not move, not even batting an eye. The insult was nothing new; he'd been called worse.
The punch aimed for his face came at such speed, that anyone else would've been unable to dodge or block, but Oren moved at the same speed and moved sideways, before retaliating. His punch was dead on the mark, though. The other kid groaned as he had the wind knocked out of him, before a punch to his jaw sent him back and crashing into the ground.
Oren was bouncing slightly on the balls of his feet, not showing any signs of amusement, anger, or anything else one would expect from someone fighting. Instead, Oren seemed to be relatively calm, as if he didn't fear what would most likely come to him.
Before anyone knew it, Oren swiveled around and delivered a roundhouse-kick to a kid's side, sending him flying through the air and straight into one of his "friends". And just as he placed his foot on the ground his right arm shot up and managed to hit a kid sneaking up on him straight to his nose.
Within seconds, Oren was surrounded by unconscious kids.
Joey whistled a little as Oren picked up his own chair and sat back down.
"Wow! That was amazing!! Where'd you learn to do that?!" he asked, a broad grin appearing on his face.
Oren simply took the end of his braid in hand and twirled part of it around like a lasso, while leaning with his elbow on the table. The look on his face was one of sheer boredom.
"Sorry Joey," he said calmly. "Trade secret."
"Oh come on!!!" Joey whined. "Please?"
"No."
"Pretty please?"
"No."
"Pretty pretty please with whipped cream and Shining Friendship on top?"
"No."
"Pretty pretty pretty please with whipped cream and sprinkles and Shining Friendship AND Petit Angel on top?"
Oren seemed just about ready to slam his head onto the table. Or Joey's.
"Joey?"
"Yeah?"
"Two things."
"What?"
"Shut. Up."
Yami gave a slight groan as he tried to stay within sleep's blissful arms, not yet wanting to wake up. But there was something wet touching his cheek, making him turn away to avoid the "attack". But the wet sensation followed him constantly, and there was something rather heavy resting on his chest.
Slowly, he opened one of his eyes half-mast --- only to look straight in a pair of river-blue eyes.
Yami shot up with a yelp of surprise, sending the unfortunate little fox down to the ground. The black and silver fox shook his head, and grinned cockily at the startled Prince.
"Why you---!!" Yami hissed and leapt to his feet, but the smaller creature had already run.
Blindly, Yami ran through the garden, chasing the dark fox as he sped off like crazy. Before long, they were at the river, and the small fox leapt across several rocks, and sat down on the other side of the river. Yami stopped dead, watching the creature with a combination of anger and surprise.
He knew that he wasn't supposed to even get near the river, and that damn fox knew. No doubt about that one, seeing as he sat there with a smug look on his face as he waited for what Yami would do.
Yami risked a chance and looked at the river. He noticed that the water really went fast, almost too fast for him to see anything on the bottom.
The young kid looked up at the fox, only to glare as the fox was literally rolling over in laughter.
Yami growled in anger, and without another thought, leapt onto the nearest rock. He nearly lost his balance, but he managed to stay upright, before he leapt for the next one.
That one went okay.
As did the next one.
But at the fourth, his foot slipped.
With a cry of fear, and a loud splash, he fell into the freezing water of the Nile.
Yami tried to keep his head above the water, but the stream just kept pushing him down again. Whether he liked it or not, Yami was deathly scared. Vaguely, he wondered why he'd tried to get across the river in the first place, but it all left him as he started to drift into blissful darkness…
Until something yanked hard at the back of his robes.
Suddenly, he found himself taking deep gulps of air, hanging suspended in the air, quite a few feet above the water. Blinking his eyes in confusion, he looked around, wondering what had just happened.
"And just what were you doing in the river?" a familiar voice asked, making Yami look up with a smile.
"Oni!!"
Said man easily dropped the kid onto the ground, who gave a slight sound of surprise and pain, before giving Oni a pout/glare combination. But Oni wasn't in the mood by the looks of it.
"Didn't your parents tell you not to get near the river?!"
Yami gulped a little, knowing that this couldn't be good.
"I-I-I'm sorry… I-I-I just…"
"Forget it…" Oni mumbled, and sat down on the ground, placing his massive sword beside him.
Blinking, Yami watched his best friend for a moment, before crawling over and sitting beside his friend, though there was a small space in between them for their personal space. They sat for some time, neither speaking or moving.
Taking a deep breath, Yami finally asked: "You're not mad at me anymore?"
Oni gave a soft chuckle, making Yami look at him.
"Nah, I did some pretty stupid things when I was a kid, too," he said simply. "I nearly broke my neck when climbing a tree once."
Yami looked at him in shock, not quite believing what his friend was saying. Oni simply offered a simple smile, not saying anything else.
That's when the scene suddenly shifted…
Yami's hands were fisted in the cloth covering his friend's chest where his armor had once been, and his friend's face was covered in small red rivers that came from several cuts. He kept trying to shake his friends awake, but nothing seemed to work. He was practically screaming at his friend, doing everything he could for him to wake up.
But it just didn't work…
"Oni… wake up already… Please…" he pleaded, his face buried in his friend's chest.
"…He won't wake up, Yami."
Yami was instantly to his feet, swiveling around in surprise.
"What are you talking about!?" he demanded in anger, tears still streaking past his face, his once white robes drenched red, and red rivers dribbling across his pale skin where he'd been in contact with his friend's.
"He won't wake up. His soul is gone from his body and shall not return."
That voice… it was… so cold… Ra… why did he speak so coldly now?
"You… you lie!" Yami hissed, not believing it. "That's a lie!!! I don't believe you!!! This is just some sick joke!!! It has to be!! There's no way that Oni would die!!! That's impossible!!!" he screamed out finally, tears starting anew.
The figure standing less than 10 feet away from him said nothing. He didn't even try to deny it. Yami shuddered, because that was just what started to make him believe it.
"This… this can't be… this… this has to be a dream… it's got to be!!!"
"…You're correct. It is."
"What?!?!"
"You've been here before. But now… I think it's time you woke up."
Yami cried out as his eyes shot open --- only to stare up at the ceiling of his soulroom.
"What the???"
He sat up in the bed, looking around wearily. The dream he'd just had was becoming vivid again… slipping through his fingers, just like the last ones. Always the same thing; he'd have a dream, most likely a memory from his past, and once he woke up, there was no way to recall the dream.
He gave a groan as he dropped back down onto the bed, flinging an arm over his eyes.
"Damnit…" he mumbled. "Why won't those dreams leave me alone?"
But of course, no one was there to answer…
"You actually travel by rollerblades?" Tristan asked in slight confusion, watching as Oren slipped on the rollerblades on the bottoms of his shoes.
Oren simply nodded as he returned to his feet, and said: "It beats walking any time."
Yugi blinked, but he said nothing as Oren started to skate across the smooth pavement. The guy could probably skate a mile an hour, but he moved slowly so they could keep up with him. They talked for some time, with Oren sometimes doing several stunts to either climb, or descend any stairs they happened to come across. Tea kept saying that he was being reckless, but Oren barely listened.
Pretty soon, somewhere in the middle of a conversation concerning the Battle City Tournament, Oren stopped at a crossing, watching as the others walked for a while, before stopping to look at him in surprise.
"My house is that way," he said to their unspoken question, gesturing in the direction opposite of the way they were heading.
"Oh, well…" Yugi started. "Maybe you can visit once in a while."
Oren smiled and said with a nod: "I'd like that. Thanks."
"No problem! And you'll be able to meet Yami!!"
Something suddenly flashed across Oren's face, leaving him looking either shocked, or utterly confused.
"Who??"
"You'll see next time, okay?"
"…Yeah, sure."
With only a few words of parting, they each went their own way.
"Hey you piece of shit!!!"
"……"
"Where do you think you're going?!"
Crash!!
"Oomph!"
"You are not going anywhere!!"
"……"
"You just wait you little---"
Shing!
"AAAAAAAAAH!!!
"……"
Click click
"No… wait… please…"
BANG! BANG!
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"One more for the Shadow Realm to swallow and digest……"
"Yugi! Get in here! Hurry!!" Yugi's grandfather suddenly shouted up the stairs.
Within seconds, said boy came rushing down the stairs, taking them two at a time.
"What's wrong gramps?" Yugi asked.
His grandfather pointed at the television-screen and asked: "Isn't that one of the kids from your school?"
Yugi focused his gaze on the screen, and his eyes widened at the report. The thing showed several medics standing around a badly bleeding kid, suffering from two bullet-wounds. One straight through his heart, the other piercing through his skull. After staring at the picture of the boy, Yugi concluded that it'd been the same boy that had challenged Oren earlier in the afternoon.
But… who would've wanted to kill him?
Unless…
He dropped his bag, and the rollerblades clattered to the floor of his room as he sped off into the bathroom attached to his room, hurriedly discarding his shirt and jacket as he went, shoving the articles into the hamper, before discarding the rest of his clothes and leaping into the shower, switching it to full.
For some reason, he was tired, and all he wanted was get some damned rest. Yes, he had classes tomorrow, yes, he had homework, but it could all go to hell for all he cared. His head hurt, his body ached, and he was just too exhausted to stay up.
After washing his hair and re-braiding it, he clumsily dressed and headed for bed, swaying a little on his feet as he went. And once he was there, he dumped himself on the bed, half-asleep already.
Bring! Bring!
Hadn't it been for the damned phone…
Groggily, Oren reached over and picked up the receiver and said, sounding like he wasn't the least bit sleepy: "Oren here."
"Oren, it's Yugi."
……
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Cling! Clang!
"Hmm?"
"Did the chains just loosen?"
"…Looks like it…"
"Do… do you think…?"
"Don't get your hopes up…"
"Oh shush!"
"…Yes ma'am."
"Look Yugi, I didn't do anything, okay?" Oren said into the phone, and Yugi frowned a little. "I went straight home after school, all right?"
"So you're saying you didn't even see the guy on the way home?" Yugi asked.
"If it's the same guy as the one from this afternoon, then, no, I didn't see him. If anyone else, no. I live on a rather deserted street, so it's not overly crowded most of the time."
"Okay, but if I find that you---"
"For the last time, Yugi, I didn't kill anyone! I don't even own a knife, a gun, or any other kind of weapon! Okay?!"
There was silence after that. Neither had a clue as to what to say right now. Yugi tried to calm himself a little, to assure to himself of the fact that Oren wouldn't have killed anyone, mindless of what they did to him. He had really jumped to conclusions back there.
He gave a soft sigh and said: "Sorry, Oren. I shouldn't have…"
"Don't bother, Yugi," Oren said calmly. "Anyway, I should hang up now. My folks will be here pretty soon."
"Okay, I'll talk to you later, okay?"
"Yeah sure. Talk to ya later."
"Bye."
"Bye."
Appendix
Oren Jemobyus --- Oren's first name is just a random Greek-name I found somewhere on internet. His last name on the other hand has a deeper meaning. Just try to find it.
Like I said before, any help to keep this story going is greatly appreciated. I already got a few ideas from Red, Pyra, Sonica, TJ and Riku-kun. And of course, my brother and brother-in-law helped me a little. Anyway, my exams are over now, so I'll try to continue both this and some other stories I still need to finish, but I'll need a little more help about how I should get all the others in here.