Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh or its characters. I do own my OC, Akunriou / Tory and Kishtoh, plus the storyline.

PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING NOTICES!

MidnightBallad: As you may or may not know, I live in Australia. Over here, it's pretty hard to watch the entire Yu-Gi-Oh series without them being cancelled for another show halfway through; you need Foxel/cable TV to see the entire series. Therefore, I had to get a lot of my information for my story from websites. If any part of the story is wrong, blame it on the website, not ME! Thanks a lot.

P.S: If you see 'present' at the start of the chapter, then that means the story is set in 'the now'. If it says 'past', then it is set 3, 000 years ago, back in Egypt.

Present: The New Girl

Yugi rotated slightly on his chair to peer at the girl at the back of the classroom. She had her head down in her textbook, and was also jotting down notes every so often. Sometimes, she would raise her head, glance around the classroom, and then get back to writing. Yugi had never really seen a girl like this before. Her hair was tied back in a messy bun so that a her fringe fell successfully into her eyes – eyes that were hidden behind a pair of black and silver sunglasses. Come to think of it, the girl had not removed her sunglasses all day. Even (obviously) when she was in the classroom.

She kept her school uniform tidy, and wore plenty of bright silver jewellery in the shapes of dragons and strange symbols. Only one of her ears was pierced with a very long, dangly silver chain. And, last of all, she wore a Duel Monsters card around her neck, so that the picture on the card faced towards her body, and only the orange and black backing of the card could be seen.

This girl was an exchange student from a place that Yugi had forgotten to remember. He knew that she had settled in with a good bunch of people, and she seemed happy enough. But Yugi was actually very tempted to go up and introduce himself anyway.

Someone kicked Yugi in the back of his chair. Yugi spun fully around to see Joey Wheeler grinning at him goofily. 'Yugi? What's the answer to 5C?'

'Mr. Wheeler, I said silent conditions!' the teacher snapped forcefully. 'Don't forget that!'

'Yes, sir.' Joey grumbled, going back to his work. Yugi smiled, spun back around and got back to work.

- -

After class was dismissed, Yugi, Tea, Joey and Tristan went out to have lunch. Joey and Tristan were discussing how bad they went in their test and who was more likely to fail. Tea was saying something about an Ancient Egyptian exhibit that had just opened at the museum.

'Come on, Yugi,' Tea complained. 'You know you want to see it! Just for an hour or two. After school this afternoon.'

'But Tea,' Yugi sighed. 'I've seen heaps of Egyptian displays! What makes you think this one will be any different?'

Tea pursed her lips. 'I don't know. Don't you think Yami will like it, too?'

Yugi thought for a moment. He actually didn't mind going: it would get him out of homework, even if it was only for a while. Yugi nodded.

'Good!' Tea said, beaming. 'It'll be nice to see you and Joey not ogling over Duel Monsters decks.'

'I don't ogle!' Joey argued as he sat down at a table. 'I study. That's quite a different thing, Tea.'

'Ah-huh. Sure.' Tea said, joining him. Yugi seated himself on the opposite side of the table, when he noticed the new exchange student walk past. She was walking between two of her friends, and smiled briefly when she noticed Yugi watching her. Yugi noticed that she hadn't removed her sunglasses, and that she wasn't very old at all. Actually, she looked no older than fourteen.

Joey elbowed Yugi in the ribs. 'Who are you watching, Yugi?'

Yugi snapped back around. 'No one.'

'Yeah, right,' Tristan teased. 'What do you find so interesting about Tory?'

'I...' Yugi searched for a good excuse. 'Was wondering what card she had around her neck. That's all.'

'She has a Duel Monsters card?' Joey asked, suddenly interested. 'Where is she? Do you think she'll duel me?'

'She has one card and she probably won't duel you.' Tea said, taking a bite out of her lunch. Joey flexed his somewhat non-existent muscles.

'She's too chicken to face up to me, isn't she?'

'Yeah right.' Tristan said for the second time this minute. Joey glared at Tristan for a second, before he scanned the area for the new girl, Tory. He found her sitting outside with her friends. With a triumphant noise, Joey went outside to challenge her to a duel. Yugi went after him, followed by Tea and Tristan.

'Hello!' Joey said as he stood behind Tory. 'I'm Joey Wheeler...maybe you've heard of me –'

'Joey Wheeler?' one of the girls next to Tory said, turning around. 'Yeah we know you. You're the guy who wore that dog suit for Duke, aren't you?'

Joey scrunched up his eyes. 'Don't know what you mean. Anyway, Tory, I was wondering if you wanna duel me?'

Tory turned around, the sunlight flashing off her sunglasses. She smiled and said to Joey, 'I'd love to, but I don't have my deck with me. Some other time, maybe.' She suddenly spotted Yugi. 'Yugi Mutou, isn't it?' Her eyes lingered on the Millennium Puzzle around his neck.

'Yeah, that's me...' Yugi said, holding out his hand to shake Tory's. She kept smiling but did not move. Finally, she nodded, as if that were her only greeting.

'Okay guys' Tea said, taking Joey's shoulder from behind. 'She doesn't want to duel, so maybe we should just Tory alone now, okay?'

Joey sighed, and then pointed an accusing finger at Tory. 'Don't forget! Tomorrow!'

Tory nodded – again. 'Tomorrow, and then you can decide whether I'm good or not.'

Joey, Tea and Tristan left. Yugi waved like a little kindergarten to Tory and then hurried off after his friends.

- -

The school day ended as normal as usual. People hurried home eagerly, ready to lounge around at home and not have to worry about work anymore – unless they had homework. Nevertheless, Yugi and Tea headed straight for the museum, which wasn't that far away from the school.

As they ascended the stairs up into the museum, they didn't notice the car pull up outside the museum. A very short, black-haired boy leapt from the back of the car, spinning around and sticking his head back inside. 'Come on, Seto! You promised!'

Another person followed the first: a taller guy, with what looked like a permanent sneer plastered across his face. He gazed at the museum, before peering down at his little brother. 'Did I really have to come along, Mokuba?'

Mokuba hugged Seto around the arm. 'You never do anything with me! And besides, this could be really cool! There could be mummies there!'

'I doubt it,' Seto said. Seeing the disheartened look on his brother's face, Seto smiled. 'But I'm not saying there's going to be nothing there now, am I?'

Mokuba grinned. 'That's right! Let's go!'

He turned around and hurried up the stairs into the museum. Seto smiled again. He had promised to start doing things with Mokuba, but he hadn't expected him to want to go to museums. Perhaps it was the fact that Duel Monsters was based on an ancient Egyptian card game? Whatever the case, Seto put his hands in his pockets and followed Mokuba inside.

- -

Tea and Yugi were already in the Egyptian exhibit, staring at objects that had been digged up in the sands of Egypt thousands of years ago. Yami knew most of these things from his memories, and was happy to remember the old times...when they were happy, that is.

Yugi looked up from a display case of old daggers and spotted a familiar person standing on the other side of the room, reading a stone tablet in a glass case. They wore black and silver sunglasses.

'Tory?' Yugi asked loudly. The girl snapped up and smiled. 'Hey, Yugi - hey, Tea.'

'I didn't know you were interested in Egypt.' Yugi said, bounding up to the girl.

'Well...yeah. I guess you could say that,' Tory pointed to the tablet in the case, and traced her finger above the hieroglyphs. 'We raise our hands to the God of the sun...we chase the evil spirits into the night.'

Yugi and Tea were stunned. 'You can read that?' Tea asked in disbelief.

Tory nodded. 'Yes.'

Tea's mobile wrung. She sighed and said to the others, 'I'll be back...' before walking off to answer it. Tory watched her go, and then turned to Yugi –

Who wasn't exactly Yugi anymore. He had taken the form of his Millennium Puzzle's spirit, Yami. Instead of a short little boy standing beside her, Tory now stood beside a young man who was only half a head taller than herself.

' ... Yami?'

Yami pointed at the stone tablet. 'How did you learn to read that?'

Tory's gaze slid over the tablet, over Yami, and then over to a collection of photographs on the wall beside her. She gazed at the photo of the Sphinx, and sighed. 'I was hoping that you could tell me.'

Yami looked at her seriously, but said nothing.

Quite suddenly, Yami's Millennium Puzzle and another odd-looking necklace around Tory's neck burst into light. They were then thrown to the floor with a hard crash.

-End Chapter One-

MidnightBallad: Please review! No flames, either. The next chapter is heaps better than this one, I promise. Read on.