A/N- Hey, minna! I know I haven't updated my other story in forever and so there is no reason for me to start a new story with only one exception to this story...It has a PLOT! Unfortunately the other one doesn't and I don't know how far it is going to go. Luckily I have this one all worked out to hopefully appease your thirst for reading...

Well, just check it out and I'll (somehow) try to work up another chapter for Yami mata Hikari no Tenshis...don't expect much...I did plan on just stopping it right where it was, but then I went and read your reviews and knew that I had to keep trying...Well, I hope you like this new story as much as my other one and I will try to come to some kind of comprimise with my uncooperative muse.

PROLOGUE

RIIIIIIIIIIING!

A small, pale, skinned boy with tri-colored hair, sighed as once again school ended and his torment was to begin again, just as it had been, day after day. It had been that way ever since he had come to this school.

Domino High School.

His name was Yuugi. He had no friends, no one to stick up for him, and what hurt most...no family. No one cared about him. He gathered his heavy schoolbooks into his small arms and went to put them in his locker.

Upon nearing it, he saw that some of his tormentors, the less violent ones, were standing there already waiting on him. He hung his head in defeat and continued on with the routine. He walked slowly towards them...closer...closer...until he was right there.

They mocked him and teased him as they always did, before knocking his books out of his hands, before walking away. He sighed once more and proceeded to pick up his books.

He put them inside of his locker, shouldered his book bag, and walked down the hallways to the back doorways, and outside. He set off in the direction of the orphanage.

He walked for a good ten minutes before approaching an alleyway. As he came past the entrance of it he stopped. He knew they were waiting for him and it was better if he did not run or put up a struggle.

Finally, out they came. A group of the worst bullies in the area. They were violent and ruthless in their "work" and it was just Yuugi's continual bad luck that they found him in the first place. Like the other bullies that knocked his books out of his hands, this too had become a routine.

"Hey, runt! You're late again! What did I tell you? Didn't I say that if you were late again we were going to have to punish you?"

'As if they didn't already,' the small boy thought bitterly. He nodded his head, not even bothering with an explanation. If only those one boys would not hold him up by his locker he could make it in time and his beatings would not be so bad. 'But of course that would be too easy,' he thought again.

The leader of the gang let out a snort of laughter and smirked.

"Well, why don't you just step into our little alleyway here and join the party?"

Yuugi hung his head once again as the bullies parted to allow him to enter first. He walked in and dropped his backpack so that none of his school stuff except his clothes would be messed up.

The bullies soon followed and the thrashing was allowed to commence. The leader took the first hit, with a punch to the cheek sending Yuugi's small frame flying into the nearby wall. He managed to stay on his feet only to be beaten down with several more punches.

He was hit in the gut, which knocked the wind out of him and he doubled over, then someone else got him in the chest. He then received a kick in the face as someone else pounded his back making him fall to the ground.

Once that was done the incessant kicking began. One after the other: chest, side, face, back, and head. They struck him until he had no energy left to even lift a finger or bat an eye. They beat him until the ground was coated in a red vital, life giving substance...Yuugi's blood. Finally they finished saying, "Come on, let's get out of here. There's a big mess all over the ground."

Then they left him lying there on his own to try to crawl back to his home as they laughed at his predicament. Yuugi assessed the damage done and judged that by the way he felt that he had not broken anything this time, not that it made him feel any better.

This was indeed one of the worst beatings he'd received in a while. He'd had worse of course, but he definitely would have trouble getting out of bed tomorrow. The bruises were already beginning to discolor his angelic features.

He tried to push himself up into a sitting position. It was difficult, but he finally managed it...very slowly. He leaned against the wall for support so he could stand up and then limped over to his backpack. Somehow he was able to lift the pack and put it on his shoulders. He started home, his hand holding onto the sides of buildings to keep him upright.

On the way, his mind began to wander.

'Why does it always have to be me? Why does no one like me? Why can't I have just one friend? I wish I had at least one single person that cared for me! I wish I could just get away from here and go someplace where I could have a friend...'

Yuugi then clenched his eyes shut as a wave of dizziness overtook him and he fought to stay upright now that his hand was no longer holding onto the side of the building, but instead clutching the straps of his book bag. A strong breeze whipped at him, chilling his very being. When the dizzy spell passed and he was able to look up again he noticed something different about his surroundings.

He was no longer where he had been before, in a street with cars and people and all different kinds of stores and apartments. He was no longer even in Domino, it seemed. He was surrounded by white...snow covered the ground as far as the eye could. The wind blew the snow around and stung Yuugi's face with a biting cold. He looked all around for some kind of shelter. There was nothing but white as far as the eye could see. He pulled his thin jacket tighter around him and began walking in the direction he was already facing.

The cold blew all around him freezing him into numbness. He continued to walk hoping against hope that he would be able to just stop soon and find someplace to get warm.

He had now been walking so long in the cold that he could not feel any part of his body. It had also gotten colder as a blizzard started to come in, blowing the petite youth's hair all over the place. He started to stumble, just catching himself in the nick of time he continued on, knowing he would not be able to go on much longer.

That is when he heard the crunch of snow behind him. He jerked around to see what was there, but the snow in the air from the blizzard prevented him from seeing more than one foot in any direction. Then that crunch turned into a sniffing sound like a predator after its prey.

Yuugi began to run, to try to escape whatever it was that was behind him. It might not really be harmful to him, but he had decided that he would rather not stick around to find out first hand.

The only problem was that when he started running...so did whatever was behind him. Yuugi ran faster, as fast as his short legs could take him, but unfortunately for him...it was not fast enough.

Out of the blizzard came a reptile like creature with three claws for hands, sharp fanged teeth, and sharp horns all over its body. Yuugi screamed as he turned to look at it, then ran with all of his might in the opposite direction. It lunged at him, using its sharp claws to slash at his back.

"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!" Yuugi cried in pain as three bloody gashes were slit across his back, the one in the middle being the deepest since the middle claw was the longest. Yuugi involuntarily turned around and tried to put pressure on the cuts with his hand, but he could not reach.

The monster pounced again, claws slashing. Three more red streaks appeared on Yuugi's chest and once again he screamed in pain, doubling over for the second time. Tears glistened in the corners of his eyes and he looked up, pleading for the creature to stop and let him go.

"No, stop...please stop..." he whispered to it as a few of the tears broke free and ran down his cheeks.

The fiend rewarded him by slapping him across the face with the back of its claw sending him soaring threw the air to land with a soft, "Whumph" in the snow. The slap being so powerful that he blacked out upon contact so that he lay still in the snow, scarlet blood dripping onto the fluffy whiteness of the pure snow, painting it red.

The beast then walked over to the small figure, grabbed a leg and began to drag it through the snow towards its nearby cave.

In a large tent, in the frozen highlands was a boy, Yami, lying on his cot with his hands behind his head, staring up at the canvas ceiling. He had tan skin, bright crimson eyes and the most interesting of all, tri-colored hair...He had blonde bangs that stuck out at odd angles, there was also the main part of his hair that was black and was outlined in magenta.

He was wearing tight black pants and a tight black turtleneck shirt. He had two studded belts slung across his slender waist. One for his pants and the second held the sheath for his sword. The one with his sword was currently lying in a corner of the tent on top of a pile of furs he had collected not to long before.

There seemed to be something different about him than the people in Yuugi's world. He did not even seem to need a fire to stay warm, it was like the warmth just followed him around, keeping the inside of the entire tent warm and comfortable, or maybe it was the tent itself that was doing it.

He was in the middle of contemplating his life and all the places he had visited when he heard something. He sat bolt upright as a terrible scream split the air.

'Probably one of those baka monsters again,' he thought to himself about to lie back down. 'That sure didn't sound like one of them did it,' said a voice in his head. The boy thought about that. 'That's right it sounded more like a human. But who would be out here?' he wondered deciding to go see what was going on. He grabbed his coat and sword, leaving his tent the way it was. Those creatures would not come near it, he knew. They had been scared of it ever since he had killed one of them.

He ran outside, sliding his sword into its sheath and heading in the direction he had heard the shriek come from. He had not ran more than a few paces before another cry rang through the air. He paused momentarily, deciding that it really was a person before running faster towards the source.

He ran for a few more minutes before stopping and looking around. There was no one to be seen, but when he looked down he knew that there had been. A bright red substance coated the snow and the boy bent down to inspect it.

"Blood," he said out loud to himself as if reassuring himself that that was what the liquid was. He then saw splashes of blood a few feet away. He walked over to this sample and noticed the snow underneath it had trail marks in it as though someone had been dragged through the snow.

The teenager followed these track marks till he came to a large opening, a shelter from the cold. It was a cave and those marks led right into it. He crept circumspectly towards the cave entrance. He flattened himself up against the wall and carefully peered inside the cave trying not to be noticed.

What he saw inside made his blood boil. It was some of those monsters that had attacked him before, Armored Lizards. They were a cross between humans, lizards, and alligators. About four or five of the creatures were clustered around a small bloody lump. It was a little kid. Yami knew he was going to have to do something about this.

He unsheathed his sword and held it in front of him at ready. When he was sure they were not looking in his direction, he jumped into the middle of the cave entrance and shouted a battle cry before charging at them sword raised. They did not have any time to react, which was the way he wanted it.

Yami ran right into the center of the group and stood over the young one, he slashed horizontally in a circle with his blade chopping the first Armored Lizard in half. The two pieces separated and fell to the ground where they remained unmoving. The other three managed to move out of the way in time and were undamaged.

They tried slashing at him, with their claws, together, but Yami just ducked and kicked out with his legs sending two of them to the ground. The last one still standing catapulted its self at the teenager trying to bite him, but he thrust his sword up into its midsection and it stopped a few feet/meters away from him. Yami drew back his sword and the beast fell away to lie still on the floor of the cavern.

The two remaining Armored Lizards had stood back up by this time and lunged together again. One came with slashing claws on the right while the other on the left. Yami jumped to the side and rolled back onto his feet in a crouch. He then ran around behind them and took his time taking them both out. Job done, Yami cleaned off his sword in the snow before sheathing it and turning back to the kid that the whole fight had been for.

He walked over to where the child had been and flipped him over. As soon as Yami saw his face he gasped audibly. This boy looked almost exactly like him. His hair was black and out lined in magenta just like his. There was a difference in the blonde bangs, however. While Yami's stuck up into the spikes of his black, this boy's blonde bangs seemed to caress his alabaster cheeks and face.

His face that was covered in bruises and blood. Yami looked closer at the bruises themselves. They seemed to be a few days old at least. Yami touched a particularly big one on his cheek and the boy flinched away, scooting back and his body seemed to shrink in on its self. Yami's expression, which usually only was a look of anger, contempt, or cold- heartedness, softened for once. This kid was probably an easy target for bullies to prey on.

He knew right away by the blue jacket, white shirt, and blue pants that the child wore, and by the fabric they were made of, that this boy was from another world. There was no fabric such as that made here. Yami seemed drawn to this boy. Maybe it was because his appearance was so similar to his own, or maybe it was just because he looked so much like an angel.

Yami picked him up and threw him over his shoulder, taking him back to his tent. Once he reached it, Yami lay the unconscious youth down in his own bed and began to tend to his wounds. He bandaged his head and then cleaned the cuts out, before he bandaged them as well.

Yami winced every time he touched the boy's skin. It was freezing cold, like ice. Once he was finished, he covered his look alike with as many blankets he could find and sat down to keep watch.
After hours of watching the child and receiving no movement at all for his efforts, Yami decided to go hunting. He knew the child would be safe in his tent. All the creatures around were too afraid to go near it, so he slipped soundlessly outside and began his hunt.

By the time he was finished, he had enough meat to last the two of them for a couple of days. He smiled to himself as he entered the tent and busied himself with preparing dinner, not even noticing his charge stirring.

He had his back turned to the bed while he cut the meat into pieces and threw them into a pot over a fire. He was just adding some more ingredients to his stew when he heard a strangled yelp from behind him. He spun around, eyes narrowed and sword drawn, looking around for the source of trouble.

The boy was awake and looking wildly around, before his panicked gaze came to rest on Yami. He looked at the sword in his hands and the frightening, piercing gaze Yami had locked on him and scooted backwards in fear.

Yami's features softened and he put away the sword. He approached the shaking boy and laid a hand on his shoulder in an effort to calm him.

"I'm not going to hurt you, little one. I saved you from those monsters and brought you back to my tent. I won't let anything hurt you. Do you trust me?"

The child was hesitant, but he finally nodded then asked, "What monsters are you talking about?"

Yami started. He had not expected such a question. "The ones that gave you those cuts and knocked you out. They took you to their cave for their dinner. Don't you remember?"

"No."

Yami frowned. Thinking quickly he asked, "Do you know what your name is, kiddo?"

The boy thought for a moment, he seemed to be having some difficulty, then he replied in a shaky voice, "N-no...I-I don't know who I am!"

to be continued...

A/N- Well, what do you wonderful people think? (Besides "go work on your other story" anyways) I hope you all liked it and I would have to say there is more where that came from...I already have seven chapters written up including this one. Well, please review and have a great summer!

Ja ne!

Mitsuko-chan