Disclaimer: I do not own Yugioh... Although I might when I take over the world. Hehe. ;
Chapter One
Three thousand years later, in New York City…
"I ran away from home, I work my butt off at a slimy burger joint so I get enough money to get out of Japan and go New York, paid attention in English class just for this?" Anzu thought as she ran across the streets of New York. She had attempted to audition to join a prestigious dance troupe. The one thing she had not counted on was the fierce dirty competition. Someone had stolen her ballet slippers and she was unable to perform in the final round for the judges. She was
disqualified and ran out of the building in tears. She saw the aggressive blonde dancer who had taunted her earlier that day. She held her head high, smirking in triumph.
Now she was running through the streets and was beginning to get stormy. Rain fell and thunder and lightning accompanied it. "This is the worse day of my life." Anzu thought, "Even worse then the day my grandmother died."
She continued to run, seeking refuge under the narrow eves of the buildings. It around eight and Anzu ran through the almost deserted Midtown area. All the museums were closed and the traffic was typical. One of the museums, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, had a particularly large overhanging eve that would keep her dry for the moment. Anzu walked up to one of the large pillars and leaned against it, slowly sinking to the ground. She began to sob because she really needed to be in the dance troupe to pay off her bills at cheep apartment in Queens. So absorbed in her emotions, Anzu did not notice that someone had walked up beside her. "Anzu?" came a concerned voice, "Is dat you?"
"Hai…" Anzu said without thinking of speaking English.
"Daijoubu?"
It was when Anzu heard her native tongue; she put a face to the voice.
"Jonouchi? Is that you?" she asked. He looked different then he did when she last saw him. He was wearing a security guard uniform and had lost the scruffy attire he normally had worn, although she doubted that his sense of fashion had improved. His hair had grown a little longer, his shoulders a bit wider; he had lost all his baby fat and had stubble. "What a'ya doin out here in the friggin rain?" he asked.
"Take a guess. Sitting and contemplating the meaning of life, like an old Buddhist hermit." Anzu retorted.
Jou got quiet, not saying anything. Anzu quickly took a hint. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to snap at you." She said, "Right now my life sucks. I worked so hard to get on the dance scene and possibly go to Broadway. But someone took my slippers before the final round." She sobbed.
Jou fidgeted uncomfortably, contemplating how he could comfort Anzu. Anzu quickly started to explain in detail what had happened and Jou quietly listened to his friend about her worries and fears of living in a large foreign country.
"And I can't go back to Japan to face my aunt and uncle; they will never let me back home." She looked away form Jou and faced the rain in the storm.
"Hey how about you come inside?" Jou suggested.
Anzu glanced at him puzzled. "Would you get in trouble for doing that?"
"Na and if da asked I'd say that you re my cosine or somethin' like dat."
A smile came on Anzu's lips and she followed him in. as the two entered the foyer Jou called out, "Hey Tony can ya watch da front?"
The security officer smiled and said impishly "Sure thing. Hey Joe who's da broad? Ya give up on the Mai chick?"
Jou glared at Tony. "I neva stared dat relationship, it was her idea."
"I can see dat. You're too dense to figure the whole love thing out."
"Neva mind. I'm going to the back with my friend to see Shlomo. Oh is the Yugester in?"
"Yup. He's in the back with Shlomo geeking out about some weird Egypt stuff or whateva they do back dere."
The two walked to one of the back rooms. "Hello! Anybody home?" Jou called out. Muttering in some strange language drifted down the hall.
"I'm coming. I'm coming. Don't hava conniption." Came a voice with a heavy Brooklyn accent.
"What's a conniption?" Anzu asked Jou quietly.
"I dunno." Jou replied, just as confused.
"I means don't hava fit." Came the strange voice.
Anzu saw an elderly man appear out of the darkness. He wore a white dress shirt, slacks, and suspenders and had frizzled hair similar to Einstein's that was tucked under an over sized yamaka and his eyes were bright and filled with mischief. "So who's da skirt?" he asked, his eyes alight with curiosity. Anzu blushed and Jou replied, "No still goin strong with Mai."
"Then get married. Have babies, hava bunch of little blonde kids running around. Even if some of 'em would have her treasure obsession. Well, it comes with the deal so might as well."
"Shlomo… It's my life." Jou retorted with a glare.
"Bahh, I'm just suggestin. You still haven't told me who she is. "
"Anzu Mazaki." Anzu introduced herself, "I'm a good friend."
"Ah, what brings you to the Big Apple?"
"I'm trying to follow my dream."
"And that is?"
"Dancing." Her eyes came alight.
"My wife used to dance." Shlomo said softly. "Oh well, Yigol's in the back."
"Why did ya give him a weird name like dat? He's not even Jewish!" Jou muttered loudly, "Besides he's Egyptian!"
"Well… His nation comes from the father of Ishmael and his father was Abraham, father of Isaac. So… He's close enough."
"Oh…" the two others said simultaneously.
"Oh well, let's go to the back."
The trio walked down the hall from the cubicle into a small part of the back of the museum. A wild haired boy was fidgeting around the room nervously. His hair was spiked firmly loads of gel, his blond bangs shown in the light. "I know I put it here… But it's not here… Where is it?" the boy, Yigol, (or Yugi as Jou preferred to call him because he constantly playing any kind of game with himself or other people. He was the 'King of Games' as others teasingly called him.)
muttered to himself. He wore baggy jeans and a black shirt with a red dragon on both sides. He looked like a punk but was sweet to a fault; much too gentle to even hurt a fly. At the moment he was working on restoring a puzzle artifact that looked like a pyramid.
"Looking for this?" Shlomo asked as he pulled gold puzzle piece from his pocket. The piece had a wadjet eye on it.
"Yes!" Yugi exclaimed with joy,
"That's the last piece to the puzzle!"
"You know Yuge, that puzzle creeps me out." Jou said.
"That and everything else in the Egyptian exhibit." Shlomo quipped.
"But they're all cursed! I know it!" Jou exclaimed.
Yugi and Shlomo rolled their eyes. Jou was overly superstitious.
"Oh, hi. What's you're name?" Yugi asked Anzu.
"I'm Anzu Mazaki." Anzu replied with a smile, "And you're?"
"I'm Yigol. But almost everyone calls me Yugi." Yugi replied.
"You're kawaii!" Anzu said in a soft tone.
"Basically that means you're cute." Jou translated.
Yugi turned beet red. "R-really?" he stuttered.
"Yah," Anzu said, "When you get older all the girls will drop like flies."
Yugi glowed red but found his bearings, grabbed the puzzle piece and stuck it in the puzzle.
The moment he put the piece in the puzzle pulsed, causing Yugi to nearly drop it. "Hehe. I got a little too excited." Yugi said, rationalizing the occurrence in his own mind.
"Hay, how 'bout we celebrate this with some pizza? My
treat!" Shlomo said.
"Ok, but ma shift ends in a half an hour. I have ta go help Tony in da foyer." Jou stated as he walked towards the door.
Little did they know, their every move was being watched. Seto Kaiba, CEO and mercenary archeologist, had a camera hidden in the ventilation shaft. He thoroughly examined every minute of footage and noticed the puzzle pulsing.
Later at a pizza place, Shlomo stopped their conversation. "I have a proposition to make for Jou and Anzu." He said, "I think I have a solution to your pressing employment… difficulties… Jou you need a summer job and you Anzu need a job period. How would you two like to come with me and Yigol to Egypt? I need minimal labor helpers that are sensitive enough to handle artifacts. We're having a dig to look for proof of the seven plagues. Even though it sounds like a wild goose chase. We might find something interesting." He paused, "The last time we were there we found something at a site, only the Egyptian government and us know about it, that may be related, although I kind of doubt it. So…what da ya think?"
"Sure! I have nothing better ta do." Jou replied.
"I suppose… How long are we going to be there?" Anzu asked.
"Mmm. Five months or so." Shlomo answered.
"Well, I'll have to tell my landlord."
"You can hang at ma house until the end of da month. It's only three weeks." Jou offered.
"That's great… but what about Mai? Wouldn't she get suspicious?"
"Nah. I'll just tell her ya ma cousin."
"The cousin excuse only goes so far."
"Great! We leave at the end of the month."
At the door of Jou's condominium sat Mai. "Oh bother." Anzu muttered.
"Who the hell are you?" Mai demanded.
"Relative of mine." Jou quickly replied, "Somehow."
Mai glared at Jou. "You know dear," she said to Anzu, "You shouldn't steal people's boy friends. But obviously you're just an innocent girl who's being honest. So I'm going to go slaughter Jou's butt to hell and back again."
Jou quickly threw the house keys to Anzu saying, "Make yourself at home. I'm going to be running for my life!" as he darted away down the street, Mai hot on his trail.
Anzu let herself into the condo and was greeted with the sight of a pigsty. She sighed. "Nothing's changed." She said and she quickly got to work at cleaning the place so it was livable.
Bakura slunk around the conference room that Pegasus had rented out for their discussion, poking around mapping the place out in his head, incase he needed to escape quickly. Raoul sat nervously making last minute calculations on his palm pilot. There was a knock on the door before it opened and Pegasus entered. Raoul looked at him and smiled timidly. "Oh, it's nice to see such a pleasant smile. Bakura you should be taking lessons from your brother." Pegasus said.
"Half brother." Bakura retorted with a scowl, Raoul flinch involuntarily at the tone of his half sibling's voice.
The three sat down. "I've gotten new information from the Kaiba-boy." Bakura and Raoul's eyes both simultaneously twitched at the… odd… nickname. " The puzzle has been successfully put back together. I have a recording of it." Pegasus continued, ignoring the two brother's reactions.
"What happened?" Raoul asked curiously. Bakura kicked him under the table.
"Shut up brat." Bakura muttered.
"The puzzle clearly pulsed when it was completed. It is obviously the original, not another copy, like all the others that have been found." Pegasus answered.
"Wow." Raoul whispered to himself in awe to avoid being kicked again, this time harder.
"So, is the plan ready to begin?" Bakura asked.
"We're missing one element. According to legend only a pure heart can get the 'power'."
"So who the hell would that be?"
"A young virgin girl."
"Who the hell is that supposed to be? Sailor Moon?"
"She's unavailable at the time, I've tried contacting her."
"That is seriously disturbing." Raoul could not help but say with a shiver.
"I was joking! We'll find someone. Even if we have to resort to desperate measures."
Three weeks later, on a flight to Cairo Egypt, the gang met someone unexpectedly. "Hello stranger. Is this seat taken?" Jou peered over the manga that he was reading. "….Crap…." he muttered, "Uh… Yah… It's uh taken." He quickly added.
"Oh well, I'm sitting here anyway." The inquirer, who was Mai, replied. Jou silently prayed, "God please spare me!"
Anzu and Yugi peaked over from the row in front of the couple.
"Hello." Anzu said cheerfully.
"Uh oh." Yugi added.
"Hello cutie," Mai greeted with a wave. She returned to her lovely prey in the seat next to her. Anzu and Yugi went back to the game of go fish they were playing. "What's uh oh supposed to mean, Yugi?" Anzu asked curiously.
"Well, whenever Mai gets involved, things get a little, uh, complicated." Yugi answered with a sigh.
"Does she steal things?"
"Eh, she calls it borrowing without permission and the owner never knows when they'll get it back…"
"Oh, that's where my green shirt went!" Anzu realized.
Two platinum blond teens walked down the aisle. The older of the two glanced over at Anzu and Mai and decided that they were fair game. He sauntered over to Yugi's seat and leaned against it. "And who, may I ask, are you." He asked, directing his question at Mai.
"That's for me to know, and for you to find out." Mai replied slyly, an impish grin on her face.
"And you?" he asked Anzu.
"Uh," Anzu replied as she shifted in her seat, "Anzu… Why do you want to know?"
"Well, I thought that you and your lady friend here would like to join me for a few drinks."
"I'm underage."
The man clenched his jaw and a put a false smile on his face. "That wouldn't be a problem. You're so… mature looking."
"Thank you for the complement, but I'm busy at the moment. And I won't join you later either."
The man rolled his eyes and returned to Mai. "And how about you?"
"As much I'd like to, our relationship would be based on how much money is in your wallet. That's it." Mai retorted with a smirk.
With that, the man walked away with a bruised ego. The other teen stayed behind. "I'm sorry for Bakura's behavior." He apologized, "He can get a little out of control."
"A little?" Mai questioned with a laugh, "That's the understatement of the century."
Raoul smiled slightly then walked after his brother.
"There's something about those two that I don't like." Mai stated
after the two were out of earshot.
Jou turned back to his manga, "Could'a fooled me." He replied.
"Get over it. We ain't even engaged yet."
"Well why not?" questioned Yugi innocently.
The other two blushed and were silent, both going back to what they had been doing.
A couple hours later they fasten their seatbelts for landing. As they landed it was a bit bumpy. The man sitting next to Jou spilled his freezing cold water all over the blond. "What the-?" Jou
exclaimed. The last part of his sentence was drowned out by the sound of tires hitting pavement as the plane landed.
When they were waiting for their baggage, Shlomo got a call on his cell phone. He got quiet after a few moments. The others were curious as to what the conversation was about. Shlomo merely grunted or said yes in reply to the person on the other end. After a while he hung up,
his eyes twinkling. "They found something." He stated.
To be continued…
Author's Note: Shlomo is Solomon Motou; it's the Hebrew form of his name. Raoul is Ryou Bakura . In this, Bakura is Raoul's half brother. Not a ancient spirit who lives in a magical ring.