I own a deck of dueling cards. Not Yu-Gi-Oh itself.

School

On the next morning, I had a rather terrible moment where I thought Ryou might forget about me, and leave me sitting on his bedside table. Much to my relief, he picked me up, fingering the old, faded pink ribbon that Maya had left with me. "What's this from? Pink satin is hardly a typical vengeful spirit sort of accessory…"

I laughed. –Maya gave that to me, many, many years ago. She's a grandmother now, perhaps…-

"Maya?"

-My last host,- I said, as he dished out a bowl of cornflakes. I was momentarily distracted by the refrigerator, and then continued. "A little girl, who found me and carried me out of that dreadful tomb into the city your father found me in.-

"That's sweet," Ryou said, picking up on how fond of her I'd become in such a short time.

-It is not. I am not sweet.- I grumbled. Ryou just laughed.

"I'll have to get a different cord eventually… or this is just going to disintegrate and I'll drop you somewhere," Ryou remarked as he got dressed. "I don't mind the pink, but…"

Outside, I was very proud of myself about the school bus. I was perfectly calm about a large, orange airplane without wings roaring up the road. Well… mostly perfectly calm anyway. Ryou kindly didn't laugh at me. –Are you sure this is a safe way to travel?- I asked, glancing leerily around. I could smell the highly explosive fuel they used to drive the things, and it made me nervous.

"It's fine, yami," he told me, smiling. "It's only a short drive, you know."

He called me yami… I tried my best not to giggle. It was undignified.

Once we got to the inner city, I was amazed at the sheer number of people in the place. I'd thought the marketplace had been crowded, or the airport. This… this was worse. Buildings as tall as the pyramids lined the narrow-seeming streets, and the place was absolutely crawling, like an anthill that someone poked. –Why are there so many people here?-

"This is Japan. And this isn't one of the most crowded towns either. You should see Tokyo…"

-How am I supposed to find the Pharaoh in this?- I asked myself, for the first time feeling a little doubtful.

"I told you, he goes to my school. He's even in our first class, you'll see…"

The public school was a fabulous idea. I'd learned to pick up Hieroglyphs as a necessity, but it had taken me a few hundred years to learn math on my own. The idea that every child was taught the basics of the world was new, but well-thought out. Thankfully, I could cheat, picking up the nuances of Japanese from Ryou's mind, and then completely ignoring the math he was learning. No living being ought to be so tortured… I could see no logical purpose for logarithms, and neither could Ryou when I asked him.

"To tell the truth, I don't really know what a logarithm is…" he told me, slightly embarrassed. "But that's Yugi, over in the corner there. With the hair."

How a mortal being got their hair into that position was completely beyond me. Underneath it, he seemed an uncommonly sweet, innocent boy, with eyes so big and cheerful that it made my teeth hurt. And he was short. Very, very short. He might come to our shoulder, if you counted the top of his hair. -I think the stone artists exaggerated,- I said. –The pharaoh was taller than nearly everyone in the murals…-

Ryou giggled, then blushed and looked down at his book when the teacher glared. –Want me to send him to the shadow realm for you?-

"No!" he said, wistfully. "Because then I'd get in trouble. In fact, don't do anything without checking with me first…"

-What? You think I have no self-control?- I said, cackling insanely for effect..

"Exactly."

-Spoilsport…-

After we finally finished with the hellishly boring math class, I was introduced to the wonders of dodge ball. –So, for an hour a day, you get to come play games?- I asked.

"Yes…" Ryou said dejectedly. "I'm no good at it really. I'd rather just keep going with my regular classes."

By virtue of being nearly invisible, Ryou was picked last for teams, and by virtue of being very short and invisible behind tall people, Yugi was just before us. –So, the idea of this is just to hit the people with the balls? That's boring.-

"We can't cross the line… and if we're hit, we're out."

-I could conjure a shield…-

"No, no magic in class, I'd get in trouble."

-You should learn to live dangerously,- I muttered, watching the balls get tossed out to various people. Mostly, people just didn't bother with Ryou, thinking him no threat at all, taking out the large, strong people. –They could at least toss a token throw this way,- I grumbled, feeling bored, left out, and vaguely insulted.

"Don't complain, the less I have to do the better…" Ryou said, hovering back near the wall.

-They don't even look at you!-

"That's fine…"

-No it isn't! Nobody ignores my hikari like that!- I snapped, taking over control. Slowly, I crept forward, picking up first one ball, then another. And then threw them. Hard. "My accuracy's off…" I muttered, as the first one caught one large bruiser in the shoulder, instead of breaking his nose like I intended.

-You aren't supposed to hit their heads…- Ryou groaned, shaking his mental head.

"Well, what's the fun in that?" I asked incredulously, whipping another ball to hit someone squarely in the chest. Actually, I was enjoying myself immensely. It might not be as satisfying as summoning a monster or two to squash them, or using a good old fashioned club, but there was something nice about the way they all just collapsed from the force of my throws.

-You're calling attention to yourself!- Ryou hissed at me.

"So?" I replied, gleefully knocking Yugi right off his feet.

-In all the gym classes I've ever been in, I haven't ever been able to throw like that. Slow down!-

"Is anyone here likely to think that you have a dark spirit inhabiting your body, and know how to exorcise me?"

-Well, no… probably not…-

"Then what are you worried about?"

-Yami…-

"Oh, fine…" I grumbled, making sure I missed the next shot and didn't dodge so quickly as before. Somewhat sullenly, I let Ryou take over again. –You need to have more fun, Hikari…-

"I'm sure you'll manage somehow," Ryou told me as he was hit by all three balls at once and relieved, went to go sit down.

Author's Note: To tell you the truth, I'd given up on this story. So a big thank you toAnei Aikouka for reviewing, I'll try and stick it out a while longer, eh?