That night, Sakura found herself in the grips of a nightmare. She was running through a dark forest, somehow managing not to trip on the many roots and branches that were in her way. She did not know what she was running from, and when she snatched a glimpse back, all she saw were a roiling mass of shadows, but for some reason, even that small glimpse made the terror that she felt somehow worse, and she knew that if that thing caught her, it would mean a disaster, not only for her, but for all three worlds. She kept running, but slowly, infinitesimally slowly, the shadow caught up to her. Long tendrils of the shadows started to reach out, to grasp their prey and draw it in, getting closer and closer every second. Milliseconds before the shadows touched her; she woke up with a gasp.
She sat up in bed, a cold sweat running down her body, and a feeling of wrongness permeating every pore of her skin. She untangled herself from the sheets, and stumbled to the bathroom. She flipped on the light, finally able to look at herself. Her face, which was normally a light tan, was now a stark white, and her eyes were wide, as if she had seen the worst thing imaginable. She rinsed her face with water, in an attempt to get rid of the feeling of wrongness. After a while, she calmed down enough to contemplate going back to sleep, but as soon as she attempted to, the memory of the nightmare came back, making her small hope of sleep impossible.
With a sigh of frustration, she tore the covers off of her, and got up to get ready for the day. After a long, hot shower, she emerged, feeling much better, the hot pounding water had somehow forced the feeling of wrongness out of her skin.
Dressed in a fluffy terrycloth robe and her hair in a towel, she stood in her closet, trying to figure out what to wear that day. She only had to take a glimpse at her uniform for school before she remembered that she was to start at Domino High today. She decided to wait as long as possible to don, in her opinion, the atrocity that was her school uniform.
Still in her robe, she sat down at her desk, opening up the drawers to see if there was anything stashed there. In one drawer, there was a variety of art supplies. She took out a large pad of paper and some pencils, thinking a moment before starting to sketch. Time flew by as she worked, the pencil scratching against the paper, looking up every now and then to double check a detail.
She had just finished her sketch when Kayko came in, prepared to wake her up using any means necessary, but to her surprise, Sakura was already awake.
"Oh, I see you're already awake Sakura, and here I was prepared to pour cold water on you to get you up in time to get to school. What time did you get up today, and do you normally get up this early?" She asked, curiosity lacing her voice.
"Normally I don't, but I had a nightmare and couldn't get back to sleep. So I had a lot of time to waste this morning." Sakura replied, indicating the newly finished sketch she had tacked to the wall above her desk. It was a sketch of her room in the early morning light, the kitsune in the mural seeming to be looking right through you. The only color in the drawing was the piercing amber of the kitsune's eyes.
"Wow, this is an amazing drawing." Kayko breathed. "It's weird how the kitsune's eyes seeming to be looking right into your very soul…" She trailed off.
"My art teacher said I had a good eye for detail, but I don't think I'm that good of an artist." She was interrupted as her stomach gave a very loud growl. She blushed crimson at this. Kayko started at the noise, drawn out of her inspection of the drawing.
"Oh, that reminds me, breakfast is down in the kitchen whenever you are ready. Now I have to go get Yuuske's large head out of bed, he's got to head to work today."
Later down in the kitchen, Sakura was almost finished with a nice breakfast when Yuuske came stumbling into the room, rubbing the last traces of sleep out of his eyes. He gratefully accepted the cup of coffee Kayko handed him.
"Morning..." He mumbled as he nursed the cup of hot coffee in his hands, slightly more awake then when he had came in, from just smelling the cup of coffee.
"Sakura, you might want to hurry up, we'll be leaving for school in about a half hour, and you aren't ready yet." Kayko said as she set a plateful of breakfast in front of Yuuske.
"Kay Kayko." Sakura said as she got up and put her dirty dishes in the sink. She managed not to get herself lost on the way back to her room. She heaved a great sigh, as she put on her uniform, very uncomfortable at the shortness of the skirt. She slipped on her set of hidden leaf village earrings and necklace, and applied a small bit of makeup, mainly eye shadow and a little lip-gloss. She grabbed her messenger bag as Kayko called up that they were about to leave.
They hopped in the car and on the way to school, they were passed by a young man wearing a purple trench coat and riding a motorcycle. Kayko glanced up and sighed at seeing the elder Kabia riding a motorcycle. Sakura was so busy trying to figure out why someone would wear a trench coat while riding a motorcycle; that she didn't notice the Kabia Corp. insignia stamped on the back of his helmet.
Soon Sakura was sitting in the principal's office, as they took care of their registration. Before Kayko left to get to class, she told Sakura that she would get it so that Sakura was in her homeroom.
Soon enough she was standing in front of the door to her homeroom. She paused a moment to collect her nerves, before she pushed open the door and stepped in. Kayko looked up, and at seeing it was her, gave her a reassuring smile.
"Class, if I could have your attention please?" Kayko called out as everybody looked up. "We have a new student today, her name is Sakura Sato, and she just transferred here from Tokyo, so please be kind and help her if needed." She then turned to Sakura and said, "You can sit next to Yuugi Muto, he's the short kid with the spiky hair, and Seto Kabia, who I know you already know. That's only for roll call though, as soon as that's over, you can move to wherever you'd like. Good luck and I'll see you in class later."
Sakura had no sooner sat down, when the midget next to her, Yuugi Muto, she remembered, started talking to her.
"Hi, I'm Yuugi Muto, nice to meet you." He said, extending a hand.
"Sakura Sato, pleasure." She said returning his handshake. Yuugi was about to continue talking when a voice interrupted him
"Muto, I don't think I, or anyone, needs to hear you talk for any longer." Sakura turned to find that the speaker was no other then the famed Seto Kabia. Yuugi was about to protest when once again he was cut off, this time by Sakura
"Tut, tut, Seto, I can see that your attitude hasn't improve any since I've seen you last. You could at least say hello to your old friend. I'm mortally wounded." She held a hand over her heart dramatically. As the rest of the room heard those words being uttered to Kabia, they suddenly had all eyes on the pair, anticipating what Kabia's reaction would be. At his cold look she said, "Really I am Seto. What you don't believe me?"
Before he was able to respond, the bell rang, indicating the end of homeroom. As everybody packed up their stuff and started to leave Yuugi asked "Sakura, what class do you have next?"
"Let's see…I have A.P. art." She said looking at her schedule.
"Cool! I have the same thing. I'll show you the way there so you don't get lost." Taking her silence as a yes, he started showing her the way, chatting about everything. He soon started explaining the rules of Duel Monsters as soon as he found out that she didn't play. She confessed that she had actually gotten quite a few cards as a 17th birthday present, but didn't know what to do with them.
What seemed an eternity later, but wasn't that long actually, they found themselves at the art classroom. Yuugi introduced her to the teacher, and soon class started.
"Class, today we will be doing a drawing based on a dream. It doesn't have to be the one you had last night, but can be any one that is School Appropriate." She stressed. "It can be done anyway, but must be done on paper. Otherwise, what type of medium you want to use is up to you. Now go ahead and I can't wait to see what some of your dreams have been.
Sakura found herself once again that day drawn to sketching in pencil. Slowly the forest of her nightmare started taking shape. She was so intent on her drawing that she didn't notice the teacher come up behind her. "That's quite the dream Ms. Sato" She said, looking at the almost finished sketch.
"I wouldn't call it a dream, it qualifies as a nightmare. But just drawing it somehow has taken a lot of the fear and worry I had over it coming true." She said in reply.
Yuugi was busy drawing, but Yami, who had nothing better to do, was floating around in his spirit form listing in to conversations. "Yuugi." He said
"What is it Yami." Yuugi said distractedly, still busy drawing.
"I have a weird feeling about the new girl, she's not evil, but we need to be careful around her." Before Yuugi could reply, everybody started cleaning up. As they were cleaning up, Sakura got a glimpse of Yuugi's drawing. It was of Atemu holding court back in ancient Egypt, the millennium puzzle glinting at his chest.
The rest of her classes zipped by until lunch, where she sat with Yuugi and the gang.
"So why'd you transfer here Sakura?" Tea asked.
"I was adopted, was it really yesterday?" Sakura replied, picking a California roll out of her lunch. Joey and Yuugi had scarfed down their lunches at about the speed of light, and were now ready to do their after lunch duel.
"They normally do this after lunch." Tea explained as Yuugi and Joey started their duel. "Do you play?"
"It was never really popular at my school, and I never had enough money for things like that. I did get quite a few as a birthday present, but I have no clue what to do with them."
"Oh that's easily solved! I'll explain the rules while Yuugi and Joey are dueling, and if you bring your cards tomorrow, we'll set you up with a deck. Now Joey normally goes first, but most of the time people figure that out by playing rock, paper, scissors. Each turn you get to draw one card, and you start out with five." Tea chattered on, explaining the rules. "Now see the things on their arms? Those are called duel disks. They're made by Kabia Corp. and the only people who have them are the ones who participated in the duel city tournament."
"Hey wait a minute. I have one of those, it was part of the same present that I got those cards in!" Sakura exclaimed.
"Wow, you're really lucky to get one of those. Bring it tomorrow too, that way one of us can duel you. Oh better yet, we normally get together at Yugi's grandpa's store, the Kame Game Shop, so if you can, we'd really like it if you stopped by."
"Alright, will do! Let me check with Kayko first though." Sakura replied, radiating with happiness. Soon after, the bell rang, indicating the end of lunch. Her classes sped by once again; in gym, they were starting an archery unit, so she had a leg up on everybody else. Her last class of the day was Japanese history, taught by Kayko.
"Alright class, today we will be finishing up our myth unit. The final project will be done in partners. The project is simple. You and your partner are to pick a myth and do a presentation on it. I'm letting you pick your own partners for this one. So pick your partners and get to work." Joey and Tristen partnered up right away. So did Yuugi and Tea. Before anyone could come over and ask Sakura, she headed over to where Kabia was sitting.
"Seto, would you be my partner?" She asked, giving him a look that said you'd better because I have a lot of blackmail on you.
"Fine Sakura." She sat down in the desk in front of him, sitting in the chair backwards.
"I was figuring on either doing the myth of the Shikon no Tama, or of the five-tailed kitsune thief, Youko Kurama. So what do you think? We'll be able to get more information on the Shikon no Tama, its much better recorded, and I have a friend in Tokyo whose family owns the shrine that they say was used in the myth."
"Fine, let's do the myth of the Shikon no Tama. By the way, it's nice seeing you again."
"Yay! I knew that you didn't forget me!"
"That's hardly possible, but it's good to see you finally got adopted."
"I'll talk to my friend to see when it's a good time to stop by, and I'll let you know tomorrow." They continued chatting about the assignment until the bell rang.
"I'll see you tomorrow Seto." She called as they headed towards their lockers. After she had gotten her stuff, she headed back to Kayko's classroom.
"Hey Kayko, Tea invited me over to where she and her friends hang out, so they can teach me how to play Duel Monsters. Do you think I could go?" Sakura asked as Kayko started to gather up all of the assignments that needed grading.
"Of course dear, do you need to pick anything up from home before I drop you off?"
"Now that you mention it, Tea told me to bring all my cards I have and my duel disk."
"Alright, we'll stop at home first before heading over there. Let's go!"
A short time later, they had pulled up to the Kame game shop. "I'll be at a local coffee shop, grading all these papers, so when you're ready give me a call on my cell and I'll come pick you up."
"Alright Kayko, see you then." Sakura called as she headed up the path towards the shop. Some bells rang as she entered the shop. Looking around, there didn't seem to be anyone in the store, except a grey haired mad, with hair like Yugi's slumped over on the counter, deep asleep. Wondering how someone could fall asleep while watching the counter, she spotted a bell that she could press to get someone's attention. She pressed it, and instead of it ringing at the counter, it seemed like it was ringing far away. She assumed that it must ring back in the house.
"Grandpa, you down there?" Yugi called from the back. When he didn't hear a response, he came out from the back. "Grandpa? Oh, hey Sakura! Tea told me you were coming. Let me wake Grandpa up, then we can head back." After he had woken his Grandpa up, they made their way into the living area of the shop. After introductions had been made, Yugi and Bakura started working on her deck.
"Let's see what you have for cards." Bakura said, but was quickly silenced as he saw the enormous amounts of cards she had. "Well I can see that the only issue we'll have with your deck is figuring what to put into it." The boys got to work while the rest of them, using a borrowed deck, taught Sakura how to play. Soon enough Yugi and Bakura had finished, and Sakura's new deck was ready for a trial run. Everybody decided that Yugi would have the honor of dueling Sakura's new deck. As usual Yugi beat her, but not without a few moments of doubt.
Everybody had decided to take a break and head down to the park for a little fresh air. While they were relaxing, Shadi suddenly appeared.
"Pharaoh, I come bringing dire warnings…."
A.N. Yay! My first cliffy. To make up for the missing update a while ago, I've made this chapter extra long, 9 pages long and a little under 3,000 words. Be happy, be very happy.