The Passing of the Shadow

Mai felt herself slowly come back into consciousness before she began to wonder what had just happened. A few hours ago, she had been on the bike, heading away from the mistake that had been Varon. She had met him at the Minako concert, and had left with him after taking on Marik and losing, almost falling into the Shadow Realm before the others had come back and saved her.

Then she had left, feeling more alone then before. Varon, at least, wasn't like them. He didn't deal with the supernatural, or people who took other's souls...

She had thought.

He had all but dragged her before a man named Dartz, who had tried to warp her memories of the others. She knew her memories enough, and one psycho messing with them was enough for a lifetime!

But then there had been the attack by the Senshi and others, to stop Dartz plan of resurrecting a demon called Leviathan. During the struggle, Varon had tried to drag her off, proclaiming his love of her, and that if she helped them then they could be together while Leviathan destroyed the Earth.

Mai had hit him and then, stealing a bike, headed away from the place only to find herself on an island and nowhere else to run.

Then what...that woman...the fight!

Her ride away from Varon had dropped her into the middle of an intense battle between two people, a man with a hawk-mask and a long spear, and a woman with odd bracelets that she recognized as the woman Sailor Set, who had helped them in the concert. Sailor Set was winning, and seemed intent on finding a reason to leave whatever duel they were in.

Then an explosion had rocked the island, and Mai had fallen off towards dangerous rocks, screaming as she did and seeing the strawberry blond turn her attention towards her...

Then pain and darkness...

"Oh good," a weak voice said from nearby, "you're awake."

Mai turned at the voice and saw that the person was none other then her savior, her suit torn and in need of repair, and one thing missing...

Mai moved over to her and noticed her eyes slowly starting to close. "What happened? Tell me! Is everyone okay?"

"Yeah," Sailor Set told her, "they defeated the evil in Dartz and stopped the rise of Leviathan. Everyone is fine. They were heading back to Domino and Tokyo, last I saw..."

Mai now looked around the surroundings, noticing an odd littering of her cards all over, most of them now devoid of pictures.

"What happened to my cards?"

"I had to save your life," Sailor Set told her, "You nearly died while I was heading back here, being chased by that idiot." She snorted, though quietly, "Horus. To think that my sisters would give birth to such a child..."

"Wait, what?" Mai recalled some of the Egyptian legend of Set and Horus, so she could understand the woman's slight contempt, at least. "But then..." she looked down to her hands and now saw two small bracelets, one with a green gem and one with a purple one, adorning her wrists. She blinked at that and Sailor Set told her, "The only way I could save you was to make you an Animate, one of the false Senshi who had worked for Galaxia. In order to gain what power I could, I had to ask your cards to help me. All of them are within the bracelets, giving you power to live and protect...or destroy. It doesn't matter, I suppose."

"What do you mean, 'it doesn't matter'? You gave me this, and—wait...you said that for me to survive...what if...what if I take off the bracelets?"

"You'll die," she told her, "They're bonded to you. I had to use some of my own power to do it, too...so I guess you should count that as a type of curse. I'm sure others would."

The fullness of what she was saying sunk in and Mai blinked at the woman, noticing that she was fading, slowly turning to dust.

"No. Wait! I have questions, I mean...WHY? Why me?"

"Because if I didn't," Sailor Set gave a small smile as her body continued to fade, crumbling to nothing, "Jounouchi, Shizuka, and Makoto would be sad. They came by while you were asleep and saw. They gave me some energy, enough to tell you what I could. They said you're welcome to Tokyo or Domino whenever you want. You aren't an Animate to them...you're a Senshi-Duelist. A new type of Senshi, because the bracelets are part of the Shadows, and because your cards, your monsters, gave their souls to help you. They are within...you can summon them to help you fight."

There was the sound of someone trying to break in and Sailor Set finally smiled, her eyes going glassy and losing what little life was within them. "I'm glad, though...I'm glad I found the person who allowed me to go to the Afterlife. Now...now I have saved a life. Now I can be with my thief, and my sister..."

Just as the door burst open, the woman known as Sailor Set breathed her last breath in this world, and Mai watched her eyes close, the last sight before she disappeared forever.

By the time that the Horus Knight appeared, all there was in the room were some blank pieces of paper, an open window, and a note, written in the language of Khemet and addressed to him.

He picked it up and slowly read the entirety of it before looking at a small pile of dust on the floor. He looked back to the note, then to the dust, before walking over and kicking it, scattering the ashes so they were invisible.

"I do not care for your lies," he said simply, "I am now the ruler, and you are nothing more then a scattered pile of dust...as you should've been years before."

With that, he disappeared from this world, never to return.

"WHAT?" Jounouchi looked over at Mai as she told the group the news, "I guess that's a good thing...for her..."

Atemu sighed. "She wanted it. She had been depressed ever since Bakura died, and with the arrival of Horus, that only added to her problems."

Mai snorted. "Well, the guy's gone, I know that much, and good riddance to it." She paused before continuing, "She said that I could stay here."

Yugi smiled the grin that seemed light up his face and make him all the more cute, "Of course! We have no objections to it; you're our friend!"

"And a good duelist," Kaiba put in, "We need more of those. The fact that the Orichalcos was trying to destroy the world where monsters come from, and that it proved to be such a hassle, just proves that Senshi and Duelists aren't enough. We need someone who can do both."

Mai looked at him then smiled. "I guess I have to stick around then, huh?"

"ALRIGHT!" Jounouchi said, hugging Mai and then running off, "I'll go tell Shizuka! She'll love this!"

Mai only had enough time to blink before Kaiba turned to say, "I have business in Tokyo anyway, so I'll tell the Senshi about what happened. I'm sure Rei or Makoto would be happy to help you get used to your new powers, or even be able to show you somewhere to test them out."

With that he left, leaving Mai along with Yugi and Atemu. She turned and smiled at them. It had only been a while, but she could tell that Yugi had grown taller, though Atemu was still taller by an inch or so. Both wore their respective Pendants, the Ikizuishou Pendant almost a mirror of the Millennium Pendant that Atemu wore. While her experience with one Millennium Item had not ended well, Mai always liked being around Atemu and Yugi, and now it seemed even more so with their items.

Maybe it's because I'm a Senshi-Duelist, and because both of them are like it...though both are more Duelist then Knight.

There was a sudden yell from the hallway, then another, and the trio moved into it find Jounouchi and Kaiba squaring off, yelling at each other over something. Off to one side, looking embarrassed, was Mokuba and Shizuka. Both were blushing like crazy and both were silent as their brothers yelled out about...

"You keep your perverted brother away from my sister!"

"Perverted? She's the one who obviously started it, acting like--."
"Finish that sentence and you're dead, Kaiba!"

"You think you can do it, mutt?"

"That's it!"

The two glared and Mai, working on instinct mainly, decided to get those two away from each other.

"ENOUGH!"

Two of her Harpies appeared, swooping down to pick up both men, who appeared indignant to the handling, and then moved them a good distance away.

"Mind explaining what happened, Shizuka?" Mai asked, her tone calmer now.

Both Shizuka and Mokuba exchanged a look, blushed, then looked down.

Atemu looked amused. Yugi blinked then, if possible, his eyes got wider before he turned red as well.

Mai sighed. Weren't these kids too young for anything that could cause the two older brothers to go at each other's throats?

...not that that wasn't normal...

Mai finally looked up to the disgruntled but calmer Duelists. "Ready to come down? If you promise to behave, I may even put away my Harpies."

The two Harpies looked down at their captives for a response before both nodded. Obviously not happy about letting their prey go, the two Harpies still descended and allowed them to touch ground before, with a small bow to Mai, disappeared.

Kaiba glared at Jounouchi, who returned the glare, before both walked away in opposite directions. The two younger siblings looked at each other, then at the backs of their brothers before heading after their respective elder sibling.

"I guess the world of Dueling is always going to be interesting," Mai said with a smile. She looked forward to her time here.

I have a purpose now, and I have family now.

I'm the first of my kind, but I will do what I can. I will not let Sailor Set's sacrifice go to waste, and I won't allow anyone to hurt those who will come under me.

During her ten years in Domino, Mai had heard only briefly of the Sacred Beasts. They had been discovered by some unknown man who had disappeared as quickly as the cards holding the Sacred Beasts had, and thus little was known about them.

Except that they were extremely dangerous. Atemu had researched the legend and found that Set's son, while Pharaoh, had faced up against the three Sacred Beasts when he learned they were draining the souls of the ka beings, as well as the people whom they lived within. The boy's name was unknown to her, of it was she didn't remember it properly only that he had risked a good deal, playing in multiple Shadow Games both to defeat the ones who had awoken the beasts and also to save the various members of his court. When he reached the beasts himself, he had used his own type of amulet, which had been given to him by a ka spirit, to help seal away the beasts into cursed tablets, and buried them deep in the Valley of the Kings.

But then they had been found, and some fool at Industrial Illusions turned them into cards.

Much the same tragedy that happened nearly 3000 years ago was about to repeat when they were sealed, beneath an unknown island, by someone. That someone had passed on seven Keys that would unlock the Beasts, and Kaiba, realizing the dangers, decided that the best thing for this was to post a watch of the best Duelists there were.

So he built his school for Dueling, Duel Academia, there, and got only the best Duelists to go in. Even if they were bottom of the barrel, he noted, most were just as good as Jounouchi at least, and considering Jounouchi's standing in the Dueling world as the third-best Duelist, it was at least a criteria to meet. Diversity was the key: even Jounouchi could beat someone with a good deck if he pulled the right card and knew how to use it, and that same principle went into the choosing of who would go to the school and who got kicked out.

But that was that. No one had tried to raise the Sacred Beast cards, and the God cards had been hidden, in case anyone got the idea of stealing them. Yugi had risen to attain the title of King of Games, while Atemu was gaining some power and slowly building up Domino into a new city...

Our future, and the future of everyone, is happening. Crystal Tokyo is blossoming, and here, Domino is turning golden.

Mai smiled to herself.

I'm glad...I'm glad I got to see this. Sailor Set...everyone, your lives were never in vain. Our future is ahead of us.

Below on the street, she saw a young boy with brown hair rushing by. "I'm late! That train made me late...and it's not good to be late if you're going to be the next King of Games!"

She blinked, then smiled. The worlds never changed, and for that, she was glad.