Saka stared at the girl across the classroom. Her blood boiled as she watched the dark-haired girl smile at her brother. Ever since that day, five thousand years ago, Saka considered Aria her archenemy. It was she who took the Ring of Anat. She drove the princess to become the woman she was today: powerless, insignificant, nothing. Saka clenched her fist and forced her line of vision to look at something else. Unfortunately, that something else was not much more pleasant than the former view, or it was too much more pleasant. There he was, sitting there, reading a book as the teacher lectured the students about something unimportant. Saka shivered as memories of her husband overwhelmed her mind once more. Seto is not Hiko; Seto is not Hiko, she often repeated at these times. But, as always, her eyes drifted toward the direction of the brunette.
"Saka?" A voice accompanied the tapping of her shoulder.
She turned around and met the brown eyes of her aibou, Tori. Saka winced again. Here she was daydreaming about Seto, completely forgetting that her other half was infatuated with him ever since she had laid eyes on him.
Without speaking, Saka gave a nod as intimation for Tori to continue speaking.
"Have you ever used the millennium dagger?" Tori whispered.
Surprised at the question, Saka shook her head.
"Do you think it's possible for us to…experiment with it, then?"
Saka raised her left eyebrow. Usually, she was the reckless one and Tori needed to restrain her irrational impulses. "Wouldn't that be dangerous?"
"Well…I was thinking that you could protect us. After all, that telekinetic power is pretty strong, right? Besides, what could possibly go wrong?"
Saka shrugged. "If you want to experiment with the dagger, go ahead. I'm just here to defend you."
Tori smiled. "Good, then we'll go to the library after school!"
Saka turned back to the teacher. She did not have a good feeling about this at all…
The bell rang.
"Aria and Nasawa are pretty smart, don't you think?" Tori commented on the girls' knowledge of the English language as they walked to their next class.
Saka didn't bother to answer. The rivalry between the two seemed meaningless. Aria shouldn't even be in high school, and Nasawa was vying for the emotions of an apathetic millionaire.
Saka and Tori entered the gym just in time to see Aria rushing toward Yami and Devi sitting next to Kaiba. Tori, suddenly blushing a deep red, quickly looked away from the latter couple.
"Why don't you go up to him?" Saka asked bluntly.
"Go up to who?" Tori replied innocently.
Saka rolled her eyes. "If you don't, then I will."
Tori bit her lip as she turned over the situation in her mind.
"What could I say?"
"How about 'hello'?"
"What would we talk about?"
"It doesn't matter!"
Tori took a deep breath.
"Okay, I'll do it—" She turned but then stopped.
"Come on, you can do it…" Saka mumbled the most encouraging sentence she ever uttered that year.
Tori gave a deep sigh. I can do this…
She slowly walked toward the bleachers, but found that Devi was still with him. It wouldn't do to spill out her emotions in front a stranger, now would it? She stopped in her tracks and decided to watch them interact until she could see him alone. Then, surprisingly, Susumu entered the scene with a wide grin on his face. After some exchange of words, Devi leaned over Kaiba. If Tori didn't know any better, she would have gained the impression that it was a kiss. Quickly shoving that disturbing thought out of her mind, Tori continued on to watch the three teenagers. Then, without a doubt, she saw the contact of Devi's lips on those of Seto.
Deeply hurt, her eyes began to water. Of all the people, it was Devi who betrayed her! Devi, the girl that she always looked up to as a role model, viciously devoured her very fiber of emotion, of love.
She turned to Saka.
"We're going to go to the library, now!" Tori muttered as she rushed out of the gymnasium.
Though it was very unlike her perfect attendance record, this…this infidelity was too much! She had been gathering her courage to finally pour out her emotions to him, and now…Devi, that thief, stole him right before she could get a chance to be alone together.
"Uh…Tori…? Are we actually skipping class?" Saka's wide eyes could not describe her surprise any better than her tone of voice did.
Tori glared. "Of course we are, and we are going to use your dagger. I know exactly what to use it for."
The identical girls walked off school grounds and into the street. The library, during school time, was always empty. Librarians were on lunch breaks, and the one that was currently on duty was half asleep.
This will be easier than I thought… Tori grabbed Saka's arm and dragged her into a closet.
"Do you happen to know any other dimension besides Mornedra?" Tori asked Saka immediately as she began searching for the ventilation system after turning on the feeble light bulb barely attached to the ceiling.
"Not really, no," Saka answered quietly. "What are you looking for?" She added.
"A vent," Tori muttered as she pressed her head against the wall, peering into the space between it and the shelf before she groaned, "Found it."
Gently, she pulled at the shelf, but to no avail. The hunk of metal weighed about three hundred pounds. Suddenly, the gleam of the millennium dagger caught her eye. The physically useless weapon swung from Saka's belt slightly as its owner fidgeted in the tiny space.
"Saka, use your shadow powers to move the shelf," Tori ordered.
Unaccustomed to this tone of voice, Saka wordlessly obeyed. She removed the golden antique from the jeweled sheath and pointed it at the object of trouble. Greatly focusing on the magical item to remove the heavy obstacle, Saka muttered a couple of phrases under her breath, causing the shelf to hover a couple inches above the cement floor and juxtapose to the opposite wall. Too eager to be rid of the onerous object, she forgot her concentration and dropped it noisily onto the earth with a crash loud enough to wake the dead.
"Now, take off the vent cover," Tori continued without gratitude.
Though now peeved with Tori's extreme change of attitude, Saka decided that the noise she caused gave her no choice. Surely the librarian could not be that much of a heavy sleeper. I'll just talk to her about her behavior later, Saka resolved as she once again used her magical abilities in compliance to Tori's demands. This time, however, she did not require using the dagger but instead accomplished the task with a swift movement of her hand. The rusted screws dropped to the floor with four simultaneous clinks, and Tori quickly lifted the cover off.
Without even a backward glance to check on her yami, Tori crawled into the confined space. Saka, seeing no other choice but to follow her, trailed close behind. Neither of them spoke, and so the tunnel was only filled with the noise of cloth rubbing against metal and a couple of scurrying mice feeling threatened by the humans. Tori, though never having been in the ventilation system previously, confidently moved forward. After quickly obtaining sore knees and numb palms, the two girls finally approached an opening that did not lead to a populated part of the library. Tori jumped out of the vent, landing on her feet and then springing back up to her full height. Saka, just a couple of feet behind, cautiously slid out of the vent and lost her balance, but grabbed onto a brick in the wall to steady herself. A quick glance around the room led her to two conclusions: the construction workers were too stupid to put up at least one door in this place, or this room served as some kind of prison many years ago. The fact that the only window in this room was barred and too high for a person of average height to reach easily tipped her deductions in favor of the latter reasoning.
"Now what are we supposed to do?" Saka asked after fighting the temptation to add the word "master" at the end, not knowing what other surprises Tori might reveal.
"You say that the millennium items are in key with our emotions?" Tori asked as she snatched up Saka's most prized possession.
Saka furrowed her brow as she watched Tori grip the hilt of the weapon tightly, closing her eyes, and concentrating all of her hatred into the item. Saka winced as she felt the fiery hot anger invade her blood vessels, quickly filling her up with enough intense passion to cause her to explode from the violent emotion.
"Now, open a dimension," Tori, much calmer than before (due to lack of energy), gasped in between breaths.
Saka, overcome with emotion, had problems in holding the dagger steadily. For some reason, she disliked Devi more than ever, even more than Aria. All she wanted was for Devi to be destroyed, without a trace.
She pointed the dagger out the window. If something suddenly came out of her most prized possession, it would be more advantageous if that something wasn't inside a building. Muttering the same phrases she chanted before, Saka now felt the power of the millennium item on full force. This was its true power, the power to open other realms, and she was using an incredible amount of hatred in doing so. What would it do?
A golden light streamed from the edge of the blade and concentrated on the second bar of the window, though not harming the rusted metal at all. Then, the beam widened to the size of the window, completely covering it from view, but then disappeared just as suddenly. Saka fell to the floor, exhausted, but no longer angry.
She raised her eyes up to those of her aibou. "What did you do?"
--
"Yugi, do you think you can go buy groceries today? We're running low on paper towels," Solomon yelled to Yugi as he rushed out the door.
The boy stopped abruptly and frowned. "Not now, Grandpa, I need to go see Joey about a new card he bought."
Solomon rolled his eyes, "What is more important, Duel Monsters or food?"
"Don't worry, Grandpa, I can take care of it!" Tori called from the second floor as she saw Yugi stare uncomfortably at the ground when considering the question.
"All right, thank you, Tori. At least I know that there's someone I can count on!" Solomon chuckled as he re-entered his shop. "Tori, the money is on the table. Don't dawdle!" He smiled as he withdrew behind the glass counter.
"Of course, Grandpa," Tori grinned.
She pocketed the money. Saka was…somewhere. She always went on these small private journeys now and then. Who knew where she went?
Tori started jogging as she headed in the direction of the all-purpose supermarket. It had practically everything: pets, food, clothing, everything. After about three blocks, Tori slowed down to a skip. It was three o'clock, and the sun was pretty warm. Besides, it wasn't often when she could just be by herself nowadays, and it was a better time than any for her just to relax.
Tori came upon the towering building. A swift breeze of cool air rushed out as she opened the heavy door. She noticed a couple of boys at the entrance who seemed to notice her. Tori walked in quickly, grabbed the paper towels, and practically ran to the cashier to get out of the store as soon as possible. Why? Those boys made her feel uncomfortable, and it would be better to just avoid any mishaps. Luckily, the current short-skirted girl grabbed their attention as Tori darted out.
Boys… She thought disgustedly. At least Seto isn't like that… But he seems interested in that...thing.
As if on cue, she immediately heard Devi's voice. It seemed as if she were crying for help. Tch, like I'm helping her… Tori rolled her eyes and hurried along the sidewalk. After a second of rational thinking, however, she immediately changed her mind. She shouldn't be harmed, though… Dashing back to the alley where she heard Devi's cry the loudest, she found her rival for Kaiba's love trapped. It was Susumu, the boy she saw just the day before in the bleachers…with Devi and Seto. Her brain immediately connected the pieces of information together. Devi kissed Seto right in front of Susumu…and now Susumu was trying to kiss Devi. Was Devi trying to convince the bully that Seto was her boyfriend? If so, then that would mean that she wasn't really a traitor…
"Hey! What's going on here!" Tori yelled at the top of her lungs in hopes to distract Susumu. "Devi, is that you?" She added as an after thought.
--
"Saka, we have to close that door," Tori rushed into her aibou's room, happy to find that she was back from her trip.
Saka glanced at the bedroom door. "Why?"
"No, not that door, the one in the library."
Saka sighed, "What is it this time?"
"I-I don't think that Devi really likes Seto."
"What does that have anything to do with the door?" Saka asked distractedly.
Tori bit her lip. "I…I think I unleashed Devi's enemies."
Saka forced her eyes away from the floor and glanced sharply into Tori's eyes. "How did you do that!"
"It's my emotions, I think."
Wordlessly, Saka jumped out of bed, grabbed the hikari's arm, and practically flew down the stairs and into the street.
"Tori, from now on, be the rational one," Saka mumbled as they ran into the library.
They ran into the closet conspicuously; luckily no one had touched the position of the closet, making it unnecessary for Saka to exert a large amount of energy once again.
Finally nearing the end of the vent, Tori jumped out of the vent and screamed.