At the center of a dark, forbidding forest lies a one-towered castle surrounded by stone walls festooned with ivy. The castle stands menacingly against the dark, purple sky. Wolves howl in the darkness and owls hoot in their perches, ready for a long night of hunting.
Inside, Yami Bakura sits comfortably in a tall, red, armchair, smoking a pipe in front of the fire of his library. Save for a few candles and the red glow of the fire, it is dark in there. The shelves full of old books are covered with cobwebs. Thunder shakes the castle and wolves again howl somewhere in the dark.
"Welcome," said Yami Bakura, pouring himself a glass of wine. "I've been expecting you, my friends. Welcome to our first edition of Tales from the Shadow Realm. A collection of stories that are told from the darkest pits of the abyss."
He opens a red book sitting on his desk. "Ah, what a perfect way to start the night. Our first tale is a young man named Chazz, who is sadly being outcasted by all he meets. Have you ever had those days, when people would just avoid you as if you were carrying the plague? Looked at you as though you were some grotesque monsters who needed to be locked away in a cage? Chazz was certainly having one of those days. But why? Why would a successful, handsome, and talented young Duelist be cast away by society like this? Chazz will soon find out that he had stumbled right into the heart of the Shadow Realm."
Shunned
"Do these people not know who I am!?" Chazz Princeton wondered as an elderly chap in a top hat screamed and ran away from him in fear. Why? What happened? Did he stink? No, that couldn't be. He was wearing his best cologne. It was a good brand. Even his crush, Alexis, said that it smelled good on him.
Chazz looked in the mirror. Did he have something in his face? No? He seemed perfectly normal. So why was everyone running away from him?
Bah, this had been one very peculiar day. Something wasn't right. He suddenly found himself walking along downtown Domino City for some odd reason. He had no recollection of how he got there at all. Or why he was there. Perhaps he dozed off and his memory got foggy. Yes, that was it. It had to be. It happened to him lots of times at the academy. Sometimes his mind would wander and he'd be walking down the halls of the school on auto-pilot like a mindless zombie.
He had to retrace his steps. He looked at his wristwatch. Damn, it was cracked. What could have done that to it? It was a very sturdy watch. Not even a fall down the stairs could damage it this way. He saw an old lady waiting for the bus.
Chazz approached her and said: "Excuse me. My watch broke. Could you tell me the time, please?"
"Of course, young man," the woman said. "It's —" She looked at him and froze. Her face contorted into an expression of absolute horror. She screamed and ran away.
"What!?" shouted Chazz. "What in the hell is going on?"
More people saw him and ran away from him, others scurried into the buildings and even sped across the street braving heavy traffic just to avoid him.
"Something is definitely wrong," Chazz thought. "I have to get home."
He asked someone for a phone. A frightened man tossed Chazz his and ran away screaming at the top of his lungs. Chazz was beginning to get frightened himself. He even felt like crying. What in the hell was going on?
"I just need to get home," he said, trying not to let his emotions get the better of him. "Maybe somebody there can help me."
He picked up the phone and called his brother, Slade. But someone else answered him.
"Hello?" said Chazz. "Hello, Slade? Is that you. I need your help."
"Slade?" a woman said. "No, I'm afraid he's not available right now. He's currently at a funeral."
"A funeral?" said Chazz. "What...what happened?"
"It's so tragic. He lost his brother the other day. Oh, the poor boy."
"What? Jagger died? But how? Wha-what happened to Jagger?"
"Oh, no. You are mistaken, sir. Jagger is not the one who passed," said the woman. "The funeral is for their brother Chazz. He tragically died in a car accident the other night."
