Yugi could not focus on her classwork. The Puzzle pieces in her jacket pocket felt heavy as the thought that she had failed her sister swirled through her mind. Her twin sister was trapped again, lost within the Shadows until Yugi could find that missing piece and reassemble the item that held her soul.

If she had just managed to wrap tighter around it, or if she had fought from the start, rather than making the mistake of thinking that if she let the girls get their hits in they would leave her alone…

There was so much that she could have or should have done that it flooded her mind. It did not help her mental state that Honda had given her the chain that she had planned to switch her Puzzle onto after school, and now there was no Puzzle to put on it.

She could not even sit comfortably in her chair. She hurt all over, and there was nothing she could do about it. Without the Puzzle she had no magic and no way to heal or protect herself. Not that it mattered. She had been used to pain before she had completed the Puzzle, used to hurting day in and day out because she had been battered by bullies. She knew far too well after her duel with Crawford that what her twin was going through was a hundred, million times worse, and there was nothing she could do about it without that missing piece.

She needed to search the halls again and find the lost fragment. However, she had the first meeting of the dueling club to run, or she would be responsible for the closure of the club before it had begun, letting down the students that were relying on her, AND she had to get to the bank before they closed to get the transfer sorted for the operation money, or Shizuka's vital eye operation would get postponed.

She did not know what to do.

She missed the worried looks getting bounced between three of her friends. They knew how much her twin sister meant to Yugi and how terrified of returning to the darkness the Pharaoh had been. This was the worst possible thing that could have happened.

Well… no. It could have been worse. They had all seen how bad Yugi had looked when they had first arrived, and there was not a single one of them that did not think that they would not have been seeing Yugi off in an ambulance if Bakura had not assisted by healing the girl, even if she had not fixed her up all the way.

The very worst thing that could have happened is Yugi could have been taken to hospital and they would not know that there was a piece missing until she had woken up and, most likely, the cleaners had already swept the halls, causing the lost fragment to be gone forever.

Anzu had already decided that she was going to ask Amane for help after class so Yugi could fulfil her duties both to her club and to Jou. The Millennium Ring could track absolutely anything. With its help they would be certain to find the lost piece. She was pretty certain that if she told the half-English girl who held the item, the Spirit of the Ring would want to track the missing fragment, if only to ensure that she could continue to harass Meisa.

When the teacher was asked to step outside by another teacher, Anzu leaned across to Amane, trying not to wonder if it was about whatever Ba-Khu-Ra had stalked off to do after she had healed Yugi.

"Hey." When the white haired girl looked at her with a curious look, Anzu bit her lower lip for a moment before saying, "I need to speak to Ba-Khu-Ra."

Confusion flickered across Amane's face and then she nodded and switched out. The Thief Queen's eyes narrowed as she asked, "What?"

"One of the Puzzle pieces is missing." Anzu almost wished she had not told her when anger flared up in the spirit. "We looked as long as we could, but the teachers forced us upstairs. Can you help us find it?"

Under normal circumstances the Spirit of the Ring would have asked what was in it for her and charged through the nose for her services, but this time was different. Without that piece of the Puzzle, everything she had waited so long for would crumble away. What was worse was that she had been so close to getting more answers when the Pharaoh's Brat summoned her Dark Magician, and now the girl would not be able to do it. No Puzzle meant no focus for the Shadow magic and no summoning.

It was possible to summon one's personal Ka beast, the one that was linked to your soul, without an item if the Shadows had infected your soul, like it had the Runt's friends, but there was no way the Dark Magician was bound to the Puzzle Bearer, and she was completely untrained, meaning she probably would not be able to summon it yet, even if it was.

"Fine," Ba-Khu-Ra hissed back, kind of wishing she had been a little more careful about where she had left the soulless bodies of the girls who had assaulted the brat as the teacher stalked back in, looking worried, "but you're going to owe me."

"We'll work out price later. No open-ended deals, though," the dancer agreed, amusing the Thief Queen.

As the teacher stepped back up to his desk, looking troubled, Anzu leaned back in her chair, confident that once Bakura started looking it would not be long before the missing piece turned up and Yugi would be able to start working on the Puzzle and would hopefully look less like she had been stabbed in the heart.

"Three girls from class 3-F have been rushed to the hospital after collapsing and becoming unresponsive," Himuro-Sensei informed his class. "Anyone who had contact with them must report to the nurse's office."

Katsuya glanced at Yugi, but the girl did not move, fully aware why the girls were unresponsive and quietly hating herself for not realizing that was why Ba-Khu-Ra had wanted a description, even if she had been distracted by fear and pain. She knew that if her twin was able to be here, she would have Challenged the girls herself at the first available opportunity, but at least she would have only set a Penalty on them, rather than Bakura's less gentle methods.

The Puzzle Bearer barely made it through class, unable to focus properly on what was going on when her hand kept going to the Puzzle pieces in her pocket and her mind went back to the lost piece. The moment the bell went for the end of the day, she grabbed her bag, swept everything into it, and surged to her feet, flinching as the grazes and bruised muscles from her earlier tumble protested the movement. Before she could get too far, Anzu grabbed her wrist and pulled her back, a sympathetic look on her face.

"Anzu, I…"

"We'll look," the dancer interrupted and promised the duelist, "Jou, Honda and I. Plus Ba-Khu-Ra has promised to help. She can track anything."

The Queen of Games hesitated for a moment, then glanced at Amane. When the other Item Holder got to her feet and immediately switched with her darker self and nodded to the shaking owner of the Puzzle, Yugi's shoulders sank. "I should…"

"You need to go support the club, or they're not going to be able to run. You'll let down all the students that are relying on you." Anzu shook her head, her tone a low whisper that only Yugi could hear. "Trust us. We want Meisa safe as much as you do."

"I do trust you," Yugi responded just as quietly. Anzu could feel the girl trembling, and her voice echoed it.

"I know." And she did know. The weight of that trust was heavy as her friend took a deep breath and headed for the club rooms, ready to run her first session of the duel club. Once the classroom emptied of everyone except her and her friends, she turned to the others. "Okay, before we do anything, Ba-Khu-Ra, can you track the Puzzle piece? It'll save us time looking."

"We need to talk price first." The Thief Queen sat on her desk, watching the trio with a smirk. "What's in it for me?"

"You need Meisa, don't you?" Jou huffed. "Shouldn't you do it for free?"

"I don't do anything for free," Bakura snorted, "though I am willing to accept a lower fee for this because of that."

"I don't suppose a thank you would suffice?" Anzu tried and got a snort in reply.

"How about I don't punch you?" Honda tried to threaten.

"Touch me, and I'll find the piece and keep it for myself." The counter threat was more effective, and the broader teen huffed but backed up. The Spirit of the Ring turned to the dancer. "I'll hunt down that piece, but in exchange you're going to do something for me."

"What's that?" Anzu looked wary as she shifted from foot to foot, uncomfortable.

"I need you to keep a better eye on the Brat." The Thief Queen slipped off of the desk, amused at the surprise on Anzu's face. "I don't particularly want to have to heal another broken limb."

Yugi's friends winced at that.

"I need her alive, so you're going to keep me informed of when there's someone messing with her so I can put a stop to it," Ba-Khu-Ra informed the other girl. "Deal?"

Anzu paused to consider for only a moment and then nodded. "Fine. I can get behind that. Just to make you aware, there's already someone messing around. That guy that was with Yugi after the fall? His name is Otogi Ryuji. He's the heir to the Black Clown Game Shop, and he's up to something. We know he has something against her Ojiisan, and we know he's going to try to use her to get to him, but we can't tell Yugi without him screwing her over."

Bakura paused to consider for a moment, pleased Anzu had accepted her terms so readily, then nodded as she called the Millennium Ring to her hand. "Good to know. Now… find the missing piece of the Millennium Puzzle."

The golden item glowed brightly, and the points on it hovered horizontally for a moment before they moved as one. She looked out the window in the direction they were pointing to find that they were pointing towards a car that was leaving the school gates.

"Someone's walked off with it," Bakura hissed, rather irritated. This meant that she was going to have to go and find out who that car belonged to and slam their head into the wall until they told her where they had put it, and that was far more work than she had wanted to do. "Not sure if it's a teacher or a student, but it just left school grounds."

"At least we know it's not gone down the vents or under a locker or something?" Anzu offered, trying to find something good in the situation.

Bakura did not justify it with a response, just stalked out of the room, heading out to find out who had dared to touch a piece of a treasure she had already claimed.

"I'll go tell Yugi," Jou sighed, running a hand through his hair. "She needs to know. It might reassure her a little bit to know we have an idea where it is at least."

"I'm gunna follow Bakura," Honda said with a nod, "in case she tries something once she's got her hands on it."

"And I'll go talk to Ojiisan," Anzu agreed, "so he knows something's up. Yugi's still hurt. She's going to need to rest when she gets home, and we all know she's not okay mentally."

"I mean, would you be?" Jou huffed as he headed for the door.

The other two did not reply as he slipped out of the room. The moment he was out of hearing range of the others, he kicked the nearest trash can, which went spinning across the hallways, dispensing rubbish all over the place.

Just last night they had decided that it was probably a bad idea to let Yugi wander around on her own for a while, and then they had done exactly that. They had let themselves get distracted by Otogi's threats and left their friend unattended, which had given those girls a chance to have a go at her.

They had a lot to thank Amane for. If the teachers had arrived on scene first, then they would have called an ambulance, and he suspected that the Ring Bearer would not have been able to help her friend once the medics had arrived on scene. After all, it would have been hard to explain the sudden disappearance of those injuries once they were on record.

He was not too happy that she had not healed Yugi all the way, but considering that there had been blood on the floor, he kind of understood it. They had to cover up for the magic that they were using. Not that the teachers had given a damn. He knew the staff here had a knack for being incompetent, but outright accusing Yugi of lying about being shoved down the stairs was a new low for them.

Despite all the anger bottled up inside, as he reached the club room and stepped inside, he could not help but smile. Yugi seemed brighter as she helped the others fill in the Duel League paperwork and checked in on the budget paperwork that Eiko was filling in. To someone who knew her well, though, there was still enough of a droop in her posture that he could easily tell she was still really upset about what happened. She sighted Jou entering and slipped around the room, hope slipping into her expression as she got close. "Any luck?"

"Not yet." Watching Yugi sink in on herself was horrible, and he tried to be reassuring as he offered, "But we have a lead. Someone's taken it; we don't know who."

"Okay… okay." Yugi's voice shook, her breath started coming faster, and she staggered back a step, bumping into the table as she did so.

"Breathe, Yuge." Katsuya grabbed her shoulders when she nearly bolted, shocked to recognize this reaction as an oncoming panic attack. Having seen his sister melt down before, he wanted to try and help her prevent it from becoming a full-blown incident and tried to reassure her. "Bakura's hunting it down now. We'll get it back. Meisa will be fine. You need to breathe. Focus on my voice. Slow, deep breaths."

The Queen of Games forced herself to breathe slowly, focusing on that fact in order to try and calm herself. It was difficult, and the nearest student vacated their seat to let her sit down.

"S…sorry," Yugi stammered, still shaking, as she realized her club members were staring at her. "I'm… I'm fine."

"If you need to go home, Mutou-san, we don't mind." Eiko looked worried.

"N…No. I'm fine." Yugi shook her head and put on a customer service smile, making Jou wonder how long his friend had been suffering from panic attacks and how often he had been oblivious and missed the signs, forcing her to hide her emotions away to prevent herself from seeming weak to others. "I just lost something really important to me."

Her hand went to where her Millennium Puzzle had hung for the majority of the last year on instinct, going to grab the rope that she often used as a way to ground herself when the anxiety had started to rise, only to suddenly remember that it was not there. It was in her bag with the rest of the pieces she currently held.

"Still, nothing can be done right now, so let's focus on getting ourselves set up properly." The Queen of Games got to her feet and gave everyone a bright, reassuring grin, forcing herself to hide how off balance she was. "After all, we need a team name for those forms."

That distracted the other club members, who immediately started coming up with ideas. Yugi managed to get their attention and started listing down what was shouted over to her, excluding any of the ones that were rude. Once everyone had run out of ideas, she cross referenced it against the list of duelling club names that were already in use and then turned to the group as a whole.

"Okay, as much as I appreciate the naming suggestions that revolve around my title, I might not always be Queen of Games, and I certainly don't plan on being in school forever," the club president reminded them. "The club name will be stuck with us once we're registered, so we need to make sure it's one we're all happy with."

That caused a soft murmuring amongst the other students.

"I've crossed through the names that are already in use, and I'm going to put the list of remaining names on the table. I want all of you to write down your favorite, fold it in half, and leave it next to the sheet. Then we'll discuss the names with the most suggestions.

As the club members lined up to do exactly that, Yugi sat on the windowsill and leaned into Katsuya. "Are you going to join?"

"Would you mind?" he asked quietly, happy that she was happier and relieved she did not seem to be in the middle of another panic attack.

"No. You might be stuck having to wait till Nationals to do any official duels like me though; I'd need to check," The Queen of Games warned him, sounding a little sad about that, making him look down to check she was okay.

"I don't mind." He felt her relax when he said that. "I'm more interested in getting experience and having a bit of fun with my second favorite girl."

"Second favorite?" She looked up at him with a joking pout.

"Sorry, Yuge, but you don't match up to Shizuka." His reply made his friend chuckle.

"Fair. Fair," Yugi allowed with an honest smile. "You should probably put your vote in for the club name if you're gunna join."

"True, but I'm kind of comfortable here." That earned him a contented sigh from his best friend, and she settled back into him, closing her eyes while she waited. Eiko grinned as she bounced around the room, having cast her vote, and handed Katsuya a form to fill in, resting on the back of a decent size text book to give him some support without having to move.

He smiled at the younger student, who just winked at him, having seen how comfortable Yugi was with him. Considering how wound up she had been minutes earlier and how sore she looked when she moved around the room, she was more than happy to help the Queen of Games relax for a few moments at least. That and the pair of Yugi and Jonouchi were kind of cute together, though she would not say that out loud.

Once the only vote left to cast with Jou's, Eiko coughed lightly, causing Yugi to open her eyes and slip off the windowsill. Jou followed, quickly casting his vote and finishing his sheet while his friend tallied the totals.

"Okay. There's a tie," she said finally after she had double checked the numbers, frowning slightly at the other eleven club members, "because someone wrote two names on their slip of paper."

Kobayashi Maru, the only girl of the Kobayashi triplets, who had slightly curly dark brown hair and wide brown eyes, blushed, embarrassed, having been unable to decide.

"So the choice is between 'Domino Knights', using the English word spelt K-N-I-G-H-T-S, or 'Domino Senshi'," the Queen of Games continued, noting that both Knights and Senshi were names for warriors, and pleased that 'Crown Duel Club' and 'Royal Court' had dropped off of the options list, "so I want a show of hands on which you prefer."

When 'Domino Senshi' got more votes, she looked around as she asked, "Is everyone alright with that?"

"I am not wearing a leotard." One of the guys, Kon Orochi, if Yugi was remembering correctly, one of the students in the year above her, who supposedly did not dye his hair blonde, despite the fact that Yugi was sure she could see black roots beginning to come through, and had piercing blue eyes, complained.

"Why would… oh." Yugi face palmed. He was thinking of the Sera Senshi or Sailor Guardians, from Sailor Moon. "No. No leotards. Possibly a club jacket when we have more funds, or at least a shirt we can wear to competitions, but certainly no leotards. I would look awful in a leotard, trust me."

That made the other students laugh.

"I withdraw my complaint." Kon put his hands up with a grin.

"Okay, so Domino Senshi?" Yugi double checked with the rest of the club. When there were no other complaints, she grinned. "Then it's settled; make sure you all write that down in the club name space on your forms. I'll make up a sign for the door."

"Is the Kame Game Shop going to sponsor the club?" One of the other guys, a final year student who Yugi remembered introducing herself as Watanabe Yori, whose hard green eyes and slicked back, short black hair reminded her of Takahara, asked.

"I don't know yet; I haven't asked Jii-san," the Club President responded, remembering the decision to ask this evening, which she had completely forgotten in the mess that lunchtime had been. "But I will hopefully have an answer by Thursday."

When that got a positive response from the other members of the club, Yugi relaxed a little bit. She was sure that her grandfather would want to put something towards the club, even if it was nothing more than a small discount. She really was not sure how much he would be willing to offer. It really did depend on how well the store was doing, and right now…

She shook herself slightly, reminding herself that they had survived rival stores opening before and would survive this too. After all, the Black Clown was a big store with lower prices, but it was a big box store with little personality. The Kame Game Shop was a little more expensive, but customers got a much more personalized experience, and Yugi had a knack for finding the right booster packs for people. More than eighty percent of the time, when someone opened a booster pack they had bought from her, there was something in there they could use in their decks. Not always the thing they were looking for, but always something useful.

The differences between the two stores and that luck level would keep the shop going, but she could see them having to tighten their belt a little until the worst of the initial hit had passed and they knew what they would probably be taking from now on.

Guilt rose again as part of her wondered how she could be thinking about money for the shop or the club right now, when the Puzzle was in pieces, and she had to pull her focus back in order to get the sign written. She wanted to help her twin, and the moment she got home, she was going to assemble what she had of the Puzzle.

While she had been on her way to the club, she had remembered what her Anesan had said to her while they had been sat on the battlements of Crawford's castle during Duelist Kingdom.

'For three thousand years I was trapped in the Shadows. It was cold, it was dark, and it hurt. More than anything I've experienced since. I didn't think I would ever get out. Then I started to see glimpses of light. Light that started to appear more and more often. And each time the light appeared, the Shadows would back off and I would get a few moments free from pain and fear. Every time you tried to complete the Puzzle, I got to connect with the mind and soul of this bright sunspot who was my deliverance. I got to see you grow, and while there are a few of your childhood bullies I would like very much to set on fire, I started to look forward to the visits from the Light.'

She hoped, more than anything, that if she could get enough of the Puzzle completed that she could protect her sister, at least for a while, and maybe, just maybe, she could connect to her twin's soul and talk with her, reassure her that Yugi was never, ever going to abandon her to the darkness.

She had been trying to assemble a little of it before all the club members had gotten here, but her shaking, unsteady hands had been unable to put more than a few pieces together. She hoped that once she got home, got to take some painkillers, and could focus properly, it would be easier to do.

At last the paper sign for the door was finished and put up and the budget application paperwork was completed, allowing the club the small stipend of a couple of thousand yen to get basic supplies. If they wanted anything more, they needed to get a sponsor and do fund raising.

Those were topics for Thursday's meeting, though. The bell went, informing them that it was an hour past the end of school, the building was shutting soon, and it was time to go home. The Domino Senshi gathered their things and headed out as Yugi gathered up the paperwork to hand in to Yamada-Sensei in the morning.

"You sure you're okay, Yugi?" Eiko asked once it was just her, Jou, and the girl in question, hovering around, worried for the older student.

"I'll be fine," the Queen of Games promised the younger student. "I've just had a bit of a rough day."

"Let me know if I can help?" the girl pleaded.

"I will, don't worry." Once Eiko had secured that promise, she bowed and headed out.

"Home now?" Jou asked as Yugi closed up the club room and locked the door.

"No. One stop to make first. I need to get to the bank." The smaller Duelist shook her head and gave him a reassuring smile. "So when Anesan gets back I can tell her I kept our promise."

Katsuya hugged her at that. He had honestly expected her to not want to make the extra stop with how shaky she was, and he had dreaded having to phone his mother to say that the money was going to be delayed.

She hugged him back. She had considered going straight home, but she had promised to get the transfer started today so it could be in Shizuka's hands before her next meeting with her specialist, and she knew how much that meant to both Katsuya and his Imoto.

As she pulled away from her friend, she could see that the decision to keep her word was the right one, even if it pulled at her heart.

Still, it was going to be a short stop, so it would not prevent her from working on the Puzzle for too long, and though she felt worthless after she had been unable to protect her twin, she had to believe that Akhenaden was wrong. Katsuya was a member of her household: he was not going to abandon her once the money was transferred and he no longer needed her.

Author Note: There is a tumblr for Ennead but this site keeps eating the link :( All the artwork I've received over the years for this series is posted up at enneadau though. Sorry I can't be more helpful.