Crow blinked the sleep from his eyes. Morning had come. 'Man,' he thought, standing and stretching, 'what a dream that was; a ghost living here. Of course, I guess it wouldn't really count as living, per say.' He chuckled and shook his head, pulling on a clean shirt. He slipped on his headband and headed downstairs or breakfast.

"Morning, Jack. How'd you sleep?" His brother, busy with the coffee maker, barely acknowledged his presence. "I had the strangest dream last night-," He broke off when he noticed the other person in the kitchen, staring at him. "You." He swallowed thickly and took a step back. "You must be one of our new neighbors. A-and I saw you yesterday. And . . . and then had a dream about-," at this point, he was desperately trying to convince himself.

Yusei stood up from the table and walked over to stand in front of him. "Last night you stuck your hand through my chest. Trust me, that was no dream."

Crow took in a breath. "That . . . that was real?" Yusei closed his eyes and nodded stiffly. "Wow." The redhead sank back against the counter. "W-what happened?"

Yusei bristled slightly at that. "I didn't even know I was dead. Forgive me for not knowing how I died."

"Well, you're not still here, are you? I mean, like, we're not going to just happen across your . . . body, right?"

Yusei looked at him for a moment, and then glanced at Jack, as if to see if Crow was serious. "Well, actually, I believe my arm is buried under the floorboards right over . . . there." He pointed to the area by Crow's feet.

The reaction was instantaneous. He screamed and bolted up onto the counter as fast as he could.

"Oh, get down from there, Crow! He was just kidding. Right, Yusei?" Jack rolled his eyes.

"Yeah. Keep in mind; the last thing I remember is being alive. One minute, I'm getting ready for a date, the next, its six months in the future, strangers are living in my house, and my brothers are no . . . where." He broke off and blinked hard. "You, um, wouldn't happen to know where they are, would you? Whether or not they're d-," he stuttered and took a breath, "d-dead, too?"

Jack and Crow looked at each other. "We'll try to find out, alright? And don't worry. I'm sure they're fine." Crow tried to reassure him.

Yusei nodded. "Thank you, um, Crow, right?"

The duelist smiled and stuck out a hand. "Yup."

Yusei eyed the hand for a moment, and then reached his own up to take it. And, as Crow was shocked to realize, it felt real. Freezing cold, but corporeal all the same. "Yusei Fudo."

Yyyyy

"I'm telling you, I know what I felt!" Crow insisted.

"Crow, last night, your hand went completely through his chest. What are you trying to say? That he's now somehow alive?"

"No. I heard that spirits that were never laid to rest will sometimes be able to move objects."

"Okay, wait. Are you saying there's a corpse somewhere in our house?"

"I'm saying there's a very good possibility."

Jack sighed and shook his head. As if he didn't already have enough to deal with. The two were currently walking into town to look for work. Sure, they made money off their dueling, but as the (albeit very skilled) rookies they were, they needed extra means of income to support their careers. "Look, let's hold off on this conversation until we're no longer in public. Right now, let's just try to find jobs."

"Right. And should we ask about Yusei's brothers while we're out? Um, Kalin and . . . Randy? No, Rally!" Crow chuckled awkwardly.

"I don't know. I know it's important to Yusei and all, but maybe we should wait until we get the Internet hooked up at home. I mean, if we just ask people in town, that's going to raise all sorts of questions. We wouldn't even know about them if it weren't for Yusei, and why would we be asking about two teens who lived here six months ago?"

"We could say we found some of their things and wanted to return them-,"

"And suppose they are still in the area and want to come over to get their 'things' that we don't have?"

Crow sighed. "Well, how about we say we're just curious about the people who lived in that house before us and wanted to know why they left?"

"Fine. That sounds plausible. I still think we should just wait and get online when we can, but you can ask around."

"'Kay. I think I'll meet you back at home. See ya."

Yyyyy

"Hello?" Jack knocked on the open garage door, not wanting to enter without knowing if anyone was in or not. He had heard that people in small towns occasionally left their doors unlocked due to trusting all of their neighbors.

"Hello. Can I help you?" A young boy (. . . or girl, as 'he' was wearing a dress) appeared from a room in the back. She/he sounded like a boy, but had long, curly, red hair.

"Uh, yes. I'm new in town and was just wondering if you do repairs on duel runners."

"We do. Is yours custom?"

"Yes." Jack replied as the other pulled something up on a computer.

"Okay. We're going to need the schematics and any specialty parts will have to be added to your bill. Is it with you?"

"Not at the moment. I just wanted to know if there was going to be a place to take it. My brother and I are going to be competing at the track in-,"

"Let me guess. New Domino?"

"Yeah. How did-,"

"I know?" He/ she didn't even look at him. "You're not the only aspiring duelists in this town, y'know. And before you ask, yes, I know you're nowhere near pro. If you were, you wouldn't be in our little one-horse town looking to get repairs at the smallest shop around."

"Alright. Is there anything about me you don't know?"

"Your name and address. Speaking of which, we run deals on occasion. Would you like to be put on our mailing list?"

"Sure. My name's Jack Atlas." He gave his address and watched as the kid froze and paled.

"O-oh. Okay. Thank you." There was a moment of awkward silence, and then, "If you find anything left behind by the people who were there before you, please bring it to me."

"To you? How come?" Jack had a feeling, but wanted confirmation before he just assumed anything.

"My name is Rally Dawson. My family used to own that house. Please, just let me know if you find anything."

"Alright. If I may ask, though, why did you move? You obviously didn't go very far."

Rally grit his teeth. "My big brother died-,"

"Rally." A man in a bandana appeared from the back room Rally had come from. "You don't know that." He turned to Jack. "I'm sor-,"

"I 'don't know that'?! Are you kidding me? I know my brother. I know he would never just run away! You knew him! Do you really think that one little fight would make Yusei just up and ditch us all?"

"One, if I remember correctly, that wasn't just a 'little' fight. And two, we have someone here. We'll have this conversation later."

Rally glanced at Jack, tears in his eyes, then ducked his head and ran out of the room. "I'm really sorry you had to see that. He's been through a lot."

Jack nodded. "It's alright." Silently, though, he wondered what he and Crow had gotten themselves into.

Yyyyy

Sooo. Its been a while, hasn't it? Here's chapter two, though! Please tell me what you thought! And any ideas on what happened to Yusei? Or where Kalin is? :3