With a new morning came the same routine. Turn off the alarm clock. Roll out of bed. Shower. Get dressed. Breakfast. Leave for school. Even the weird dream that dissolved into the recesses of Yugi's mind as he shampooed his hair presented nothing too different from usual. Sure, it differed greatly from the anime he watched during much of the previous month, but still. Nothing weird. Everything he watched must have meshed together with his imagination to create one hell of a dream.

The only new aspect of this new morning that greatly resembled its predecessors was today marked his first day of his second year in high school.

Yugi jogged down the stairs, patting at the creases in his uniform. This time last year, he arrived to school late and fell flat on his face in front of the whole class. And his shoe came off. And someone laughed. No way would history repeat itself.

Upon entering the kitchen, a briny scent wafted over and warmed his face. It originated from the grill rack his grandfather was tending to, the device whirring as he flipped fish over. He seated himself at the table and slumped against his chair. His breakfast consisted of rice and miso soup. It's not every day his grandfather will cook, so Yugi savored his meal before eating cereal and toast tomorrow.

Though when Yugi said "savoring his meal", he probably meant eating very slowly.

"You better speed up you eating, Yugi," he said, trying not to laugh at Yugi's face (and flower effects around him) as he spooned his miso soup very slowly. "School can't begin without you."

"That's not how schools work," Yugi replied.

"Oh, you know what I meant." Solomon placed his hands onto his hips, voice light but eyes less so. "You take care, okay? I don't want something to happen to you."

As vague as 'something' sounded, he understood instantly. He meant all the recent disappearances. News correspondents claimed there to be no pattern among the victims. It didn't matter what the person looked like or what they identified as: the only similarities to be found were they were approximately Yugi's age and no one ever found the bodies. The victims simply vanished and baffled everyone, regardless of how long the police stared into the camera as they lied about making headway with the case.

The fish finished grilling and Solomon strode over with a plate which he set down in front of Yugi. "Yugi," his brow furrowed, "you're not to talk to any strangers. Once you've made friends, you can all walk to and from school together and keep each other safe. Okay?"

"Okay." He started to eat his fish.

A few minutes later, Yugi finally finished his meal and wore his shoes. With a short "I'll see you later", he took off to school, Domino High School. A short walk separated his house from his school and he arrived at school five minutes early.

Before he could walk more than five steps, someone crashed into him. While he managed to remain upright by shifting back his foot, his victim, a boy younger than him (probably first year) didn't share in his luck and he tipped backward until he thumped into a sitting position on the ground.

He heard some girls snickered. School hadn't started yet and he already messed up. What just happened was like a scene from an old manga. "Ah! I'm sorry!" He offered the boy his hand. "Are you all right? Did I hurt you?"

"It's fine. I bumped into you so I should be the one apologizing." He took hold of Yugi's hand and rose to his feet. "Sorry about that... I was worried I would get lost so rushed in without checking where I was going. My name is Yue Himidori, by the way."

Yue Himidori fixed the goggles that rested on his head. Yugi noticed that the boy has long two colored hair, spiked into various direction, tied into a low ponytail. Red on the bottom and green on the top. Yugi would say that his hair is unusual but that's coming from a boy who has three-colored hair shaped like a starfish.

Yue blinked. And Yugi realized that he was waiting for his respond.

"Oh! I'm Yugi Moto." Yugi cupped his palm around the back of his head and shared in his smile. "Is this your first day?"

Yue nodded excitedly. "Yup! First year, first day!" He leaned closer to Yugi with twinkling red eyes. "Are you my upperclassman? What's it like in high school? Is it fun? Like in those anime?"

Yugi nervously laughed. Well, this kid is sure excited. "Well-"

Then his eyes caught upon a teen who just walked pass the gate. The teen similar to himself. That boy... had been in last night's dream. No mistaking it. A jolt jumped up his chest when his eyes homed in on his. He didn't acknowledge him, walking pass him.

Yue looked between him and the older boy several times. "Do you know him?"

"... Kind of." He scratched his chin. "Last night-"

The school bell rang. "Crap!" Yue squeaked. "We need to go to class right now!" He ran ahead Yugi. Yue glanced back and gave a grin toward Yugi. He waved back to Yugi as he shouted, "See you soon, Moto-senpai."

Yugi waved his hand.

"Wait! I'm late too!"

Running toward the second floor where his class is, he let out a sigh of relief that his homeroom teacher hadn't arrive yet. Nearly all seat were occupied, though there was an empty desk near the back by the window like a typical anime main character's seat. In front of the desk sat a boy with brown hair, his upper part of the hair is lighter than the lower part. He seems like a friendly guy from the way he always smile while he was chattering with his new classmate.

Yugi decided to ask him. "Hi," said Yugi, in which the boy turned toward him and gave him a friendly smile. "Um... is there a seating arrangement or do we just choose where to sit?"

"Nope," the boy shook his head. "The seat behind me is empty if you want."

"Thank you." Yugi held out his hand. "I'm Yugi Moto."

The boy grinned and shook Yugi's hand. "Jaden Yuki. Nice to meet you."

Wait. That name sounded familiar…

Just as Yugi took his seat, the teacher arrived. One of the student jolted to his feet and bowed. "Good morning, Sensei!" Everyone else soon copied his example, sitting down once their homeroom teacher gave them permission to do so.

After roll call, their teacher had them write their names onto paper nameplates, and then the first lesson commenced. The class progressed through four fifty-minute lessons, until it was lunchtime.

"Hey, Yuki-kun." Jaden lifted up his head from his table to glance back at Yugi who was carrying his bento in his hand. "I'm going to the cafeteria for lunch. Do you want to come?"

Jaden yawned widely. "Sorry, Yug," he said. "I think I'm going to sleep until the next lesson."

Yugi smiled in understanding then left the boy to sleep. When he arrived at the cafeteria, Yugi found him again.

The boy, apparently an upperclassmen, sat together with another upperclassman who has blue hair styled like a crab with yellow highlight. Yugi was about walked over here when a familiar voice called him.

"Moto-senpai!"

Yugi turned around to saw a familiar tomato-haired boy running toward him with a tray of katsudon-bento in his hand. "Hey there, Himidori-kun."

"Are you looking for a seat?" Yue asked. "I can't find anywhere empty."

Yugi glanced back at the table with his look-alike. "Well… I saw a not so crowded table. Are you okay with that?"

Yue nodded eagerly. "I don't mind. Anywhere is fine. I want to eat!"

Yugi chuckled as he and Yue walked over the table. "Um-m, excuse me."

The crab-haired boy looked up while his look-alike peered at him from over his shoulder. From very close, Yugi realized that he as his look-alike is exactly the same. Except maybe the height, the even spikier hair, the red highlight instead of purple on his hair, the tanned skin, and that vigilant look in the boy's red eyes. Yugi was sure he never has a twin, so maybe this was just a pure coincidence.

"H-Hey," said Yugi. "I-I was wondering, if I- I mean, we, me and my friend, can sit here? I can't find any empty seat nearby."

The crab-haired boy gave Yugi a smile. "Sure. You can."

Yugi smiled back as he took a seat beside his look-alike. "Thank you. I'm Yugi Moto."

"And I'm Yue Himidori. Pleased to meet you!" Yue gave them his biggest grin so far, sitting beside Yusei across Atem Yugi.

"I'm Yusei Fudo," said the crab-haired boy. He then gestured to Yugi's look-alike. "And this is Atem Yami."

Yue then looked at Atem then at Yugi then back Atem again. "So…are you twin?"

Yugi laughed nervously while Atem answered, "No. This is just a weird coincidence."

"Do you, in a way, know each other?" asked Yusei.

Exactly what Yugi planned to ask next.

"This is our first meeting actually," Atem said.

"That's pretty neat," Yue said. "So, where are you from? You don't look like from around here."

"Egypt," Atem replied as he shoved a hash brown into his mouth. "Although, my father and I traveled a lot because he worked as an archeologist, and we settled in this city a year ago."

"Whoa…" awed Yue. "That's cool."

Yugi agreed. He then glanced at Yusei who was eating his ramen, still wearing his think leather gloves. A weird accessory to wear for school, especially when the weather didn't call for it. But Yugi wasn't complaining, the tomato-haired boy wore a goggles.

"Um..." Yugi eyed Yusei's gloves. "Your gloves... don't they get in the way?"

Yusei blinked at him then glanced at his gloves, particularly his right one, then looked back at Yugi. "They're costume made so it would fit my hand perfectly and won't really disturb me," he explained. "Plus, I'm kind of used to them."

"Really?" Yue bit one of his katsudon. "How come?"

"I stayed in Australia during my childhood." At this point Yusei smiled warmly at his own memories. "My friends and I loved to play in my dad workshop. We actually built a mini motorbike back then. For precaution, dad told me to gloves, so I guess it became a habit of mine." He enthralled them with stories about exploring the junkyard and surfing and building his own invention, and Yugi was disappointed when it was his turn to describe himself.

His life story was rather dull compared to Yusei or Atem. He briefly talked about his regular family and his regular school experiences prior to now.

Upon being asked about himself, Yue flapped a hand. "Well, I haven't done anything interesting either. But I don't mind. As long as I can live a happy life with friends, being ordinary won't be hard."

"Ordinary isn't a bad thing," Atem told him. "Moto-kun, do you consider ordinary a bad thing?"

He blinked. "M-Me?" He sounded like he was interrogating him.

"You said it yourself just now… you consider your life average in every respect. Would you exchange it for one of excitement and danger? Would you throw it away if the opportunity presented itself?"

Yusei directed his attention to him now as well.

Yue frowned.

"Ah... that's...!" Yugi stirred his rice as he stirred his thoughts in search of a suitable answer. "It's hard for me to say. I wouldn't exchange the life I have now for someone else's. It's something that belongs to me that I need to shape myself. But if it was to become not ordinary for whatever reason... that's not something to shy away from. Being passive... sounds wrong to me."

"Moto-kun." Atem stood up, tone calm but emotion in his eyes not. "While I respect and appreciate your outlook, I hope you recognize it will lead you into a dangerous lifestyle. Unless you're willing to give your life to be extraordinary, you should content yourself with what you have now."

The room continued bubbling with voices of nearby clusters of students but the immediate area fell quiescent as the four looked at each other.

"Was that a hypothetical situation?" Yue asked. He pointed at Atem with his chopsticks. "Though you sounded like you were talking about your personal experience."

Atem didn't respond. He refused to speak for the rest of lunch. Until the bell rang and the four of them went back to their own class. When the school day officially ended, Yue met Yugi at the door and accompanied him to the shoe lockers. Remembering his grandfather's suggestion, he asked Yue where he lived. At the implication of walking home together, the greenette asked him for his address and said he lived the opposite way upon hearing his answer.

"It's a shame," Yue told him with a grin. "I'd love to walk home with you but it's really out of my way..."

Yugi waved a hand. "It's fine! So... I'll see you tomorrow."

And with that, they parted.

Overall, a decent day. As he set off for home, he reflected on the day's events. He made a friend. Possibly more for while he could be certain of Jaden and Yue, Yusei and Atem were more opaque. This is actually the first time Yugi ever interact with upperclassmen and underclassmen. A new record!

He shrugged his shoulders to relieve them for a moment of the strain of his backpack. It would take him hours to get through today's homework.

A faded poster on a storefront grabbed Yugi's attention. He paused to read it. A boy from his school, the same age as him with white hair, went missing the week before. Yugi experienced a sharp pang as he recalled his grandfather's lecture. Had this boy also heard something similar from their parent? Had he rolled his eyes and continued as usual, or did he heed their warnings and disappear anyway?

"Help me... Please..."

Yugi blinked.

"Somebody... I need someone to... to save me..."

There it was again, and this time Yugi was certain he hadn't imagined it. The fact that he hadn't heard it through his ears, but rather reverberating through his head just made it all the stranger.

"Someone... Anyone... Save me..."

Yugi gripped the straps of his backpack and tried to find what that weird voice was.

The voice continued to call out in between brief pauses, but Yugi noted it was sounding weaker and weaker. Whoever it was must have been in serious trouble and he couldn't just ignore that. As he ran down the street he got the impression that he was getting closer to the source of the voice, but nobody else seemed to react to it. In fact, most of the people around seemed content to ignore him. That was fine. He wasn't sure how he would manage to explain to anyone that he was following a voice in his head.

The voice lead Yugi to a mouth of an alleyway, breaths coming in heavy pants as he waited for the voice to come again. The intervals were getting slightly longer too. He hoped he wouldn't be too late.

"He... e e elp... M-me..."

There! Yugi ran into the alley towards the voice. By now most people would have started to question the wisdom behind following a disembodied voice calling for help into a dark, secluded area. At least, those who hadn't already begun questioning their own sanity.

"Th... this..."

They were suffering. Yugi couldn't ignore it.

"R-re e e eally... hu... urts..."

"Hello?" he called out, hoping that the voice's owner was near. "I heard you calling for help! Where are you?"

Yugi kept walking as he called out, but there was no response, and he could no longer feel that pull telling him where the voice was coming from. He had been walking for a while now but the alleyway seemed to stretch on forever. His steps slowed as a sense of foreboding washed over him.

"Hello?"

Yugi yelped as he heard the heavy clunk of a trash can being knocked over and whirled around just in time to see something small disappear into the shadows. "Hey! If this is a joke, it's not funny!" Yugi called out.

"H e e... e e el l l p... m-me e e e..."

Yugi froze in place. The owner of the voice was right there, but he couldn't see them. What was going on? He whirled around, eyes frantically searching for the owner of the voice.

"H... e... e..."

There! Yugi's head snapped towards a pile of garbage that looked like it had been cut and pasted from a photograph in a magazine. There were pools of black splattered on the ground around it and something was moving just behind it.

"I'm here! Are you-"

Yugi stopped suddenly as he stepped around the pile of trash and found the thing that had been calling for help.

"...A doll?"

But it wasn't. Not a stuffed toy, anyway. It was really a giant brown colored hairball with two pairs of green paws. Yugi could see it moving as it gasped in pain and hear its raspy breaths. He could see the tears in its fur and see the black blood underneath and he knew it was alive.

"S... s... a a a ve... m... e e e e..."

The creature's voice snapped Yugi out of his stupor. He fell to his knees and scooped the furry creature up into his arms. Now that he was touching it he could feel the warmth of its body. Even so he had a hard time accepting that it was a living creature.

Even so, it was writhing in pain.

"Th... a... a... a... nk... y... o... u..."

"What are you?" Yugi asked aloud as he stood. Well, that didn't really matter at the moment. What mattered was getting the creature help.

A loud bang went off. No, even describing it as 'loud' was too tame. Yugi fell to his knees again, subconsciously squeezing the furry creature tighter as his ears rang from that deafening sound. He noticed a shadow fell over him and the hairball.

"Yugi Moto."

He almost didn't hear that voice over the ringing in his ears, but even so he recognized it instantly. Slowly he craned his head up to look at the person cornering him.

"Y- Yami-san?"

It was Atem Yami without a doubt, but he wasn't wearing the same outfit from earlier.

He is clad in a black-and-purple robe with bat wing-like edges, underneath his robe, he wears a tunic with the same color pallet but with some red instead of purple, and a golden crown on his forehead that shaped like an eye. He glared down at him, holding a staff with a glowing golden orb at the tip.

The same outfit that Yugi saw in his dream.

"What are you doing here?" he hissed, causing Yugi to flinch.

"I... I heard him calling for help. He's hurt!"

"That's none of your business." He raised his staff, leveling it on Yugi. "Put that creature down now."

Yugi was terrified.

Even so, Yugi tightened his hold on the weird animal.

"Are you the one who hurt it?!"

His eyes narrowed.

"I'm not going to let you hurt him anymore!"

Atem's expression didn't change, nor did he lower the staff.

"Is that so? And how do you plan to stop me?"

How could he stop him?

The orb on the staff started to glow and Yugi shivered.

"I won't say it again. Put that creature down."

He couldn't do anything to stop him. So why didn't he hit him already? What was he waiting for?

Unless...

Unless he didn't really want to hur-

BANG!

All the light went off.

Darkness. A few seconds ago, it hadn't been dark. It was in the middle of the day! Yugi turned around. He had been able to see Atem in front of him a few seconds ago. Now he could barely see anything. And looking over his shoulder, he couldn't see the other end of the alleyway.

Breathing loudly, the boy stood up, still cradling the furry creature with his right hand, he felt around for the wall with his left.

His surroundings lit up. Atem is nowhere to be found. There was a slow creaking sound. And then the surroundings which had fallen strangely silent exploded in a frenzy of motion and sound and light. Looking up to the sky, no longer blue but toxic green. Yugi removed his hand from the wall, only for a hole opened from the bit of wall he touched. Yugi covered his eyes with his left arm when suddenly neon green light flashed from the hole. More followed until dozens of neon light decorated the walls either side of him, each one shining his every movement like he was a wanted criminal on the run.

Wrong. All this was wrong.

Yugi glanced over his shoulder. Both ends. He spotted several silhouettes approaching him from the end of the alleyway. As they drew nearer, his view of them improved, confusing him even more.

Paper-person. Simple paper-person like what he used to make back in kindergarten. Some floated alone, some floated in group creating a paper-person-chain. They drifted toward him in groups of about twenty from both sides.

Yugi pressed his back against a bit of wall without any spotlight on it, flattening himself against it as if doing so would make him disappear. But it didn't. It didn't and he crouched down in order to protect the furry creature and shut his eyes and prayed these paper things would pass by and he would wake up in his bed and go to school and not find anyone from a dream there.

"Get away from him!"

He opened one eye. Then both as he gawped up at the owner of the voice.

"Himidori-kun?" he cried out.

Yue descended. No longer was he wearing his school uniform but dressed in a very linear white-and-red clothing. He wore a top hat with a light blue feather in it and his goggles on it. Around his neck, he wears a crystal pendant. His clothing consist of a white undertaker tailcoat and dark green pants, black spats over red shoes, a dark maroon vest under his coat that doesn't entirely cover his midriff, and a red cummerbund. One might say he somewhat looked like a showman on stage. Not in a dim alleyway.

"Himidori-kun?" he repeated. Where? What? How?

"It's okay, Moto-senpai." The younger boy threw him one of his radiant smiles. "Leave it to me. I'll take care of you."

Leave? Take care of-? Did he mean to protect him from the paper that bobbed in a semicircle around them? Granted, the paper-people carried no obvious weapons, but that didn't mean his wariness wasn't justified.

From under his head, Yue took out a red yo-yo with a blue star sticker on it. "Please stay where you are, Moto-senpai."

He would have remained against the wall without his instruction.

Like a pro, Yue started to toss his yo-yo toward the paper-person. Pulling it back again, only to tossed it out again. His yo-yo sliced through the paper and once most of them had flopped to the floor, he pulled back his yo-yo.

The last paper-person raised a sleeve and charged toward him.

"To your left!" Yugi yelled.

Yue threw is yo-yo again, but the paper-person managed to dodged it. Yugi's eyes widened but Yue only smirked.

The yo-yo turned around like a boomerang, cutting through the center on the paper-person, letting it crumbled into the floor.

"Amazing," Yugi whispered as he watched Yue gracefully turned around toward him and gave a great bow, just like a performance after an incredible act. In his arms he felt something shift and he looked down to see the furry creature curling against his chest. "This... really is real... isn't it?"

Soon enough their surroundings began to warp and melt away, leaving behind the mouth of the alley Yugi had been in before.

"What... was that?" Yugi asked as he was finally allowed to stop and catch his breath. Yue flashed him a wide grin as a green light engulfed him and his clothes transformed back to normal. "Himidori-kun... who are you?"

DISCLAIMER:

- Yu-Gi-Oh! owned by Kazuki Takahashi

- Puella Magi Madoka Magica owned by Shaft

- Cover picture owned by Pixiv Id 1579210

Special Thanks for those who has:

Favorited: ChaosMedivialDukemon, Doragon-chan, Jettwesme, and punkpastel

Followed: ChaosMedivialDukemon, Doragon-chan, Reimachan, Weird Belle, and punkpastel

...this fan fiction!

And that's the second chapter.

Again I apologize if the characters are OOC.

As for the witch concept, I was thinking: Since Yu-Gi-Oh! means 'King of Game', then why don't make it like a game with a monster card as the witch? For example, this chapter game is a simple origami (actually this is more of an art and craft), but the main witch hasn't appear yet. If any of you have an idea for the game-witch, you can tell me through the review.

On another note, Yue's magical boy outfit is based on Dr. Facilier from Disney's Princess and the Frog with Yuya's clothes coloring. Meanwhile Atem's outfit is based on Maleficent from Disney's Sleeping Beauty with his pharaoh crown.

Also, spoiler for seven Yu-tagonist: Atem and Yusei are third grade; Yugi, Jaden, and Yusaku are second grade; Yuya, Yue and Yuma are first grade.

On the last note, I hope you all enjoy this chapter.

To be continue...