Chapter two:
After being rudely awakened and dragged to school by his nostrils, Yuuki finally was able to get Amane to let go.
"Oh hell, Amane..." He complained as he rubbed his abused nose. "Can't I slack off just once? I think we can both agree I deserve it."
Amane gave a derisive snort, "Hardly," then, after glancing briefly at her fingertips, rubbed them in Yuuki's hair. "You have plenty of options, yet you decide to do nothing. I fail to see how doing nothing merits missing the first day of the new semester."
Yuuki was to exhausted to register she had just rubbed his mucus into his scalp, "Huh?"
"It's second semester, Yuuki, I will hardly let you spend it sleeping on a park bench."
"I'm sure I'll thank you someday."
"Doubtful," Amane threw a glance down the street, "your ego wouldn't allow it. Ahh, here's Tamako."
"Great," Yuuki muttered as he watched the older girl take a diving roll reminiscent of something from James Bond out of a limo and stopping behind a bush. A bad day just wouldn't be complete without a disturbance from that nutcase.
Amane grinned as she watched Tamako covertly approach them. Tamako had such an excellent imagination. She finally reached them and went down on one knee next Amane. She could sense Yuuki shying away, as though Tamako were the Pestilence.
Taking Amane's hand without looking, Tamako began, "Leader, I have slain an assassin (Yuuki actually took a full step away) and gathered intelligence for you."
"Good, we'll discuss that later," Amane pulled out Tamako's folder, " here are the 'packages' you need to deliver today, sorted by designated color."
Tamako took the folder reverently, and brought Amane's hand to her forehead, "I'll not fail thee. I shall deliver these packages and gather more intelligence for thee even at the cost of my life."
"See that you do," Amane responded while handing Tamako the cassette tapes.
She accepted these just as gravely. Then the bell rang and all the students began entering the building. Tamako rose, bid the new recruit (a now petrified Yuuki) good luck, and ran to use every column and shadow as a means of entering the school unnoticed. Naturally, this only served to get her the attention of the entire student body.
Amane chuckled, "speaking of options, you could still--"
"For the last time, no," Yuuki interrupted peevishly, "I'm not crashing at the Kaiba's. I have a certain fondness for living."
- - -
Honda straightened his tie and looked at himself in the mirror. Not too shabby today. Hopefully Otogi would approve.
"But whyyyy, baby?" his partner whined from the bed and Honda winced. "Can't you stay a few more hours?"
"You know I can't," thank God, he added to himself, "its my fist day on the job, I can't be late."
The woman pouted, but Honda ignored her. Or tried anyway, but it's rather difficult to do when the one you're ignoring is literally hanging off you. Honestly, he thought to himself, what was I hoping to accomplish here?
"Sweetie..." he mentally cringed as he said it," you have to let go. I need to work. Just because I'm ...with you...doesn't mean I can mooch off Yugi. Let me go 'kay?"
Anzu sighed reluctantly and released him before going back to bed. Honda didn't waste anytime clearing out of there.
- - -
The King of Games thought he had finally finished all his Duel Monsters responsibilities, escaped the paparazzi, and avoided rabid fans and was about to take his seat—Isle 3, Seat B—when a very clever reporter popped out of the row behind him.
"Your Mr. Motuo, right? The 'King of Games', as they saw?" she didn't wait for him to confirm. "I'm Cynthia Craft, from the San Francisco Sun. There are a few questions I'd like to ask you," Ms. Craft pulled a notebook out of her purse and began shooting off questions randomly.
Yugi groaned. He could never get away from these people when he traveled. He sighed,
Well, at least in a few hours I'll be back with my family, he thought. The memory of their faces brought a smile to his, so he took a breath, and began to answer
- - -
Seto wanted nothing more than to pound his skull into the wood grain of his desk, but new SHE would come running if she heard. Instead, he settled with laying his forehead on it surface.
He just couldn't believe this. His own brother, after everything he did for the youth, didn't see him as capable of taking care of himself. It was pitiful. Worst of all, he couldn't get out of it. Mokuba hired the girl, so Seto couldn't fire her, and someone had removed the lock on his office door, so he couldn't keep her out.
Seto sighed. He couldn't believe he'd been dragged into something like this. On the upside, at least she wasn't an eyesore. Eventually she'd get tired of his attitude and leave, like his wife and even some stalkers. He just had to treat her like his lower employees and wait for her to get fed up with him. If she lasted over two days, then she's the reincarnation of Mother Theresa or something. If not, then she'd probably die, right?
- - -
Amane strolled into her homeroom, as utterly unexcited about the day as she always was. Life was so easy it got downright dull. She didn't look around the room as she claimed her window seat, knowing exactly what she'd see had she bothered--Iwamoto-sensei reading a newspaper and pretending he was anywhere else. She vaguely felt more than saw a new presence in the room, but it would make itself know eventually, no point wasting energy seeking it out.
Gazing out the window, Amane was greeted with the exact same scenery she had been observing for Lord knew how long. As her eyes raked over a bush for the umpteenth time, she blinked. Some...thing was behind it? Amane leaned closer to the glass, trying to make it out. Suddenly it moved!
Amane fought the urge to jump out of her seat, having a strange feeling that she didn't want to draw any attention. The shape, which had walked into the open, was a man it seemed, wearing a dark over coat and a hat that cast a shadow over his face. Amane could tell, however, that he was looking straight at her. The scalp seemed to tighten, and that was her only warning she had before her chest was enveloped in a searing pain.
She immediately doubled over, hugging herself, unsure of whether she was breathing, and not really caring anyway. Amane could only imagine this would be how it felt to be burning from the inside. Her heart, lungs, stomach, kidneys, ribs--
"Bakura-san?"
--and it stopped. Amane panted for a moment, then pulled herself together, and looked at Iwamoto-sensei, "Yes, sensei?"
Hardly looking anymore concerned than his job required him to be, the man responded, "You look rather ill, perhaps you should go home."
Amane flashed a practiced smile," No, I'm fine, I'm just having...ah," Amane paused a bit and tried to look embarrassed, "woman problems, Sensei." He returned to his paper, having no interest in details—he never did.
For once thankful Iwamoto-sensei was one of the few bad teachers, Amane ran for the closet and shut herself in, confident no one would disturb her. Yanking her phone out of her back pocket, she franticly found her little brother's number in the directory and called him. She had such a bad feeling suddenly, and was praying everyone had their phones turned on vibrate.
- - -
Kazuya sat at his desk in his homeroom of 2-B. He pulled out his RPG books and read through them to create a map. He soon finished and decided to make another character. You can't ever have too many characters.
Soon finishing with that too, he sighed. How bored he felt. He looked at the clock. Well, Tamako should be here soon. Tamako was always funny and interesting.
"Present and accounted for, Sensei-sama!" Tamako had lept from her seat when her name was reached and now stood ramrod straight before her secondary commander. He gave her the tired look to an old man, then returned to his work, nodding to Tamako to be "at ease." She returned to her seat.
She was preparing her plan of attack for the day when suddenly there was a strange thrumming sound. It froze Tamako to the bone when she realized the only possible explanation.
"IT'S A BOMB!!!"
Kazuya watched Tamako with interest. The class was going into an uproar over her saying there was a bomb there, but he didn't move at all. He knew there wasn't a bomb around, Tamako was just over-reacting to something, as usual.
Feeling his cell phone vibrate, he went over to the sensei quickly and asked if he could go to the bathroom. Getting permission, he quickly went out of the room and answered the phone, just before his voicemail would have picked it up.
"Hello?" he asked curiously, darting down to the bathroom as fast as possible before he got caught on his phone.
- - -
Maiko entered the classroom that the office told her to be in. Looking up at the teacher, she told him she was the transfer student that was supposed to coming in today.
Scanning the classroom, she noticed that Seira was in this class. Part of her was cheering, thankful to take on the competition. The other part of her was sad to have to deal with her in the same class.
"I am Maiko Kujaku," she said, introducing herself to the class. Promptly taking a seat at the open desk, she was at least glad she was further away from Seira and behind her. Today she would see if it was true that Seira was her half-sister. If it proved to be so, then she'd start taking away her life the next day.
As soon as he could, Yuuki crawled under the desk to escape the chaos and light above. He had a study hall here next, and he intended to use it to gain a few hours of precious sleep. He curled into himself as much as he could, reminding himself of a roly-poly--bugs that rolled into balls when you poked them. Resting his head on his backpack, not giving a damn about when he woke up.
Seira could already tell that today was going to be boring. With Hidaka-sensei out of town until next month, there upon came a hoard of boring, ugly substitute teachers. If only Hidaka-sensei would return, his prescience alone would make it worthwhile to get up in the morning.
To her left, Seira spotted the sleeping form of Yuuki. No way. If she couldn't miss out on school, then neither could he. An idea came to her just as the door started to open, admitting their substitute teacher.
Carefully, as not to attract notice, Seira produced a pen from her backpack and jabbed in into Yuuki's side. If it meant detention for the golden boy, her bothering to come today would have been worth it.
Rubbing his side, Yuuki sat in his seat, murmuring something including the phrase "stick up your ass" in Seira's general direction. Then he directed his attention to the front of the classroom, and his blue eyes widened as if he were a deer caught in the headlights.
'Oh, good God, please tell me I'm hallucinating' he thought at he watch the last man on this earth he wanted to see begin role call.
"Suoh...Minimino...Takanaka...Motou?!"
Swallowing, Yuuki stood, "Present, Honda-sensei..."
- - -
After a few minutes, Amane shut her phone with a snap, rather bewildered. She was acting completely out of character; freaking out because of some guy (actually, her freaking out at all was rare), calling her brother to see if her was alright (he was), and, the real kicker, insisting they meet up after school and walk home together? What had gotten into her?
Amane shook her head hard, her long white braid banging against her shoulders. This behavior wouldn't help her accomplish anything. She had to remain calm, there really wasn't anything wrong. Honestly.
Taking a deep breath, Amane fixed her trademark kind, yet apathetic look on her face and opened the closet door. Time to demonstrate her superiority. Again.
A pair of sapphire blue eyes followed Amane to the closet and lingered there until the girl emerged She was the only one who took notice of her. If her assumptions were accurate then that girl would be more involved in the upcoming war than she felt comfortable with. She was already informed of the part Amane and Kazuya Bakura would play and that worried her deeply.
Once Iwamoto-sensei put down his newspaper, he signaled for her to come in front of the glass. Reluctantly, a girl with silvery blonde hair stood up and made her way in front of the classroom. Her hair cascaded around her slim frame, ending with a slight curl. A pale hand nervously brushed her bangs out of her eyes.
"Hello," she said with her lips turning upwards in the slightest of smiles. "My name is Terra Doran. Although I was born in America I make no claims in being an American for my mother, a pathologist was always traveling. So here I am."
With that speech out of the way, Terra sat back down in her assigned seat, thankful that she had been right in predicting that the voices of her ancestors, those murdered in the village of Kul Elna were silent once more.
She involuntarily glanced to the window, the Sennen Necklace told her already that he would be here. May the light of heaven shelter them all – the battle already had begun.
- - -
A spirit awoke from it's short slumber, remembering events that happened merely a few years ago. He must have been returned to the world of the living for some reason. There was something important about to happen, and he had to stop it once again.
The kindred spirit appeared next to the stone tablet, dressed as a great Pharaoh. A name of a child came to him: Yuuki. He had to find this child, somehow make contact.
The fate of the world might depend on this attempt...