"Akia... Akia!" It was the same morning routine. Akia snoring away, and Yugi trying his best to get his twin sister to wake up. "You'll get detention!" Nothing. No response. She was already immune to the threat. Out of ideas, Yugi heavily sighed and went out to meet up with Anzu who was waiting for him to walk to school together.
"Oh! You're using a chain instead of the rope to keep your puzzle on," Anzu noticed.
Yugi smiled proudly as he held his puzzle in his hands. "Yeah, now that I know just how important it is, I need to keep it safe."
On their way to school, Yugi and Anzu passed by a fortune teller who urged Yugi to approach him. Not seeing what the harm was and genuinely intrigued by the fortune teller, Yugi got closer, followed by Anzu who was feeling skeptical of the shady individual. The fortune teller asked Yugi to hand him the puzzle so that he could have a clearer reading. Reluctantly, but succumbing to his curiosity, Yugi took his puzzle off of his neck and handed it to the man.
"Are you sure Yugi...?" Anzu asked her friend.
Before Yugi could respond, the man flipped over the table and ran off into the alleyway behind him.
"Hey! My puzzle!" Yugi didn't waste any time running after him.
"Yugi!" Anzu did her best to try and keep up with Yugi and the thief, but soon lost sight of them. Instead of getting herself lost in the alleyway, she decided to head back and alert Jounouchi and Honda.
Akia yawned and stretched her arms. She slowly opened her eyes and looked up at the clock hanging on her wall. She stared at it for a few seconds, giving her brain time to process what she was seeing. "What?! Why didn't Yugi wake me up?!" She bolted out of her bed and got ready as fast as she could. She ran out of the door and sprinted through the streets.
When she arrived at the gates, she was already thirty minutes late. As she started getting ready to jump over the fence, she saw Anzu, Jounouchi, and Honda running towards her.
"Ah! Akia-chan! There's trouble!" Anzu yelled out to her friend.
Jounouchi and Honda opened the gate.
"What's wrong? Why are you leaving school all of a sudden?" Akia was starting to feel that something was seriously wrong.
"Yugi's in trouble!" Anzu explained, "Someone stole his puzzle and Yugi went after him all by himself. We have to hurry!"
"What? Where did they go?!" Akia exclaimed in worry.
Everyone then followed Anzu to the alleyway where she lost Yugi.
"I ran into Bakura-kun on the way, so he might've reached Yugi in time," Anzu informed her friends.
"Hopefully..." Akia mumbled, hoping that it was indeed Bakura and not the Spirit of the Ring.
Going into the alleyway, the group noticed there were papers with arrows on them.
"Do you think they lead to where Yugi is?" Jounouchi suggested.
"I guess it's the only lead we have," Anzu replied.
As soon as they started following the arrows, they noticed that something was off about them.
"They're all just pointing in random directions!" Akia yelled out in frustration.
"Somebody is trying to mess with us," Honda pointed out.
"How about we just split up and look around. At least we'll cover more ground like that," Jounouchi suggested.
They all nodded and went in different directions. Akia ran deeper into the alleyways. She didn't know what to do. She was even starting to panic a little. Her brother was in danger and she didn't have any way to find him and help him. Her millennium scale had no use in such a case. If only she had Bakura's Millennium Ring. Bakura... That was when it hit her. The person who messed up the arrows was Bakura! Or rather, it was the Spirit of the Ring. Coming to that conclusion, Akia decided, instead of following the arrows, to follow the papers instead. She took out a pen from her backpack and started crossing off the papers as she went, to make sure she didn't go back to the same sheets.
After a bit of searching around, her strategy brought her to an abandoned building.
"This must be it," Akia whispered and cautiously opened the door to the building. As she did, she came face to face with Bakura who was on his way out. He looked a bit surprised.
"Akia? What are you doing here?" Bakura asked her.
Akia frowned, knowing that she was dealing with the Spirit of the Ring.
"I'm here to get help my brother out. What about you?" Akia replied with a little hostility in her tone.
Bakura snorted. "What a coincidence. I was doing the same thing. Now if you'll excuse me."
After his somewhat sarcastic remark answer, Bakura walked past Akia and left. Not wasting any more time, Akia ran into the building and found Yugi trying to assemble back his puzzle that was nailed by its chain unto a duel arena.
"Yugi!" Akia ran to him.
Yugi, recognizing his sister's voice, turned towards her, "Akia!"
"What happened here?"
"Well-" Yugi was then interrupted by a scream coming from behind the siblings. They looked towards the source of the scream and found out that it was coming from Keith Howard.
"What is Keith doing here?! And why is he in that purple robe?" Akia questioned.
"This is not the time for these kind of questions!" Yugi said as he quickly grabbed onto his puzzle, trying to pry it out.
"Get out of my head!" Keith was now clutching his head in both his hands while screaming and shouting in pain and frustration. He then went and grabbed a metal pipe and started violently swinging it around. "Where are you?! Show yourself! Stop talking!"
Getting scared from Keith's behaviour, Akia hurried to help Yugi get the puzzle off, but it was no use. A loud crash made the twins jump in surprise and look to see what caused it.
You're hiding in there?! You're using that machine to control me?!" Keith yelled. He was hitting a command board that was probably used to control the dueling arena. The continuous impact caused the machine to burst out in fire. Since everything was made out of wood in the cabin, it was quickly catching on fire as well.
"Oh no! Yugi! We have to go!" Akia told her brother.
"No! Not without the puzzle! I can't leave him there!" Yugi refused.
Not knowing what else to do, Akia started pulling at it with all her might. The smoke was starting to infiltrate their lungs. The heat was getting excruciating. Outside of the building, a trail of smoke was visible, which guided Anzu, Jounouchi, and Honda to the area. As soon as they broke the door down, Keith came out running.
"Was that Keith?" Honda asked.
"Anzu! You stay out here. Honda and I will go check if there's anyone still in there," Jounouchi said his friend
Yugi was now assembling his puzzle while Akia was still trying to pull it out. They were both on the brink of losing their consciousness from all the smoke that they inhaled. Jounouchi and Honda found them and ran to them.
"Yugi! Akia!" The blond teen called out to his friends.
"Come on! We have to get out!" Honda told them.
Yugi coughed. "No... Not without... the..." He then fainted, but didn't loosen his grip on the now completed puzzle.
"Yugi...!" Akia was coughing as well.
Jounouchi then tried pulling at the chain, but it didn't work. Honda then looked around and found the pipe that Keith was swinging around. Despite it being scorching hot, Honda clenched his teeth through the burning pain and picked it up, putting it through the nail hole.
"Jounouchi! Pull with me!" Honda said to his friend.
Both of them pulled on the pipe that was used as leverage to get the nail out. After forcing it as hard as they could, the nail finally came out.
"Alright!" Jounouchi cheered.
"No time to waste! You grab Yugi; I'll get Akia!" Honda quickly replied.
Akia had also lost consciousness soon after Yugi. Honda and Jounouchi hurried out while carrying the twins.
As they got out, they were met with Anzu gasping, "Yugi! Akia!"
The ambulance then quickly transported them to the hospital.
Unbeknownst to any of them, the one who was possessing Keith was still in shock. He had never lost control of any of his victims. It was until Yugi shouted out that name, Akia. He didn't know if it was the Akia he'd met, but it caught him off guard. Somewhere deep down, he knew that it couldn't be just a coincidence.