A/N: I've uploaded screenshots of all the Yugioh characters of what they look like on PWI. You can find the links to those screenshots on my profile. :)

Perfect World International: Millennium

Chapter 2, Level 1

Akiko groaned and slowly opened her eyes to a cloudy sky. It looked like it was about to rain. "But…how can it rain in Ryou's apartment…? Maybe I fell asleep and I'm dreaming or something?" At that thought, a sprinkle of rain splashed onto her face, followed by more drops. Surprisingly, she didn't mind it – it actually felt good!

Something shuffled behind her and she stood up and turned to see two strange-looking people watching her. One (a male) had spiky white hair, brown eyes, and blue skin, and the other – a female – had long black hair and tanned skin.

The man was staring at Akiko as he leaned against a building, a dagger resting in a belt on each side of his waist. The woman was holding (sort of) a strange green orb the floated just an inch or two above her hands. Akiko realized that she had an orb similar to the woman's orb floating right above her right hand, it's eerie green glow making her hand appear green.

Realization dawned on Akiko, "Wait a minute! Floating orbs? Strange web-shaped ears? Blue skin? It can't be! A-Am I in PWI?" She noticed that her own skin was blue and she was wearing a blue-and-white skirt, top, and boots. The other girl was wearing the same thing, but the boy's outfit was black and blue, and his shirt was opened to reveal his scarred chest. Akiko blushed as she realized that he looked absolutely hot like that.

Akiko took in her surroundings, it all looked more beautiful than it did while she was playing the game. There was an indigo-colored water fountain in the center of the village, with a woman dressed in a purple and pink top and a long skirt – the top was short and showed her belly. There was a long lavender cape draped over her shoulders and what looked like a big pink flower on her left shoulder. She also had long white hair that covered her left eye. She was currently talking to a tall female Assassin with red hair and tanned skin.

Behind the water fountain was a strange-looking house that looked as though it had horns growing on each side of it, spikes along the roof of the house and beautiful glowing blue reefs dotted the house's roof and the rest of the village.

To the right of that house, there was a building that was in the shape of an ancient Chinese home, but more exaggerated. Akiko could see a blue light emitting from the door, so she assumed that that was the portal that takes people to City of Raging Tides.

There were two more buildings – one with who she assumed was the Dragon Herald standing in front of an ordinary-looking house (compared to the other buildings), and one with the white-haired Assassin and the tanned Psychic that she saw when she first woke up, standing in front of a building next to what looked to be the Dragon Quest Director.

"So you finally woke up." The Assassin said as he stepped away from the building and closer to Akiko. He smirked and said, "Welcome to the world of Pangu, Akiko!" He chuckled darkly, sending chills down Akiko's spine.

The voice sounded familiar. She had heard it before coming from Ryou, but only a couple of times. Yuugi and his friends had told her all about the Millennium Items and the two spirits that dwelled within the Millennium Puzzle and the Millennium Ring. Yuugi had said that Ryou had a soft voice, but the spirit of the Millennium Ring – who they referred to as Bakura – had a darker, deadlier voice.

"Bakura, is that you?" Akiko asked timidly. She had never met him before (to her knowledge anyway) and, from what Yuugi and his friends had told her about him, it made her nervous.

"Why, yes it is. The others have been scattered all across this world as well, along with every other person that was playing this game!" He looked over at the tanned girl, who slowly stood up from her sitting position, and glared at Bakura. "And for some reason, it seems that Ishizu has joined us."

"Ishizu?" Akiko had heard of Ishizu and her younger brother Malik, and their adopted brother Rishid. Malik – who was completely taken over by the darkness in his heart at the time – had tried to take over the world and send the world into complete darkness. Akiko walked over to Ishizu and held out her hand, "Hi, my name's Akiko Suzuki."

Ishizu smiled and shook the offered hand while balancing the green orb with the other hand. Bakura spoke up, "My host is here as well, but he's a Cleric, so he should be almost to City of the Plume by now."

"Wait a minute!" Akiko's eyes widened, "Are you saying that you and Ryou and the Pharaoh and Yuugi all have your own bodies now?"

"That's exactly what I'm saying." Bakura walked over to the lady that was wearing the purple and pink top and long skirt, who had been watching them curiously, as if it weren't every day that random people from her race appeared out of thin air.

Akiko took a step forward, but Ishizu's voice stopped her, "What is this?" Akiko turned to see Ishizu staring at her right arm.

Akiko looked down at her own arm and raised her eyebrow. She wasn't too surprised – she knew that it had to be somewhere. Before Akiko could explain what it was, Bakura beat her to it. "That's your status and attributes. The red bar is your HP – or life points – and the blue bar is your MP – or magic points. And the two empty bars are your chi and experience points. You won't start gaining chi until you reach level 9 and have finished your first cultivation."

"I already knew that," Akiko glared at Bakura. From what the others have told her about him, she just couldn't trust him. Although, it was kind of cool to be stuck in one of her favorite games.

Something confused Akiko, though. "Wait a minute. Ishizu, how are you here? From what the others have told me about you, it didn't seem like you were the type to play games – other than Duel Monsters."

Ishizu sighed, "Malik had been bothering me for weeks to try it out, and today, I finally gave in. So I downloaded the game and created my Psychic, while Malik got onto his Blademaster to help me, that's when we were sucked into the game."

"Oh…"

Bakura gave a small dark chuckle, "And we're not exactly in the game, we're in a different universe!"

"What? How's that possible?" Akiko couldn't believe what she was hearing. She wasn't on Earth anymore…?

"Everything humans have 'created' or 'imagined' are really visions of other universes, some even parallel universes! While we are in the world of Pangu, I have taken the liberty to put the players' status, attributes, and levels on their arms, just to make it more interesting." Bakura explained.

Akiko was in awe, but a voice behind her quickly brought her back to Earth, or, well, Perfect World. "Excuse me," The three turned to see a nervous lavender-skinned girl – the red-headed girl that Akiko had spotted earlier – with orange-glowing daggers in each hand step up to them. She was smaller than the average person and looked very fragile. "Can you tell me what's going on? I was playing my 'sin when I passed out. I woke up to find myself in PWI!"

Ishizu and Akiko explained everything to the confused girl, making sure to leave out the parts of Bakura being the spirit of the Millennium Ring, and Yami no Yuugi being the spirit of a Pharaoh. They learned that the girl's name was Kaitlyn, that she was from the USA, and that her Assassin was level 43.

Finally, Akiko suggested that they talk to Vanguard Isis, "She should be the one to give us our first quest!" She walked up to the suspicious lady said, "Hello, my name is Akiko Suzuki. Is there anything I can help you with today?"

Isis didn't speak for a moment, obviously trying to dictate whether the newcomers were Wraiths or not. She finally decided to test them, "Yes, there is something the three of you can do," She started, referring to Akiko, Ishizu, and Bakura, "I want you all to kill ten Emerald Hermit Crabs. They're scattered about the edge of the village."

"Yes, ma'am!" Akiko exclaimed as she turned to the other three, "Well, you heard her, let's get going!"

"Well, actually, I'm level 15, so I don't have to do this quest." Bakura smirked. "You and Ishizu are level 1, so the two of you are by yourselves on this one."

"Are you going to be like this throughout the entire game?" Akiko fumed.

"No, just until the two of your reach my level."

"I'll help out." Kaitlyn offered.

"Thank you so much!" Akiko hugged the shocked woman, as Ishizu was already heading to the edge of the village.

Akiko stepped out of the village limits and onto the lush green grass and surveyed the Jack Russel Terrier-sized worms (which she guessed were the Infant Seagrubs) and the Emerald Hermit Crabs, whose spiral shells had a bit of green moss on them, and it seemed that when they exhaled, small colorful bubbles escaped the mouths.

Akiko took a step closer to one of the crabs, and as she was about to attack it, she realized that she had no idea how to use her skills. She knew what they were called, but that was it…

"Just focus on which skill you want to use and the target you want to attack. Say the skill's name if that helps." Bakura's voice instructed behind her.

She nodded without turning around and held out the hand that had the glowing green orb hovering above it. She thought of what her skill looked like in-game and yelled out, "Aqua Impact!" The Emerald Hermit Crab she was aiming for toppled over, desperately trying to get back up.

Behind her, she heard Bakura chuckling, "Looks like you need to work on your aim!"

Furious, Akiko tried her other skill, "Spirit Blast!" This time, the crab was sent back ten feet and it hit a tree. It didn't move anymore, so Akiko assumed it was dead.

Curious, Akiko looked down at her arm and saw a Quest List beside her attributes, level, and status, "What? How can I have nine out of ten Emerald Hermit Crabs already?"

"Because I just killed eight of them." Kaitlyn said as she walked up to Akiko, wiping the blood off her daggers carefully.

The rain began to pour down harder; Akiko smiled up at the sky, it was as if she was made to be covered in water. It was strange, she was a normal human living on a normal planet for seventeen years of her life, yet, she was in the world of Pangu and she felt as if she had lived there all her life! Maybe this was fate? Maybe she was supposed to be here and not on Earth? So many questions were racing through her mind that she didn't notice that Ishizu had killed the last Emerald Hermit Crab.

"Hello? Hellooooo?" Kaitlyn called as she waved her hand in front of Akiko's face. "Is anyone home?"

Akiko snapped out of her thoughts and blushed – which she was wondering how that would look considering she had blue skin now.

"Sorry! I was thinking…"

"That's ok, hun, I did a lot of that when I was sucked into this world, too." Kaityln gave a white-toothy grin and turned to Bakura, her grin disappearing as soon as she looked at him. "We're done with this quest, let's get back to Isis."

The thief, who was leaning against a tree, next to a puddle of rain-water, nodded and turned back to the direction which they had come from.

Isis was waiting for them patiently, her hands folded in front of her. "From what Ariana here has told me," She gestured to a white-haired Assassin standing next to her; she had dark blue skin and had scars covering most of her body, "the three of you," She nodded to Kaitlyn, Ishizu, and Akiko, "have done well. I've seen it done much faster, but it'll have to do."

"Thank you." Akiko said as she bowed at the young lady.

Isis turned around and opened a rather large case that Akiko hadn't noticed before, and pulled out some red bottles, while leaving the blue bottles in the case. The red bottles, Akiko knew, were for restoring HP, and the blue bottles were for restoring MP.

Isis seemed to know what level Kaitlyn was (or something), so she didn't offer any of the potions to her. "Here are ten Small Healing Potions for both of you." She handed Akiko ten HP potions, as well as Ishizu.

"The two of you will need armor, so I think it would be wise to visit the City of Raging Tides. Talk to the Elder there and he will give the two of you some of the most basic armor, for new warriors. To get there, step onto the beacon in the building to my left, it will teleport you to the City."

"Yes, ma'am!" Akiko exclaimed, and Ishizu nodded. The four of them entered the building that was emitting a blue light, and Akiko had to shield her eyes because the light was so bright.

The moment all four of them stepped onto the portal, something invisible seemed to grab them all by the hand and Akiko felt as though she were being squeezed through a small tube. She closed her eyes as she felt her stomach churn.

A second later, she hit something cool and hard and opened her eyes. She stood up in shock when she saw that the floor she had landed on was glowing, almost as if it had a heart of its own!

"It seems that we have reached level 2." Ishizu said from behind her. Akiko looked down at her arm, and sure enough, it read 'Level 2'.

"I wonder when that happened…?"

To be continued…