Author's Note: I fear there might be a LOT of discontinuities in this thing, due to the space of time since I last watched the first season, let alone the first episodes. Sorry!!

The crush of people in one of the ship's common-rooms did nothing for Kyo's nerves. Shouts about trading cards, old friends meeting up, discussions about strategy- it all sounded like gibberish to him. How much had the dueling world changed since he had been a part of it? Needless to say, he was feeling very much in over his head.

Suddenly, someone was next to him. "Hey! And here I though you'd be in your room the whole time!" The girl with the honey-brown braids, Selia, said cheerfully to him.

"Geeze!" Kyo jumped, startled by her sudden appearance. "Don't do that!"

"Do what?" She asked innocently enough, but there was a hint of evil amusement in her expression that hinted to Kyo that she knew full well what 'that' was.

Still, it was a verbal battle he didn't want to get into. "Nothing," he sighed dismissively.

A few moments passed. At first Kyo assumed that the girl would bound off if he stopped talking to her, but the fact that she remained rooted to the spot, staring directly at him, quickly did away with that assumption. He glanced sidelong at her, almost nervously.

Although the room was loud, full of the chaotic noise that accompanies competitors anxious to get to their competition, the silence between himself and the girl grew oppressive. "Um. Do you… need something from me?" He asked haltingly, looking at her as if she possessed two heads.

She reflected on this question. "Hm. Well, not really, no. I'm just trying to figure out a mystery, that's all."

"What mystery?" The question practically asked itself. As soon as the words left his lips, he regretted it; asking questions would just fuel her fire!

Just as she feared, she grinned at him. "What mystery, you ask? Well, it's a grand mystery of the dueling world, and it focuses on YOU, Mr. Yakuuraa."

"Oh, great." He mumbled to himself. Now what had he gotten into?

By some miracle or another, their increasingly awkward conversation was quickly brought to a halt as someone called out the name, 'Selia!'

She quickly turned in the direction of the call, scanned the crowd for a face she recognized, then broke into a grin. "Hey! Yumi!"

The two of them were quickly joined by a girl with impossibly long black hair, but only after she had forced her way through the crowd, swearing at anyone who didn't get out of her way immediately.

Upon reaching the two, she grinned at Selia. "Thought you'd be here. Good to know this publicity fest isn't going to be a total bore." Only then did she notice Kyo, in the middle of an attempt to get away from these girls. Again he wondered why, exactly, dueling caused insanity in females. Maybe it was the ink they used in the cards?

"Hey, what's this now? Who's the eggplant-head?" The girl, Yumi, asked with a grin at her friend.

Selia laughed. "Him? An old rival. He beat me last time; I intend to return the favor. He's got a bad attitude."

"Never would have guessed."

Glaring daggers at the two of them, Kyo snapped, "Are you two done mocking me? Yes? Good! See ya later then- oh what NOW?"

The last part was directed at yet another call, only this time it was his name. Sprinting over to him was his cousin, Toshiro not far behind.

"Is that any way to greet me after you ditch me outside the ship?" Tama asked, hands crossed over her chest crossly.

"Hey, you deserved that ditching. I dodged a bullet with that ditching!" He retorted, in no mood to deal with her fiery antics.

From behind him he heard Yumi whisper to Selia, "A lover's quarrel?"

Apparently, Tama and Toshiro heard it to, for Tama forze (due to embarrassment or anger it was impossible to tell) and Toshiro laughed. "That would be a no. These two hotheads are cousins."

Tama broke from her paralysis. "People think- people MIGHT think- Oh, God, no." She shuddered, bracing herself on Toshiro's shoulder.

"Hey! You're Toshiro Mishimiko, that famous collector of cards, right?" Selia asked, too cheerfully. It was clear she was trying to restore normalcy to the incredibly awkward conversation.

"Why, yes, I am." Toshiro replied. If he ever grew tired of being the default topic-changer in any conversation, he didn't let it show.

Kyo took this moment for his escape. "Whatever. I'm done with this." He muttered, turning and stalking off.

For once, Tama didn't shout after him. Instead, she sighed. "Again, sorry. He's… temperamental, at best. I'll be apologizing for him the entire tournament, I know it. I'm Tamao, by the way, that hothead's cousin."

"No kidding. He's got a worse attitude than me. The name's Yumi." Yumi remarked dryly.

Only Toshiro noticed the expression on Selia's face. She didn't seem to be paying any attention to the new conversation about Kyo's surliness, but instead was looking in the direction he had left in, biting her cheek as if deep in thought.

'Odd', Toshiro thought to himself, filing it away in his mind as a question for another day.

---

Out on deck, Kyo felt considerably calmer. It wasn't so crowded here, and the sea air refreshed him.

'Hehe, you're like the sea, Kyo! You're fun to be around and can be really calm, but if you get upset nothing can stand up to you!'

He froze, eyes shut tight against the memory. A childish voice, cheerful and sweet, a little girl's voice belonging to the reason he was in this ridiculous mess. Better to not think of her, to focus on the task at hand; surviving this boat ride in close-contact with two girls bent on never giving him a moment alone.

There was no way he was making it through this tournament with his sanity in tact, that was for sure.

---

Following along like a shadow, Sukia watched the purple-haired youth with half-closed eyes. A spark was in him, a distinctive spark unique to a certain group of people. When he was in the trading room the four he had been with- the mediating collector with messy red hair called Toshiro, the sarcastic singer from England called Yumi, his fiery and intelligent cousin called Tama, and the cheerful image from his past called Selia – all shared this spark.

As did she.

Even she couldn't fathom what this spark meant, even though it had been a puzzle she had been working at for ages- since she had received a letter, with a small metal ankh enclosed (which she wore at all times), alerting her to its presence.

Perhaps Pegasus knew, and that was why he had taken such a particular interest in herself and in the youth. But if that were the case, why didn't he also take such an interest in the other four? Furthermore, were there others with this singular spark?

Whatever the answers might be, one thing was clear to her: the true intent behind the tournament was anything but what the public believed it to be.

Yumi (c) Kitteh303

Selia and Toshiro (c) DarkRegrets

Yu-Gi-Oh! (c) The guys who made it (Not me!)

Kyo, Sukia, Tama, plot, yadda yadda (c) Me