Chapter One:
10 Years Later
"Mr. Moto!"
"Eh?"
Yugi jerked his head off the desk, where he'd fallen asleep.
Again.
"Would you mind telling me the name of the first Prime Minister of Canada?"
"Uh..."
Oh god he was getting a blank.
It wasn't his fault that he got sleepy in History.
Don't get him wrong, he loved the subject, but it was at 8: 15 in the morning.
"I don't know, ma'am..." He said awkwardly.
The teacher pointed at him with a metal pointer.
"You'd best pay attention in my class, or I'll have to give you detention."
If he got another detention, his grandfather would kill him.
"Yes, ma'am..." He said nervously, fiddling with his hands in his lap.
He payed attention the rest of the class- which was, like, 20 minutes- and learned that the first Prime Minister of Canada- "Why Canada?" He grumbled to himself, "I thought we were in America."- was John A. MacDonald, who had been a major part in Confederation.
Whatever that was.
Finally, the bell rang, and Joey grinned at him.
"Fall asleep again, and you are so screwed."
Joey was a tall boy- taller than Yugi, anyways- with poofy blond hair, and warm brown eyes. He was quite loveable, and very loyal, almost like a dog.
"It's not my fault I didn't sleep last night."
Why?
He'd been having nightmares for weeks.
Every single one of them was about a dark, swirling, purply-black place, creatures swirling in and out.
Come play with us, Yugi... Play... PlaaaaAAAAAAY...
He'd wake up in a cold sweat, and spend hours watching cat videos on the internet in order to calm himself down.
"Just dreams..." He told himself, "Only... Only dreams..."
But he wasn't too sure about that statement.
Joey shook his head.
"Take sleeping pills or something." He said.
"You know what those things do to me."
Every time he took sleeping pills, he would grow hives so itchy he wanted to rip his skin off, and he didn't even sleep.
"Right..." Joey said.
Yugi rubbed the pendant around his neck nervously.
It was the only thing he had left from his birth family, who'd died in a fire.
It was an upside-down pyramid with the Eye of Horus on the front.
Yugi had no idea what it meant, but it was part of him, all he had left.
He'd never do anything with it except keep it around his neck.
His eyes shot to the window beside them, where he swore he saw a dark shadow move across glass, much to slowly and large to be a student.
It was probably just his nerves, he told himself.
"Nothing to be afraid of..." He mumbled.
"What?" Joey asked.
"N-nothing." Yugi said, pulling his eyes away from the window, "Talking to myself."
They split for their second period class, Yugi headed to Art, Joey to Math, and Yugi continued his inner rant.
He'd always seen things like that.
Things would move too fast to be normal, or he'd see things that shouldn't be there, like a piece of the universe had fallen out.
The counselor told him it was just his ADHD, his brain misinterpreting things, but he didn't really believe that.
But it's not like he was crazy.
Crazy people didn't wonder if they were crazy, and he wondered that several times during the day, especially over the past few weeks.
The weird things- Oh, excuse him, his "ADHD"- seemed to be happening a lot more throughout these weeks, and it was starting to bug him.
A lot.
He shuddered and stepped into the Art classroom, taking his usual spot and setting his bag beside him.
"Hey, Yugi."
Téa Gardner sat beside him, and Yugi forced the blush down.
"Hey." Yugi said, "What's up?"
"Nothing much." She said, "Did you get that sarcophagus project finished?"
"Oh, yeah."
Yugi slipped it out of his bag.
"Wow.." Téa said, "Are those actual-"
"Actual hieroglyphics, yeah. My Grandfather was an archeologist before he retired and gave me some usual things they put on the sarcophagus." He pointed to one, "This is a magical one, usually helps the soul travel to the after-life..."
He started naming them off, a couple others coming over to listen.
"Wow." Téa said, "That's amazing."
Yugi grinned.
"I know, right?"
"Alright, class!" Called the teacher, "Sit down if you will. I'm sure Mr. Moto has some amazing stories to share. Probably keeps it up in that hair."
They all laughed.
"I trust you all finished your assignments?" He asked.
He went around, and they handed all handed their projects back.
"Excellent job, Mr. Moto." He said, and Yugi felt a rush of pride at that.
But the rush disappeared when he saw something flitter outside the window... A small, vaguely humanoid shape, fluttering in glitter, motioning for him to go into the hall.
"What are you looking at?" Téa asked.
It had to be a hallucination... He didn't even know what it was, but it was freaking him out.
But at the same time... He felt as though he should listen to the fluttering glob of glitter outside his window. After all, they did it in the movies.
But usually someone that follows someone into a empty school hallway gets murdered...
He decided he'd stay right where he was, and payed attention.
"We'll be moving on to facial expressions." The teacher said, and the glob of glitter knocked on the window.
Yugi kept his eyes on the teacher. He would not look over. If he didn't look over, he could pretend it wasn't real.
It couldn't be real.
He was having one of those moments... It would disappear. It had to.
It would; It would; It would.
It huffed and put it's hands on it's hips, stomping the glitter beneath it's feet.
He was not imagining it.
They say the magical word is "Please".
No.
If you want to get out of class, you say,
"Sir, I think I'm going to throw up."
The teacher turned on Yugi.
"Well, go! Don't throw up in here!"
Yugi nodded and scrambled for the door way, coming out into the hall.
"Took ya long enough." Said a high, female voice.
He shrieked, seeing the thing that had been outside the window.
He could see now that it was a girl- a tiny human with wings, glitter fluttering around her.
"Oh sweet Lord you're a fairy." Yugi said, staring at her, wide-eyed.
"Duh!" She said, "Did you, by any chance, think I was a Shadow Beast?"
Yugi stuttered for several seconds.
Now he really did feel like he was going to throw up.
"Well- I- No- But what is- Oh god- I'm so-"
"Calm down." She said, making a gesture to follow he words, "I'm not going to hurt you. I'm here to protect you."
"Okay..." Yugi said, his voice high. He moved back a pace, "But, uh, would you mind telling me, uh, what exactly you're protecting me from...?"
"Nobodies." She said.
"Well, if you're protecting me from nobody, then why did you-"
"No." She said, shaking her head, "Not nobody. Nobodies." At his blank expression, she added, "You know. The big Shadow that break through the Dimensional Wall and take souls, posses people, kill people, try to kill Magicians."
Yugi felt the blood shoot from his face.
"I mean- I just- I wasn't trying to scare you- I mean-" She huffed and bowed her head, holding out her hand formally, "Fairy Escort Grelinda at your service, Your Highness!"
"'Your Highness'?" Yugi asked.
She clamped her dainty hands over her mouth.
"I wasn't supposed to say that!" She said, her voice slightly muffled from her hands.
"I-"
She took her hands from her mouth, her tiny expression suddenly serious.
"I need to get you out of here..." She said, "The Nobodies sense you..."
"Wait, what?"
But she grabbed him by one of his bangs and dragged him down the hall, towards their certain doom.
…
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