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Flashback Six: Lost Cobalt

I am a sixteen year old Japanese orphan and I have no memory of my past life.

My hair was raven black, naturally streaked with gold and reaching to my shoulders, pulled back into a high and short messy ponytail. My eyes were in the form of a lopsided pentagon, slightly almond shaped, the cobalt irises were laced with aquamarine and my skin was a medium toffee. My standard wear was a cream coloured knee length coat with a sleeveless white dress shirt with a sloped collar, and a pair of boy's wide khaki pants with folded hems and hiking boots.

"Don't watch TV, Ashley, especially not while we're abroad. It'll rot your mind."

"You mean I can't watch it at all?"

"That's right."

"Fine, I'll duel with my friends."

"Give me the deck,"

"What?!"

"You're not allowed to duel, Ashley,"

~~*~~2030, June in Switzerland~~*~~

Those words echoed in my mind and I laughed. No dueling, no D-Wheeling...as if she could take all those things from me. I hadn't given the silly woman who called herself my mother my decks. Well maybe, I had because the man would called himself my father wrestled them from me but I'd stolen them back.

"What are you laughing about, Yuzuna?"

I looked up at my friend, one of the best I'd ever had. Damian Quinn; that wasn't his real name I had been told but around here it was don't ask, don't tell. So I didn't ask and he didn't tell. He was pretty good looking as far as guys went; his short pale blonde hair was slightly spiky in a cowlick style, tanned peach skin settled perfectly over the hard bone, of his narrowed masculine face, his jade green eyes slightly sunk into his face below thick blonde eyebrows. Under an open dark magenta jacket with a broad band of black wrapped diagonally across the torso from right shoulder to left hip, he wore a sleeveless black shirt with three rings of magenta flame wrapped diagonally around his torso from right hip to left shoulder with black jeans and calf-high black motorcycle boots that had strong dark magenta leather wrapped around the tops. It was a miracle that he wore any color besides black at all.

We were at a cafe in Switzerland high in the mountains away from my so-called parent's prying eyes. This place was a good place; were kids dueled and hid from poking parents like mine. Outside the window, the boys argued loudly while the girls chatted quietly probably gossiping but there were just as many duel cards in evidence in the girl's circle as in the guys. I was sitting in the cafe of dark wood paneling and dimmed lightening. There was chatter all around us the scent of tea and coffee hovered on the air as the waitress called orders. It was the perfect place for Duelists.

My parents called me Ashley but I never felt it was truly my name. I remember one day I called myself Yuzu and forgot the rest. So my friends started calling me Yuzuna, Yuze for short. The name felt better fitting but it didn't fit completely. I had a feeling it was the missing part we'd been force to fill in.

"Mommy dearest said I can't duel and here I am," I waved at the duel in progress outside; a girl versus a boy and the girl was winning.

Damian laughed in agreement. "Here you are," he agreed as there was a shout of triumph from the girl and a cry of dismay from the boy. "Eylia won," Damian reported as she claimed her prize and shook hands with the loser. She turned towards the cafe armed with a duel disk and came inside.

"Hey, guys," Dreyl greeted, sliding onto Damian's lap. Aureylia Canum, better known as Dreyl or Eylia was a only an inch or two taller than her boyfriend but her confidence, stature and and seemingly unshakeable serenity made her seem taller than she actually was, being willowy, graceful and light as air; it was as if she would fly up and never come down .Her medium length medium brown hair reached to the mid of her back, her lavender eyes oval shaped. Her skin was a lightly tanned golden brown, like toasted almond and her build was slim, her long pianist fingers tipped with neatly trimmed white claw-like slightly curved nails. She was wearing an off the shoulders lavender top with dusky black hems, a black tank top under it with a long pair of black exercise pants and boots with a long gold chain necklace complete with a star feather pendant.

"Hey, Eylia," Damian smiled, looping an arm around her as I gagged. Damian and Dreyl were totally head over heels for each other and seemed to be totally oblivious to everything else when they were in one of their lovey-dovey moods. "How was the duel?"

"Easy," she replied, smiling as they kissed.

"Hey!" I objected, shielding my eyes with an arm. "PG please!"

"Gross isn't it?" I looked up and a blush rose to my face. Kyceren Kalashnikov was standing over me with a small smirk on his face, a blueberry ice pop in one hand and a tray of food in the other. He was accompanied by Carson Gray.

Carson Gray was like a brother to me; he had a wide face that looked more mature than it was meant to be with hard bone evident under bronzed flesh with shoulder length raven black hair. His wide almond shaped eyes were blue like mine but a bit lighter and he wore a plain red shirt under a tanned jacket with wide short sleeves matched with blue jeans and beat-up looking black converse.

Kyceren was more...he gave my heart attacks on the daily basis. He had thick choppy black hair in layers that stuck up in thick spikes in place. His face was narrow with a strong square jaw, light caramel skin stretched smoothly over the hard chiseled planes of his face. His dark amber brown eyes were slanted and narrow, his hair falling into his face, his nose small. He wore a brown shirt with three-quarter sleeves that showed off his shoulders and collarbone with blue jeans black sneakers and a green jacket tied around his waist. He could get away with things like that.

"Got the pastry you wanted," He claimed the chair next to me and set the tray down.

"I didn't ask for anything," I objected as Dreyl and Damien exchanged knowing glances but I ignored them.

"Explotation...." Carson shook his head and sat down at the head of the table to avoid the rest of us.

"But you were thinking it," Kyceren countered, picking up an eclair that I was trying to avoid. Eating sweets would not improve my strength at all. "Come on, I don't get why you;re on this stupid diet anyway."

"Stop tempting her," Dreyl reprimanded.

"She needs to be tempted," Kyceren grinned wickedly at me with a lopsided twist of his mouth, revealing sharp perfect teeth of pure white, making my heart speed up. "Come on, Yuze just a little bite."

"No..." I mumbled but I loved eclaires.

"You're torturing yourself...." he said in a singsong voice, tickling me.

"Hey, no stoppit!" I laughed helplessly and he took the opportunity to pop the eclaire in my open mouth."Um...oh." I moaned softly at the taste of it and I forgot all about Carson, Dreyl and Damien watching us.

"See? It's good," he grinned wickedly as he fed it to me. I finished it quickly and licked my lips. He tilted his chair back his tongue licking the ice pop with a wicked smirk. Oh, I should really stop looking at him now. He was jacking up my heart rate faster than I could slow it down. We weren't even dating.

"How was the first date?" Carson asked as he quirked an eyebrow ,reminding me of his, Damien's and Dreyl's presence.

I flushed dark red. "It was...interesting," Kyceren replied casually.

"We didn't go on a date!" I objected glaring at him.

"But you want to," he commented lightly, raising a cocky eyebrow. It was things like that that should have irritated me; his cockiness, the confidence, the wicked smirks, the constant fights he loved to get into. But I found everything about him strangely endearing and my heart stuttered again.

"Dream on, vampire boy," I scoffed.

"Hey! Yuze, I just remembered something you might wanna look at," Damien commented, saving me from any more banter that may end up going somewhere that—let me stop that thought.

He dug out his laptop from his black back pack at his feet and set it on the table and he booted it up. "Remember that big tournament on in New Domino City we didn't get to see a few months back? It was on last April,"

"Yeah, what of it?" I replied.

"No one cares about the Fortune Cup." Kyceren grumbled. "Jack Atlas is a total poser,"

Not for the first time I felt like there was something important about him.... but what?

"But this will blow you all away," he promised. "These are the openings ceremonies of the Fortune Cup." he explained rolling the clip as he shoved it towards me and Kyceren. "Check it out," Dreyl seemed more interested in playing with his hair than watching the clip. Kyceren and I exchanged looks before using the screen to block the view and ignore our two lovestruck friends. Carson scooted over to join us grumbling under his breath.

The screen revealed a bird's eye view of the Kaiba Dome before zooming in on the thousands of cheering fans.

"Ladies and Gentleman, boys and girls, duelists of all ages. We welcome you to the Fortune Cup!" the camera zoomed in on the commentator-the guy with a funny pompadour. In my opinion he had too much caffeine. There were more cheers as the MC continued in a loud hushed tone.. "This tournament will give eight lucky duelists the chance to duel each other, make it to the top and duel the Master of Faster, the Dueling King and reigning champ.... Jack Atlas in a battle for the champion title! And now we present...the Fortune Eight!"

He gestured to the stage as the camera swung towards it, smoke geysers exploded and the stage began to rise before the stand on which Jack Atlas stood.

"May I present...the great Greiger, the professor..." As he spoke the camera flicked to each face. "Miss Akiza Izinski, the always mysterious Shira, Commander Koda, Sir Gil de Ransborg, little Miss Luna and Yusei Fudo!"

My gasp was nearly drowned out by Kyceren's snarl of outraged shock and Carson's stunned gasp as Kyceren stabbed the paused button violently, my mouth hanging open, eyes popped in surprise. Not only did that name twang a memory long forgotten but the face on the screen looked...like the spitting image of my own!

He stared passively out onto the audience, eyes expressionless, his face light toffee. His raven black gold-streaked hair was formed into two layers, the top layer pointed upwards and forming thick bangs over his temples and on either side of his face while the lower layer swooped down to cover the nape of his neck and it reminded me of a crab and another memory. His eyes were the most piercing blue I'd ever seen (besides my own eyes) set in a face perfectly-carved face of a caramel tone, a golden tattoo in cool jagged diagonal line design on his left cheek, running from the base of his eye to the jaw line. With a navy blue jacket around his torso set with several amber guards, he wore a black sleeveless with a strange red symbol on the front under it.

"Ohmigod..." I stared at his face. Kyceren ex-ed out the vid and goggled Yusei Fudo.

Ex-Resident of New Domino's Satellite Sector now Ryuhoshi Isle and criminal marked...who was he and why did I get the feeling he was an important key to my lost memories? As the footage of Yusei's duels rolled, I touched the place where that curious mark on my arm rested; hidden from the eyes of anyone but me and the ones I chose to reveal it to.

~~~*~~~November 9, 2026: Hope Museum~~~*~~~

Suddenly and abruptly, without any warning I wasn't at the cafe anymore. I was running through a burning building, flames licking thick drapery, and racing up the length of great pillars. I was weighed down by the three children I carried; one on my back two in my arms but I was strong. Smoke stung at my eyes as I squinted running out into the sunlight. There were crowds of people frantically gathering blankets as three boys came out carrying at least two children each. The skies were filled with smoke, blocking the blue, the clouds and the sun. I mourned its loss and then shoved it out of my mind.

"Rally!" I called.

A boy wearing a long dress over shorts, his ice blue coat charred at the hems, his short hair, red and curly, eyes gray, looked up. He was sitting with other children trying to calm them with little success.

"Zuki! You're okay!"

"Take them," I handed the small boy and two girls to him and the tall boy wearing a bandana--Blitz his name was. "I'm going back."

"But Zuki, the fire--"

"Kids are still in there," I turned away, pulling a wet blanket around myself.

"What about Yusei, your brother?!" Blitz protested. "He'll be devastated!"

"Then if I don't make it tell him I love him!" I shouted over my shoulder as I ran back inside. "And I'm sorry!"

I didn't hear their reply if they gave one; my senses were focused on finding the lost children. I traveled through the burning building to the lower levels were the fire was at its worst. I heard a girl's crying and some force at my command allowed me to push aside the flames but I could not disperse them.

"Little one, come here!" I shouted over the roar of the flames. "I'm gonna help you!" A flaming beam crashed down in front of me. Well, there's goes that plan.

"Help me! I'm scared!"

"..." Great. Stupid, ill-timed beam of death. How was I gonna help her now?

"Zuki!"

"Mom?! Okaa-sama, the girl!"

"Zuki, the building's coming down!"

I looked up, through the collapsing floors, Mom was wrapped in thick blankets, only her cobalt eyes visible, crouched on a stable beam. "Mom, the girl's five! Save her, I'll be fine!" I knew I was being cruel, telling my mother to save a stranger over her own daughter. But the girl was younger than me and scared. I'd promised to protect her.

"I'll come back for you," she promised after only seconds. She flitted into the flames and I felt a sigh of relief escape me just as the floor cracked threateningly under my feet, weakened by flames.

Kuso.

I leaped as high and fast I could to a stone step but it gave way beneath me feet along with the rest of the staircase. I hit the floor on my back just as the stone cracked and shattered.

I was falling, darkness engulfing my vision, as flames crackled, my arm burned and I heard a deafening explosion.

~Yusei...Okaa, Otou...I'm so sorry...~

~You will be okay. Just trust me.~ The voice was nothing I ever heard; it wasn't Otou or Okaa-sama or Yusei or Crow...It was a voice, kind deep and ancient. Like a grandfather, the grandfather I never had or met. The voice sounded wise.

~You'll be okay,~ Another voice sounded in my head as I fell impossibly further below the museum head first, wind whistling in my ears my hair and clothes flapping in the rushing breezes. ~Who...?~

~A friend.~

I don't know why but I trusted that voice. I still do.

~It is time to return, Yuzuki. Wake up.~

~~~*~~~

"Yuze..." I heard garbled low voices. "....!"

"....! Yuz...Yuzuna!"

.....My mind blanked.

"....Yuze! Yuzuki Suzume Fudo, WAKE UP!" a voice screamed, as I was suddenly engulfed in a frozen waterfall.

I screamed, shooting straight up in the bed. How did I get here?

My friends....Kyceren his dark hair wild around his face. Dreyl was standing over me with a bucket. I hoped it was clean. Damien was sitting at the computer by the window, buried in intense research and a girl who I didn't recognize immediately was sitting at the bed's edge.

"What was that for?! How did I get here?!" I was in a white room. If it didn't have a blue carpet, windows, stuffed animals scattered around a dresser, closet and books on the floor and a TV on the dresser in the corner, and black patches on the walls, I would've thought I'd been committed.

"Dreyl's room." Damien answered. Oh. That explained what some stuffed animals wore black clothes or looked liked they'd been dumped in a vat of black ink. "You fainted at the cafe."

"You've been out for a few hours. It's near dark," the girl whose name was Fate added. I remembered her name at least. Oh, Carson was lurking by the wall, looking worried.

"How did you get here?" I asked the girl blankly.

"Oni-kun called," she replied. Fate was Kyceren's younger sister by only a year. She stood at her brother's shoulder with short choppy and layered dark silver gray hair, her eyes dark teal, skin fair. Her outfit consisted of a sleeveless hooded white tunic that extended like a dress cut into three flaps of cloth over a solid black tee, black shorts, thigh length black leggings and flat soled brown leather boots. She wore fingerless black gloves.

"Your 'parents' are freaking out. They've accused us of kidnapping," Dreyl added.

I blinked several times. Great. Now I was soaked. "Dre--Dre-Dreyl, you'd bet--bet-better have---.." I chattered, unable to get all the words out.

"Dreyl get her some dry clothes," Kyceren snapped, glaring at Dreyl as if to say; 'Now look what you did,'

"We tried to stop her," Carson sighed, turning to me as my crazy friend rummaged in the closet.

"But we failed," Fate finished.

"....Hey, what did you call me?" I asked, suddenly registering what had been yelled at me.

"Yuzuki Suzume Fudo," Dreyl replied, her voice muffled by the fact her upper body was stuffed in her chaotic closet. "When Damien looked up Yusei, he found a ton of old data on the Fudos in a old forgotten server. It had been last accessed four and half years ago and you were in it. You're definitely adopted."

Most people would be upset but I was relieved. My 'mom' had black hair and blue eyes with dark skin and my 'dad' was blonde with light skin. I suppose it was believed that I'd think they were my parents but I was a mix of the pair of them. But deep down I was never fooled. Because my memories were not gone. Just...forgotten.

"So my name's not Ashley?"

"Nope. But you're also dead." Dreyl was blunt but my memory had already told me that part. Everyone else glared.

"Where are my cards?"

"Here!" Dreyl dug even more frantically in her closet, coming up with a box and a set of clothes. "I kept your decks safe for you." She handed me both; I took the box first and wiped my hands on Dreyl's sheets before opening it and taking the decks. I flipped through each card. I had two decks, each special. One had been given to me by a person in my still fogged memory, the other I had built myself.

"Yuze?" Carson asked.

"I remember now," I whispered. I peeled off the arm warmer that covered my left arm, studying the curious mark.

"Ah I remember that," Kyceren nodded.

The mark was all silver and in the shape of two birds wings outstretched above a dagger in the center of an eight-pointed crystal-like star. "I have a feeling this is what saved me from death," I muttered.

There was a brief silence before I went into Dreyl's private bathroom to change and hang up my dripping clothes. I had to settle for a silver-grey shirt and black pants; red, black, gray, silver and white were the only colours available in my size.

When I returned the others had relocated to the floor of the room, sitting in a circle.

"Yuzuki, what do you say about going to New Domino City?" Damien asked.

I blinked. "Seriously?"

"Yeah, why not?" Dreyl grinned.

"I'm underage," I said blankly.

"We're not!" Dreyl reminded me draping herself over Damien's shoulder. "Anyway, I'm sure Twelve can easily get the rest of you guys passes, can't cha?" She kissed Damien on the cheek as he flushed. Don't ask me why she calls him Twelve; that's between the two lovebirds.

"It should be easy enough," he admitted with a flush still on his cheeks. "We'll need to steal back Yuze's D-Wheel and you can get the supplies and funds right?"

"I'm running away?" I mumbled, wondering how this happened as I sat down cross-legged between Fate and Kyceren.

"Yeah, we're running away," Kyceren grinned, laying in my lap. Carson grinned and winked at me from Fate's other side and I stuck my tongue at him. Wasn't he suppose to protective?

"I'm not your pillow," I huffed at Kyceren, secretly enjoying the contact. He just grinned up at me and didn't move.

"Anyway, we have to find Yuze's family. Sounds like Yusei's in New Domino City." Fate reasoned.

"True..." Kyceren muttered. "Okay, I'm all for it,"

Damien responded with a faint smile. "I'm in. It was my idea anyway."

"Let's ride!" Carson chimed in pumping his fist in the air as Fate nodded in agreement.

"Ditto! Only I technically won't be running away," Dreyl added. "Time to pull some strings!" She scrambled up, rummaging through her room again.

It had been decided totally on an impulse to go to New Domino City. We did not know what would happen along the way or how we all ended up here together. But we would find out. And the answers lay with my foggy memories, my past...and most of all, my brother. In New Domino City.

Well, there is. Yuzuki's headed for New Domino! Obviously there will be a sequel to this. So do we like my O.C.s? I especially love Kyceren. His name's pronounced Key-sare (as in Mare)-ren. I did not come with the looks for Fate, Dreyl and Kyceren on my own; I borrowed from the net so they'll be on my photobucket page. I'll put up a link soon. I don't know if this last chapter or not…