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Aphrodite was accustomed to marble, to white alabaster stone, to paved roads that imitated diamond.
As she walked down the narrow, dark hallway, with only the strangely smooth blue beneath her, she felt thoroughly dissatisfied.
Where was the feast, celebrating her revival? Where were the other gods? Where were the Muses, with golden cloaks to robe her in, and where was her Seth?
In the darkness, she came across two doors. One, of an etched mahogany, and one of gleaming marble with shards of gold melded into it.
She obviously chose the one superior.
Pulling the golden ring handle, she boldly stepped into it, not expecting the sand beneath her.
Around her was a vast expanse of beach lined along a high stony cliff, with waterfalls running with wine into the ocean(only fitting!), crystalline statues of her fellow gods(many of which were overgrown with aloe) scattered in the sand, and a crystal staircase leading up into the sky but stopping midair.
Looking around in wonder, many thoughts passed through her mind. Most were questions.
A sparrow flew to her.
She took it in her hands and asked, "What is happening, sparrow?"
It flew away and returned with a golden mirror.
It swirled in a spectrum and then depicted a young man, with ice blue eyes and a step aside glare sat in on moving leather.
"It is my Seth! Surely it is!"
The mirror swirled again and showed a young girl, mouth full of apple and head of wavy lochs.
"And what is this? My look alike? Certainly a bad one."
The girl appeared to be running down a flat gray path.
"Then, look alike, fetch my Seth!"
Domino City, Japan
Gunma Housing District
the corner of Mie Avenue and Hyogo Street
Monday, February 2nd
7:13 A.M.
Aglaia didn't want to be late.
Having to enter class for the first time with everyone's eyes on her?
She might have shuddered at the thought if she weren't sprinting so fiercely.
Regardless of what the orange hand on the sign said, Aglaia ran through the crosswalk only to be met by a black limousine.
The Kaiba Limousine
"Didn't I tell you to be out front in less than two minutes?" Seto Kaiba hissed, ever the tough boss.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Kaiba."
"You are sorry. And your pay check is sorry, too."
Swallowing, the driver in the worker's hat and driving gloves responded, "Yes sir, Mr. Kaiba."
"And it better not happen again, do you understand? We barely had enough time to drop off Mokuba."
"Yes sir, Mr. Kaiba."
"And another thing--"
He was interrupted by the screeching breaks and a big bump.
"What the hell, Moto--"
But the driver was already out of the door hunched over something that had landed outside his door.
"I'm so sorry! Are you all right--"
Seto Kaiba opened his door to see a girl in a school uniform sprawled out on the road.
Jerking her head up, she reached out for her book bag but grabbed her side instead, presumably the hip that was hit.
The first thing that Kaiba thought was lawsuit.
"I'm-a--I'm-ma-ma--I'ma--ma--" The girl muttered incoherently.
Sighing, Seto ordered, "Motoko, help her into the car."
"Wha--What? N-no, I--" Aglaia first thought of kidnap, then rape, then the tension of being in the car with a stranger and every part of her said no.
"We have the same uniform, don't we? So we're going to the same school. And you obviously aren't going to walk the rest of the way."
"I-- I--"
"Better just do like he says," Motoko warned.
Aglaia stood up as the man handed her the book bag.
Limping into the car, she sat down uncomfortably on the leather seat.
The driver's door slammed and they were on their way.
Aglaia fingered her ring awkwardly, pulling it off and on.
"Are you all right?" The words were mechanical, but Aglaia nodded.
"Th--- Thank you for your help, s--- sir."
"Read the sign next time." He snorted off her annoying formalities.
The rest of the ride proceeded in silence, just the way the both of them liked it.
Domino High
Main Entrance
When the limo stopped in front of the school, Aglaia leapt out, nearly falling again, but caught herself and limp/fast-walked towards the area that had the most main office-y feel to it.
Out of the corner of his contemptuous eyes, Seto Kaiba caught sight of a brass ring on the seat.
"Cheap," was his first thought.
Picking it up, he felt the strangest pull.
Maybe-- maybe the metal of the ring was attracted magnetically to the metal of his cuff links.
Yes. That had to be it.
He placed it into his pocket and remarked, "On time this afternoon," before leaving.
Domino High School
Main Office
"Honestly," Aglaia heard one teacher preach to the other, "what is it with this generation? Such degenerates."
Who said that teachers didn't bad talk the students in the teacher's lounge?
Aglaia cleared her throat shyly but got no response.
"Like this new Atsuko Kenichi boy!" Aglaia's eyebrows popped.
"First day of school, and he goes and gets into that God forsaken Duelist Trading Circuit," the woman continued.
Duelist Trading Circuit?
"What is it with this card game that makes everyone so serious? But stealing is even more serious," the other equally staunch teacher agreed.
Stealing?
"That boy will pay for those stolen cards," the two decided.
Aglaia interjected, "M---M'am?"
"Hm? Oh, you must be Atsuko Aglaia." Stamping the papers the student forms Aglaia handed to her, the woman waved off the girl. "Get to class now."
Domino High School
Class 4-C
Homeroom
7:23 A.M.
Tea Gardner sighed. She had been doing that a lot lately.
No magical card games, no mystical ancient artifacts, no crazy megalomaniacs.
Just school uniforms and watching the boys play Duel Monsters on their school desks.
Of course, it was nice to have more free time, to spend life as a normal teenager-- but the strange things that she had been lead to believe (and the Pharaoh that she had nearly fallen in love with) were both gone.
Life would never be the same and that life she knew-- they all knew-- would grow dusty and become vague.
She thought, once, that maybe, when they got older, they would look back on it and not believe that it was real. That was a really sad thought.
Maybe she'd even stop believing it had happened. She was already cynical about it.
There was nothing magical about school.
Atsuko Aglaia stepped in the door.
Aching, burning, hurting.
Aglaia had to go to the nurse. But-- what if she walked into the middle of class and the teacher yelled at her in front of the class?
No-- she couldn't. But, oh-- she had to.
Trying her hardest not to limp, the girl with inch thick glasses fell over the desk of a girl with flawlessly straight honey hair and knocked her eye shadow into her lap.
The first thing that Aglaia saw when she opened her eyes was the brown Sephora eyeshadow ($40? $50?) all over the girl's skirt.
And then the fierce eyes above them.