The Kaiba Corp. Limousine

Atsuki was deeply confused by his boss.

He knew that the young Kaiba was capable of all matter of corporate cruelty and to see him shed any type of mercy seemed out of place.

"Atsuki," Seto addressed, sitting across form him in the silent limousine.

"Yes, Mr. Kaiba?"

"I want the full profile on the Atsuko girl on my desk before dawn breaks."

And there wasn't much more to be said.

Domino City, Japan

the Domino City Mall

Rakuten Department Store

Wednesday, February 18th

7:55 P.M.

Three weeks had passed and Aglaia found herself behaving more like a regular girl than she ever thought possible.

She was beginning to wear short sleeve shirts in public and she went out with her friends nearly every night.

Rakuten, the department store in the mall, was having an after Valentine's Day blowout, but sadly Aglaia's savings had been drained in paying a particularly glossy girl.

Instead, she sat lingering over her calculus homework as Tea and Joey's sister, Serenity, sifted through layers of hangers.

"I don't know if I like this," Tea mused as she examined her reflection, a tall brunette in a baby blue mini-dress.

"Try it with that chunky yellow Four Nines belt," Aglaia spoke without looking up.

"This one?"

"And the black beads. . ."

Tea slipped the belt around her mid-waist as Serenity entered the large, tri-mirrored dressing room, very much using her expression to imitate a dry erase board.

For the fifth time in the half hour, she sighed.

"What's the matter, Serenity?"

"Oh, it's nothing." She paused, standing and hooking her hair behind her ear. "It's just. . . I've just been thinking about Mai a lot lately."

Tea and Aglaia both looked up.

"It's been getting to Joey, too. I can see it," she confessed as she studied the pattern on the carpet.

"Who is. . ." Aglaia began, but stopped.

"I know," Tea again sighed. "I can see it in him. When he thinks no one's looking."

"I don't like seeing my big brother that way. . ."

"None of us do."

"She said she'd come back, but. . ."

"It's been over a year." She ran her fingers through her hair. "The last time she was heard of was over in China. Dueling with Vivian Wong, or something. Ever since, I really don't know."

"Who is Mai?"

The two forlorn girls turned to Aglaia.

"Mai. . ." Tea began but turned her eyes to Serenity. Serenity didn't look up.

"Mai Valentine. She was a friend of ours, but kind of. . . went back on us a little. She saw what she did wrong, though, and said she'd come back after she 'found herself'. She and my big brother were so close. . ."

As given, Aglaia had no idea how to respond as her two friends turned their eyes downward.

"I. . . I'm sorry," was her choice.

"Don't be," Tea brushed it off. "She'll come back. . . someday."

"Yeah," Serenity smiled, this time with a bitter twist. "You never know. Maybe we'll see her soon."

Tea nodded but furrowed her brows. She wasn't quite that ludicrous.

Then, Aglaia put some thoughts to love. She became preoccupied and shut her math book.

'I bet Aphrodite wouldn't let things like this happen."

But she threw away that thought as soon as it came.

Aglaia went home that night and googled Mai Valentine.

Ten digit result. Impressive.

Here and there, Duel Monsters tournaments. Voted favorite female duelist three years running, marketed as "the world's most beautiful duelist", an out-of-nowhere sensation, and, most interestingly, a fashion icon in lace and purple leather.

Mai looked more like an Aphrodite with persuasive eyes and invisible violet sparkles all around than the vision she had seen in the ring.

Hadn't seen. Hadn't seen. Of course not.

Then she searched Joey Wheeler. . .

Twelve. Wow.

He was known as an underdog who rose to be probably the world's third most famous duelist, which basically blew out all of Aglaia's mind.

Joey? A world champion? She wondered why she hadn't heard of him before, but then realized that she lived underneath a fashion magazine.

She had seen that green jacket somewhere, though. . . possibly a designer item inspired by said underdog.

Out of sheer curiosity, she googled Yuugi-- and didn't care to count the results.

Then Kaiba. . . wow.

Aglaia spent the next two hours reading the articles on the four famous duelists. . . and studying their attire. She found relations to all matter of runway designs, and for that matter, imitating street fashion.

Maybe Duel Monsters was interesting after all. . .

"Aglaia dear?" It could only be Aglaia's mother, knocking the doorway of the room only lit by a gleaming computer screen.

"Yes, mom?"

"I was doing the laundry and found this in the dryer." Kalliope held out the beaten gold ring. "You must have put it in one of your pockets and lost it."

"Oh, yeah. . ." Aglaia nodded blankly.

"Here." The mother entered and tried to put the ring on her daughter's hand. Aglaia resisted and took the ring in her hand.

"Th-- Thank you."

Kalliope gave her daughter a strange look but simply left. For a mother, it felt like her daughter was the one who was leaving.

Aglaia sat on her bed in deep thought.

It was a state of illogic, trying to decide whether or not to channel the ancient spirit of the goddess Aphrodite. Was it blasphemy even to believe it? The Greek Orthodox would be ashamed of her.

Could she really leave behind her family relic? Could she really forget the promise she made to whatever it was inside the ring? Could she really let herself believe that the ring held such a spirit.

She heard her mother say that any one of the daughters in her family who wore the ring (gemless, symbolizing the search for romance) found happiness and love. Did they do that by coercing with Aphrodite?

Nothing made sense anymore.

No. No! It was ridiculous. She would put on the ring, nothing would happen, it she would have proved to herself that it was only an illusion brought on by stress. Brought on by the stress of getting hit by a car. Of course. Why hadn't she thought of it before.

Almost laughing, Aglaia slipped on the ring and felt most disappointed in herself when she felt herself engulfed in light.

She thought that she was flailing her arms around, trying to escape it, but she had no self realization so she could not be sure.

Like sliding off of a cliff, she fell under.

"Yes!" Aphrodite exclaimed when she found consciousness. "It's been so long since I've had a physical body."

She immediately sought a mirror.

"Hm. This girl, a mere imitation of me! None of my beauty at all. Oh, well." She tossed her hair that didn't swoosh as gorgeously as she had hoped. "I suppose it will have to do."

She turned to the moonlit window. "Now, lonely lovers of the world, prepare for passion to be rekindled!"

As she burst through the window, breaking it, she thought of all the ballads they would write for her after she was through.