Greetings all! So sorry for the wait, a brush of depression, plus exams will do that! But I swear I AM continuing this story, and finishing it, no matter what, so just stick with me please!

Ichi! Ni! San!

Currently In Egypt:

"Yo! Princess, you got a letter!" A purposely obnoxious voice rang through the large passage ways, causing the other servants and maids to smile, and softly shake their heads at one another, this being a recurring thing ever since a certain thief became the Pharaoh's head of the Royal Guard.

Pharaoh Atem Sennen of Egypt is a man not to be made fun of, even with his unconventional black with red tips, blonde streaks, and blonde bangs starburst hair. He's a warrior and has Shadow magick training- if that weren't enough his deep, red wine coloured eyes, usual held with a stern expression, would be enough to keep away even the craziest of women and men, who would want the throne through him. He was a fair, and just, if a bit unhinged ruler, who was forced to take the throne too early due to his father's death and his mother's mourning. Friendly and quick to smile, Atem has a certain aura about him that screams trust me, but will not be easy forgive or call for mercy for those who betray him, which was seen earlier on in his ruling. But even that isn't enough to stave off the crazies that he calls his friends. Akefia finds said Pharaoh in the throne room, sitting lazily on the throne, in a simple wine-red waist jacket, leather pants, and a black short sleeved shirt, with his red-laced black boots on his feet, which were currently hanging over the left armrest. He was biting his lip, and playing with the gold snake-bite piercings he had there, a nervous habit. He had just released a meeting a few minutes prior, pertaining to the life or death of some bandits the guards had caught earlier.

'There seems to be more and more crime emerging' Atem thought with a sigh, then held out his hand, various gold and ruby rings shining on his fingers, "Just give it here, Akefia."

The man named Akefia smiled, and mock-bowed towards Atem, his gold eyebrow rings glinting at the motion. He had tanned skin, a scar starting from under his eye and going straight down till around his mouth with two verticle slashes crossing it- a scar he got earlier in one of his jobs. His stark white hair contrasted greatly with his tanned skin and muted lilac eyes. He was Atem's Head of Royal Guard and Thief (Akefia himself was surprised that there was such a title as, Royal Thief, but royals are not angels, and he was never one to look a gift horse in the mouth), and was wearing traditional wear for someone of his stature- a tan coloured skirt, with a deep red coat with golden embroidery that he keeps open, showing off the strap across his chest holding his daggers and other weapons. He kept double curved swords strapped to him by a off-white sash around his waist. He wore a bracelet with white, grey and off-white pearls around his wrist- although he's not supposed to. In Egypt your bracelets were something special, not to be shown off. Most people there don't believe in the story of the bracelet though, and refuse to even look at theirs, as they want to be in control of their own fate. Those people sometimes go out of their way to be with the wrong person, and that obviously never works out. Akefia is obviously not one of those persons, and neither is Marik.

Sometimes Atem even gets slightly jealous of the freedom of choice that Akefia and Marik gets, since Atem is the Pharaoh, he should be able to make his own rules, but the truth is, if he tries too hard to go against his people, his people will rebel, and that can not happen, so instead the Pharaoh wears his bracelet with his gold arm band, and acts like the bracelet is connected to the band, as wearing coloured beads to adorn golden jewelry is a popular style. He never takes the bracelet-band off, even in this moment, he's wearing in under the sleeves of his jacket.

Akefia smirks, but hands Atem the letter all the same, just as Marik bursts in through the doors.

"I hear the Princess got a love letter? What's this, keeping your lover a secret from us, oh naughty Princess!" Marik flailing his dark lavender and light lavender stone bracelet adorned hand, made a grab for the letter, but Atem quickly avoided, and slammed his foot into Marik's head instead.

"Calm down, both you and I know I do not have a 'secret lover', and frankly I'm praying that this isn't another letter from that Vivian girl, as I thought Mana stopped that." Atem jokingly said.

(In case you are wondering, dear readers, that Vivian girl is a girl from one of the poorer houses. She threw herself at the Pharaoh at any chance she got, sending love letters, and at one time, tried drugging him with a love potion. At one point, she was even banned from the castle. But, as I said, both sides of the story is what I am focusing on. Vivian wants Atem to fall in love with her, or at the very least marry her, so that she and her family can have an easier life. The way it was, she never saw her father, as he was always working at a factory, and her mother was working impossible hours as a seamstress, so Vivian had to care for the farm and her younger brother herself. In one way or another, Atem's younger sister, Princess Mana, felt sorry for both Vivian and Atem, so she gave Vivian an ultimatum- she could live at the castle as Mana's personal maid with her younger brother, and never have to really want for anything again, as long as she stops going after Atem, or she could continue her useless scheming. Vivian, not a fool, and never really in love with the Pharaoh, took to being Mana's maid, and stopped pursuing Atem. She now lives in the Palace, with her younger brother, and became one of Princess Mana's closest friends and confidant, while her parents barely have to want for anything. Her brother would be living with their parents, but he barely knows them, being all but raised by Vivian, she became sort of his mother, and refuses to live with anyone else. This, my dear readers, is nothing you have to concern yourself on, for this matter is not touched in this particular tale, but you ought to remember for...future purposes.)

"Did someone say 'secret lover' and 'Mana' in the same sentence? Because I am quite sure those two things are never supposed to be in the same sentence." Came the drawling voice of Prince Noa Sennen, Atem's youngest sibling, and half-brother, as he stepped into the throne room.

"Oi!" Came an incensed female voice, accompanied by the sound of the youngest Prince being hit over the head by a paper fan, "That was mean of you, I could get a lover anytime I pleased!" The voice, now being revealed as Princess Mana Sennen exclaimed, as she too walked into the throne room.

"I have no doubts that you could, dear sister. It's the secret part that I find hard to believe." Noa muttered.

Mana held out her pink, with blue rune imprints, fan out towards Noa, and said with a bubbly smile, "Would you care to repeat that?" She then, flicked her wrist and out of the fan came sharp blades.

Her fan was matching her simple outfit of a short-sleeved, v-neck pink tunic, with almost invisible wine-red (as that was the royal family's colour) runes and hieroglyphs, a blue ribbon lining the v-neck, and a purple-sash around her waist, paired with cerulean blue leggings, and a pair of simple black boots, with blue and pink interchanging laces, and wine-red choker around her neck. As she had shoulder length hair, she braided in her soul bracelet- which has purplish-blue gems, and red-speckled bluish-pink gems on it- into her hair. As it was a popular style amongst the girls in Egypt to put in various beads, gems, and gold pieces into their hair, she hasn't been called out on it yet, especially since she's a bit of a 'girly-girl' as people put it. The colours of the beads don't give her much of a choice in clothing matters, because if she tries to dress in clashing colours, there would be speculation on why she doesn't just replace the 'beads' in her hair with matching ones, and she does not want the public to find out she's wearing her 'bracelet' in clear sight. For the most part, Mana was a very loving, and caring Princess, who barely complained about all the expectations required of her, even though it was plain to see to those closest to her that the expectations where weighing her down. She can be quite stubborn on things she cares deeply for, and is a trickster to the truest sense of the word. With medium height, blonde hair, and pink eyes- something to do with a throw back gene, but since pink is such a close colour to red, no one complains or disbelieves Mana's claim to royalty- Mana is considered very pretty to the men in the kingdom, not that she pays them any mind, already positive that her soul mate is female. With a silver belly button piercing, a gold tongue piercing, and various ear piercings, Mana is a prankster by heart, but a trustworthy person.

Noa made to open his mouth again, glancing over at Mana with teal blue eyes, flicking his jade green bangs out of his face, and paying no mind to the blades directed at him, prepared to speak, but was interrupted by Atem.

"That's enough, we can all spar later. In the /sparring/ room." Atem turned to Marik, "You're a Royal Guard, Marik, aren't you supposed to, I don't know, guard my siblings from killing each other?"

"But Pharaoh, where'd be the fun in that?" Marik whined with a smile, and wink, his various gold ear piercings, lip ring, and eyebrow rings catching the sun light.

Atem rolled his eyes, and ignored Marik, turning his attention back towards his siblings, who seemed to be having a whole other conversation.

"Are you sure I didn't hurt you Noa? Maybe you should go to the healers." Mana exclaimed worriedly as she held Noa's face in her hands, and peered at a small cut on the boys cheek.

"I told you Mana, I'm fine, no harm done. A trip to the healers would be overkill, look it's barely bleeding." Noa said placidly, as he carefully took Mana's hand off his cheeks. "I'm fine."

Everyone in Noa's family had a tendency to be slightly over-protective of Noa, even the Queen tends to him as if he was her birth child. Noa was said to be born prematurely, and thus fall into sickness often. Was said to, because no one knows his birth mother, and as their father is dead, it's not as if they could ask him.

Other than his sickness, that no one is sure whether it is because of premature birth or a family thing, it was easy to see that Noa wasn't fully related to the Sennen's, with his teal blue eyes and jade green hair, which caused a lot of fuss through the kingdom when he was announced as a Prince. Lucky, nowadays apart from the stray complaint, that is quickly silenced by the Queen, or one of his siblings, or Royal Guards, no one really troubles him anymore, preferring to outright ignore Noa in favour, of what the subject refer to as the 'real' royal family. Unless forced to acknowledge him, the subjects pretend he is not there, not even speaking of him- which is easy to do, as for the most part, Noa stays in the castle, unseen by the people. It's gotten to the point that Noa could walk through the various towns, with nothing but a hood on, and no one, apart from a few drunks, kidnappers, or people with great memories who are extremely against his claim to the throne, bothers him. He could actually get people to believe he's a traveler, and get a warm reception. He knows this for a fact, and has done it multiple times before, seeing and understanding things about his subjects, that the royals could never see or understand. Thanks to his sickness, and not so warm welcome to Egypt, Noa spent all-known-to-his-family time indoors around books and tutors, and became extremely smart, but slightly cold towards people he doesn't trust.

He was currently wearing a loose, long sleeved square-necked blue tunic, with green embellishments and runes, wine-red leggings, and black boots. Since no one outside of the castle cared the least bit on what he does, Noa wears his bracelet of Jade green stones and turquoise blue stones, on his wrists- the only jewelry he wears, other than his simple gold earrings, and various gold rings.

"Brother, the Quee- Mother says you are supposed to meet her in her room, after you have read the letter." Noa said, still slightly surprised that the Queen allows him to call her mother.

"Read it out loud!" Mana said, fanning herself, as she had retracted the blades.

"Dear Pharaoh Atem Sennen of Egypt;

It has come to my attention that you are of eligible age for marriage, and have no known marriage contracts, or lovers. Taking that into account, I ask of you to attend a ball being throne for my grandson, Prince Yuugi Muuto of Japan, who is also of eligible age and looking for a marriage partner. It will be held the second of August, and many other royals, aristocrats, and nobles have been invited- even some under you ruling, so be warned, and do not use your higher status to any detriment of the others. I can not uninvite anyone that I have already invited, so if you or your country have disagreements with another, tell me and I shall try to keep you, and the aristocrats and nobles of Egypt, separated from whomever as much as possible.

You shall stay a fortnight, but may be sent back at any period before then, as it is Prince Yuugi's choice on who stays or goes. I wish you all the luck on winning my grandson's hand. If you have any questions or concerns, please write back, also informing me of your choice to come. If I have some information wrong, and you do indeed have a marriage contract or lover, not known to the public, please still write back and inform me of the fact- nothing you inform me of will be made public unless you wish it so. You may bring as many people as you so wish, including your guards, family, servants and any guests you might so happen to be hosting at the moment- if they hadn't also gotten a letter. If implore of you to only bring the most trustworthy people, as anything they do will be reflected onto you, and I do not want any harm to befall my grandson. I await your favourable reply.

Sincerely,

Solomon Muuto,

King of Japan."

All was quiet for a moment, before Mana ran up to Atem, shook his shoulders, and said, "You're gonna accept right!? I swear if you ruin the chance I have of getting an actual kimono, I will end you."

Ever since Mahado, their late traveling magick teacher, had revealed that he was originally from Japan, and gave Mana her fan-weapon, she's been dying to see their now dead teacher's home country, as she was fancinated by their culture and styles. She read up on there past, present, politics, and traditions, and by this time, knew more about Japan than she did Egypt.

Atem carefully untangled Mana's hands from his red jacket and said, "I'll tell you whether or not we are going after I talk with mother, though I highly suspect we are going."

Mana squealed and hugged her older brother, before running out, calling for Vivian to pack her things.

"Noa, you should probably pack as well, both mother and Mana would want us to go as soon as possible. Marik... On the other hand, Akefia, go to Seth and ask him to start writing back a letter, that says we are coming."

(Seth, my dear readers, is the Atem's cousin, Royal poison maker, a scholar, and Royal advisor. He is also the previous head of the Royal Guards.)

"Marik... I don't even know what to do with you. Go patrol, or pack your things, and do try not to get into too much trouble during this trip?" Atem finished with a question.

"No promises Pharaoh~ But I'll try, I haven't been back in Japan for awhile, and I would so hate the chance to see Kitty and Royal again..." Marik trailed of, muttering to himself as left the room as well.

Atem shook his head, but got up and made his way to see his mother, the Queen of Egypt, to discuss the trip, unknowingly setting forth a sequence of events that would be impossible to stop.

I'll try to continue sooner than last time, my dear readers! Please review, and thank you ever so much for your continued support and kind words and reviews! Until next update~