Seto's POV
Ever since that Saturday, I started trying my hardest to be the best in everything. My tutor is very pleased, and so is Gozaboro. He probably thinks that I'm trying to impress him, but he's wrong. In school I never even looked up from the book I brought to acknowledge anyone, excluding a certain ruby eyed girl. The novel thing began when Yuna retold 'War and Peace', perfectly might I add, so I decided I have to be educated in the sense of poetry and literature to be her equal in every way.
That's right, I'm doing all of this just so I can be close to Yuna and always have the privileged of competing with her.
In my efforts I shut everyone out except Mokuba and Yuna herself. By doing so, I became distant to the idiots that were my classmates, and for some reason, the girls made me my very own fan club. Great ( please note the sarcasm), and the boys tried their best to get me to talk to them but all failed.
I feel kinda bad, because of my only paying attention to Yuna the girls hated her more, but the guys seem to have developed a crush on her, and that is only fueling the hate.
Yuna plain doesn't care.
So, about a month later, some of the girls got sick of being ignored in favor of Yuna. In the meantime, I have grown to glower at anything that moves and/or makes a sound. I never was friendly to these losers anyway.
One day, I walked in on an argument with Yuna and the other girls of my class involved. They were yelling at her, saying all sorts of things but Yuna just replied calmly with her vit and got them even more railed up. Some treats were exchanged and Yugi then ran up to them and tried to tell them of, saying that they don't know Yuna at all.
They somehow brought up games and puzzles and Yugi said confidently:" Yuna is the best! She solved the Millennium Puzzle! It's the most complex puzzle in existence, and she solved it when she was two years old! "
The millennium puzzle? What's that! ?
"Oh and do you have proof? " a ggirl, head cheerleader, asked smugly, thinking that she won, but not expecting what happened next. Hell, you can never expect something with Yuna!
"Actually, Yuna has proof. Right here! " said Yugi just as smugly, and pointed to his sister. Yuna just sighed and lifted her pendant up and over her head, then put it down on her desk. It's the first time I saw it up close. It had an engraved eye in the center and what seemed like random lines, until I saw that they have a pattern. I followed it with my eyes when I realised that it was not engraved in it, but that they are lines separating pieces.
Puzzle pieces!
Her ppendant is a PUZZLE!
I looked at her for an explanation and she soon gave it.
"It's an ancient puzzle, one of the seven Millennium Items, so it's called the Millennium Puzzle. Our grandpa found it on one of his crazy expeditions, about the same time when our parents realised that our mum was pregnant. He ended up with a bullet in the shoulder, unlike his guides who died in the tumb of a great pharaoh, to whom this puzzle belongs to. The interesting facy is that he doesn't remember what happened after he was shot by his greedy guide, despite remembering every other detail. The Puzzle was in pieces when our grandpa opened the gold box it was in and many tried to put it back together, but only I succeeded about six years ago. "Yuna finished her story with a shrug, like she hadn't just told us the most interesting story, and like she was just talking about the weather!
She then aadded as an after thought:" It's about five millennia old and is one of the kind. The pharaoh to whom it belonged to is now known as the Nameless Pharaoh, because there is no record of his name, but he is mentioned a lot more than you'd think. He was the one that demanded that his name is deleted from all written documents, because it was a key to something that should stay locked away, and his tomb was never again found, after our grandpa almost died in it. It 'just vanished' as they say. But no one thinks that he didn't exist, because there is proof that he did. " she concluded.
I was glad to have been present for that, because it gave me an idea of what am I to expect. From the lines, the puzzle both looks silly and easy, but they said that it was the most complex in existence.
The tteacher arrived then, and we all went to our seats. I never thought that the girls would stoop so low just to get at Yuna.
Before the last class of the day, some older guys ganged up against Yuna and somehow took her Puzzle and smashed it against a wal, and I saw that it had a very big number of similar yet different pieces and that it was really, really complex. Yuna looked as if she had shattered as well as she watched the pieces fall to the floor, each softly clinging as they touched the ground.
I wanted to kill the guy who has done it!
Then I recognised them as the group of bullies that the leader is the older brother of one of the girls from my class. My anger only grew.
That's when she decided to show up and said:" If you can get it back together again before the school day is out, I will acknowledge you as the most popular girl in school and won't allow anyone from our class to sneer at you or call you 'Demon child'. But if you lose and can't complete it within the time limit, you will drop out of school, do we understand each other, rat?"
Yuna didn't answer, just kneeled in front of the pieces and started working, her brilliant eyes gaining a dazed look, her fingers working swiftly to fulfil their task. The bullies chased all the observers away, saying that it's against the rules to help her.
I stayed where I was, still unnoticed, as I was since I arrived at the scene. I was walking through the hallway to stretch my legs, when I stumbled upon the incident, and so I remained hidden from eyesight.
That's how I saw one of the bullies take a golden puzzle piece and hide it in his pocket. I should have known that they won't play fair.
I saw that Yuna , amazingly enough, was about done, but without that one piece, she won't win and I don't think I want her to leave Domino primary school.
When she put all the pieces except the one that is missing, her eyes went back to normal and she started frantically looking for it. She only has another fifteen minutes.
I made up my mind and went to look for the bullies. I soon found them, playing with the centre piece of the Millennium Puzzle and laughing cruelly at Yuna's misfortune, that is until I stepped in and they saw me.
"What do you want, kid?" The 'leader' asked.
I just nodded my head at the puzzle piece and deth-glared them.
They brust into a laughing fit, and I took the apertunity and snatched the missing puzzle piece. They imeadetly came at me with kicks and punches, and for the first time I was grateful to Gozaboro and his 'lessons and punishments' back home. Compared to the trained security guards at the mansion, these guys were a piece of cake. But I was in a hurry, so a few punches hit close to their target, but in the end, I won.
I didn't have time to celebrate, though. Yuna needs this piece and I was on the other side of the school. So I ran as fast as I could, hopping that I make it in time.
When I arrived, a sight that will forever haunt my dreams greeted me. Yuna was collapsed on her knees up against a wall, her shoulders shaking, her body trembling, the almost finished Puzzle beside her lay forgotten while she cried.
I looked at the clock, and saw that she still has time, so I made my way to her, and then gently took her hand and put the missing piece in her delicate hand. She just looked at me for a moment, not even seeing me, then looked at the puzzle piece in her palm and suddenly her eyes filled with determination and she reached for the rest of the Millennium Puzzle so she could complete it.
I stood up and left the school building, knowing that everything was going to be fine. As I exited I rrealised that the entire school, teachers and pupils alike, are waiting for the results of the challenge. The girl who set it all up seemed pleased, obviously not knowing that her brother needs medical attention, and Yugi seemed a bit worried.
As I made my way to the waiting limo, I heard a loud collective gasp, then felt the arms around my waist. To say I was shocked was an underestimation of the year! My new bodyguards, Roland Isono and Fuguta Fubeta, were about to remove the one who hugged me, but the edgy, cold object gave me good idea of who it is, so I waved them away and turned to look at my captor.
Yuna had her face buried in the crock of my neck and was nuzzling it, her arms still around my waist, the Millennium Puzzle poking me in the stomach. I blushed like a tomato and my heart started beating wildly, and I felt lightheaded. It was sort of nice, so I returned the hug with one arm. It was only a moment, yet it gave me straight to go on for days without rest.
It was amazing!
"What are you doing?" I asked her rather softly, not even aware of it.
She looked up at me, about to say something, but just gasped and quickly let me go(I was cursing my big mouth for ruining the moment! ) and instead help my cheeks and I leaned into her touch as she inspected the wouns I got while retreating her puzzle piece.
"What happened? " she asked, sounding truly concerned about me.
It warmed my heart, just knowing she cares.
"It's nothing. Those idiots took a piece of your Puzzle so I just went and got it for you." I said coolly.
"I know. " she just said and we fell silent, until finally, we both stepped back in perfect timing with the other.
We just nodded at each other and I entered the limousine, still feeling that enjoyable sensation of Yuna's fingers so delecetly holding my face.
It was definitely a GREAT decision to get Yuna's puzzle piece back.
A/N: The story is finally starting to look interesting, and it just gets better from here. It will take a few more chapters for them to figure out how they feel, but only as a crush. It'll come later, all the eternal love and kisses and cuddles and romance, for now they must get to know and understand each other, which will be complicated. This story will have a few sequels in which there will be flashbacks to the times when they were still in primary school as well as before they met, so not all of their history will be in this fic. The Yugi-tachi will come a bit later, as well as Duelist Kingdom, Battle City, etc.
This is practically a non magical version of the original, with a few new twists!
I hope you like it so far!