There was no sense of time in the Field of Reeds. Days blend into weeks bled into months bled into millennia. There was a time when it had been possible to sort of gauge how long it had been, when her children and grandchildren had met her here, but once everyone she had known in life had joined her, everything had bled together

She had known since coming to the Field of Reeds that she would eventually go back to Earth, to help guide the spirit of the Puzzle to come to home, where he had belonged for thousands of years.

The problem with this was that she wasn't sure who the Spirit of the Puzzle even was. She knew someone had been sealed away, but who he was or what even happened had been lost, and Osiris had not been forthcoming in the answers. How was she supposed to help the Puzzle's spirit get to the Field of Reeds if she didn't know who they were and what even happened to lock them into one of the items?

But here she was, standing in front of the veil between the living world and the world of the dead,

"You will be an excellent guide, Azila," her husband said, leaning to press his lips against her forehead. "I wish you luck. See you soon."

Azila nodded. "I will be back as soon as I can."

It was a rare gift, to be able to travel to and from the realms, and she intended to embrace every second of it that she would.

Stepping through, Azila found herself in a dark room, lit by only what was coming in through the cracks of the fabric covering the window.

A shifting noise caught her attention, and she glanced over to find a bed with a sleeping young woman inside it. Her wrist was out from under the covers, and there was the Bracelet, visible in the moonlight.

Azila smiled. So it was another young woman who ended up with her bracelet. Though it was dark, she could see that there were… very similar features between the two of them. The shape of their noses, wavy hair, though this girl was missing the blonde strands Azila was currently sporting.

Strange, she had stopped dyeing her hair long before she went into the Field of Reeds. Why would Osiris had dressed her like this? So many mysteries to unravel, and yet she was supposed to help escort the Spirit of the Puzzle onward?

She looked around the bedroom, seeing what looked to be a large, ornate lantern on the bedside table next to a small rectangle with a string attached to one end. Next to the window was what Azila assumed was a work desk, with a strange closed rectangle with another long string attaching itself out the back of the rectangle and into the wall behind the desk. Against the wall was a large shelf full of tomes. The girl liked to read! How lovely!

Azila moved over to the shelf to take a look at the tomes.

Geography, mathematics, Japanese history (Japan… is that where she was?), Ancient Egyptian history -

"Ancient? Well I'm sure that can't be right…"

"What the hell? Who are you?!"

Azila turned to find the young woman sitting up in bed and switching the lantern on. Interesting - so she could do it without fire? Still, Azila gave her a polite smile. "Oh wonderful, you're awake! My name is Azila. I was sent down here to help the Spirit of the Puzzle discover who he is, and train you in the art of shadow magic."

The girl blinked at her several times, then rubbed her eyes and heaved in a breath before picking up the brick and staring at it. "I'm dreaming. It's three-thirty in the morning, I have brunch with KC at eleven, and I've got exams next week. I'm on edge. This is a dream."

"You are most certainly not dreaming," Azila scoffed, making her way over to the bed just as the girl flopped back down and switched off the lantern. "Young lady, I mean it. This is not a dream, and it is important that you listen."

The girl let out a groan and opened her eyes. "You don't have to sound like my mom when you talk to me y'know."

Azila chuckled softly. "Forgive me. I spent most of my life as a mother and grandmother. It comes naturally."

"Okay, okay fine. If all of this is real and you're really a ghost come down from on high, who exactly are you and who sent you?"

Finally, the girl was amenable to discussion, and Azila smiled as she settled - or settled as much as a spirit could - on the end of the bed. "As I said, my name is Azila, and I was sent down by the god Osiris to help guide the Puzzle's spirit to the Field of Reeds."

The girl gestured to the door. "Well, he's in the living room with my cousin. Have fun."

Azila chuckled again. "I'm afraid it's not that simple. The truth is, I don't even know who the Spirit of the Puzzle was. Just that I have to help him… somehow."

"Oh my god," the girl muttered, putting her head in her hands and rubbing her temples. "If you don't even know who he is, how are you supposed to help him?"

"He owned a Millennium Item, so he must have been someone important to those of us in Court. That is why it is important that he come to the Field of Reeds… there are so many people waiting for him."

The girl stared at her in sleepy confusion. "So, let me get this straight. You have no memory of this guy, but you think he's super important that you and a bunch of other ghosts have been waiting for him in the afterlife. And you're only here because Osiris told you to?"

"Yes, now you're getting it!"

"You picked the wrong girl to try and help you with this," she sighed. "I'm not even going to be living here in a few months."

Azila shook her head. "Whatever you might believe, you will be involved. The Items do not choose their owners lightly. You are meant to wield the powers of the Bracelet. Besides, have you not noticed that we look similar despite being born years and years apart?"

The girl blinked again, but turned the lantern back on to get a better look, squinting in confusion. "Your hair… you have wavy hair like me, the black and magenta like me… but you have a streak of blonde framing your face, like the men in my family. I don't understand. Why do we look alike?"

"Fate. It is the most powerful force in the world. And I will teach you - "

"I knew there was another soul here."

The girl blinked in surprise at the sudden arrival of another, the room door cracked open. "Yugi, I'm fine. Go back to bed."

Azila stared in horror as the figure approached. "No, it is not fine. Look at his forehead. The symbol there…"

The girl focused on the spirit (it was a spirit in charge, not a human, she could tell), before her eyes widened and she got out of the bed. "Wait - hold on. Who are you?"

The spirit grinned, though Azila could see - and sense - nothing but malice. "Consider me a guardian angel. I will determine if this spirit is actually safe or not."

"Where's Yugi?"

The spirit shrugged. "He is resting. He had such a tiring day. Everything with Ushio was exhausting. Surely you know that, Reika."

The girl - Reika - shuddered. "How do you know my name?"

The spirit tapped his temple. "Yugi's memories are available to me."

"Well get out of his head and get out of my room."

"I will… just as soon as I make sure this spirit means no harm."

The room began to warp, and Azila instantly felt the old, familiar tug of the shadows and the games they played. Reaching out with her hand, she could feel the power of the bracelet radiating, tugging and pulling and wanting to be free. Reika was woefully unprepared for this, especially against an opponent as unstable as… whoever this was.

"You are not the only one experienced in the Games," Azila said, her fingertips brushing against the bracelet and drawing its power to her, felt the DiaDhank form on her arm. She didn't want to - she really didn't want to - but she would summon what she needed to if it meant stopping this boy. "I will be your opponent and prove to you that I am not the hostile spirit here."

The Puzzle's spirit laughed. "Are you implying that I am?"

Azila raised a brow. "Yes."

"Interesting," the spirit said, tilting his head before flicking his wrist.

Reika went sent flying back onto the bed, the covers wrapping around her and binding her down onto the mattress despite her struggles.

"What do you have in mind for this Game?" Azila asked.

"I call it Truths and Lies. We each write down facts about ourselves and one lie. Then the other must guess which is the lie."

Azila raised a brow. It sounded simple enough, but these games never were. "And what does the loser get punished with?"

"Banishment."

Azila tilted her head in confusion, unsure if the spirit had played many of these games or if he just hadn't played one with another spirit. Azila hadn't either, but she was fairly certain neither of them would be able to be banished. She was at the mercy of a god, and he was bound to the puzzle itself.

But she knew the rules of a Shadow Game, and so she nodded, taking a seat at the table that had materialized in Reika's bedroom. "I accept your terms. Let's begin."

The pen she wrote with was strange, not nearly like the ones she used when she was alive, but she managed to write down her list.

I am a Great Royal Wife

I am a healer

I am the youngest of seven children.

The spirit laughed as he picked up the paper. "Do you want to lose? Clearly the lie is that you're a Great Royal Wife!" The shadows swirled around him, but she kept her gaze even with him as she spoke.

"I was the eldest, and I only had four siblings."

"'Only?'" came Reika's mutter of disbelief.

The shadows swirled around her, and as the Puzzle's spirit looked at her in horror, she only gave him pity.

"I do not know your name, nor do I know who you were in life, but I make a promise to you that I am only here to help you, so that one day, you can gain entrance to the Field of Reeds with your memories in tact," Azila said carefully. The shadows did not move from around her, but stayed pointed at him in warning. "I do not wish to bring harm to any of the humans. Nor will you be banished. We must work together to find out what is happening."

The Spirit looked at her, no longer looking manic, but instead quite sad, and very, very, young. "You… want to help me? How?"

"I do not know. But I do know that our god Osiris was the one to send me down… you are meant to come home to the Field of Reeds, I promise. But you cannot do so if you keep running around harming people with the Games. That was never what these powers were for."

Not exactly true, but the less insanity there was surrounding them, the better the world at large would be.

The spirit nodded, and the shadows began to vanish, freeing Reika from the bedding. Azila watched as the human scrambled off the bed with wide eyes.

"Yugi?" she whispered when the shadows completely disappeared, and the spirit retreated back into the puzzle in a flash of gold.

The boy, Yugi, snapped his head up in surprise. "Reika! What - "

(The spirit and Yugi were disconnected… interesting)

"This… is going to be a very long conversation that we can finish tomorrow but… you need to know that what gramps told us about the shadow games is true. They're real. And… your puzzle has a ghost in it."

Yugi stared at her. "Wait, the Shadow Games? So that means Ushio playing in the dirt and thinking it and the leaves were money…"

"He was being punished for his transgressions," Azila said, coming into Yugi's view. "I have seen that game used before, on con men."

Yugi blinked. "Who - "

"My item has a ghost attached to it too. This one is Azila. She wants to help us figure everything out," Reika explained, rubbing at her eyes. "But we really should get some more sleep."

Yugi nodded, but hesitated in turning around. "I… don't want him to take control of my body again."

"I will keep watch over you," Azila said. "I am well-equipped in the art of the shadows as well. You will be safe to sleep, I promise."

Yugi nodded and began to make his way out of the room. Azila turned back to look at Reika, who was sliding back under the covers.

"Thank you, Azila…" Reika said.

Azila smiled. "You are very welcome. Get some rest."

And with that, she followed Yugi out of the room.

"Yugi, I've got some books on Ancient Egypt in my room, if you want to take a look at them. See if you can figure anything out about… all of this," she said the next morning, glancing at Yugi with a shrug.

Yugi nodded. "Thanks Reika. Do you mind if I invite Anzu over too?"

"Of course not. Just don't make a mess and don't eat all of our food. The takeout menus are in the drawer next to the stove if you get hungry again and I'm not home," she replied as she made her way to the door. "I'll be back as soon as I can."

She paused at the mailbox upon realizing it had mail in it, and felt her eyes widen when she saw what exactly had been sent priority.

A letter - from the University of Kyoto.

Reika practically sprinted to her car and tore the letter open the moment she was alone.

Dear Miss Mutou,

Congratulations! You have been accepted to the University of Kyoto's Music Education program -

She stopped reading. That was the only sentence she needed for now. The rest would come later, after brunch, after the weird conversation with Yugi about the Shadow Games. For now, it was time to be a member of the Young Five.

"You cut it close this morning, Miss Reika," Lector said as she rushed into the restaurant's private room. "It's not like you."

Reika bowed deeply before she made her way to the table and took a seat next to him. "Apologies, Mister Lector. I received some big news just as I was leaving and I needed a moment to gather myself."

"Oh? Good news I hope."

"Yes sir. I got accepted to Kyoto for their music education program."

Lector grinned. "Well that is excellent news Miss Reika. Congratulations! I suppose that means all of you now know what your plans are for after graduation."

"A toast is in order then," Seto said. He was sitting at the head of the table and radiating an aura of being in charge despite five men in the room having decades on him in life and work experience. A wave of his hand, and servers were arriving with wine and sparkling cider, quickly placing them on the table. "To the Young Five. May the dedication and commitment they have shown to KaibaCorp carry them into their future endeavors, and may they excel at all they choose to do."

The glasses clinked together gently, and she took a sip of the cloyingly sweet liquid.

"Hey Reika! What's that design on your bracelet?" Mokuba piped up.

She blinked in surprise, momentarily forgetting what she was wearing. "I - oh, it's an artifact my grandfather brought me from one of his expeditions in Egypt. He gave it to me when I was nine."

"Hold on, didn't you tell me years ago you said you wouldn't wear it unless Yugi finished that puzzle?" Noah asked with a frown.

"And I kept my word. He finished it last night."

Noah stared at her. "He did? It was taking him so long I never thought it would happen!"

"Heh, yeah, neither did I."

"Is it true? Do they actually have powerful ancient magic? Your grandfather mentioned that once, didn't he?"

Mokuba's eyes widened, but Seto's rolled. She already knew how this conversation was going to go, but she soldiered on.

"Ah - right, that's the rumor," looking at Mokuba, she continued. "The bracelet and Yugi's puzzle are part of a set of ancient objects known as the Millennium Items. There are only eight of them in the world. Each one is said to contain powerful, dark shadow magic."

"Really?" Mokuba gasped. "Like what?"

"Mokuba," Seto said sharply. "Don't be ridiculous. None of that is real."

Mokuba frowned and turned back to Seto, but Noah rolled his eyes.

"It's real," she murmured, leaning closer to Noah. "The Shadow Games, the spirits… all of it. We don't know what it means but… gramps wasn't just telling us scary stories."

Noah's voice was low and level with hers. "What are you going to do?"

"Research, I guess. Deal with whatever comes our way. I don't think this is something e can avoid, Noah."

"You are correct. It is not."

She rolled her neck in an attempt to shake off the uneasy feeling of hearing Azila's voice in her head.

"Reika?" Noah murmured.

"It's fine," she said. "I'm fine."

So why were her hands shaking?

"Are you sure you don't want your father and I to check on you?" her mother asked, worry clear on her face even on the small cell phone screen.

Reika groaned and rolled her eyes. "Mom, I'm fine, I promise. The nurse said almost everyone gets a cold this time of year."

After not being sick once during the first semester of university, luck had not been on her side going into the second, and instead of being able to attend Yugi's first non-tabletop duel, she was being forced to watch it via streaming.

"You can call us at any time if you need us. We'll be on a train in seconds," her father added. "With food and medication."

She didn't have the heart to tell them Seto had already sent her a large care package with just those things. "I know you will, and I'm fine for now, I promise. I've got soup and honey. and tea. It'll tide me over until tomorrow. I'm going to be watching the duel tonight so I'll have something that makes me happy."

Her mother sighed. "Don't stay up too late! Go straight to bed once the duel is over."

"I will, promise."

Or not.

With a sigh, she ended the call with her parents and connected to the stream Noah had sent her to watch the duel. Yugi and his friends were just entering the arena, with the Young Five already sitting in the stands with Mokuba and Noah. Seto was standing in his spot at one end of the area already, a manic grin on his face.

She had been worried about him for a few days, even when they'd managed to get together for dinner for his birthday, he'd been wild-eyed as he talked about the future, and about the upcoming Japanese dueling tournament, and it had all felt so off.

Seto was always a passionate about whatever caught his interest, but his face, and the way his pupils seemed to shrink as Yugi stepped into the arena, told her something was wrong.

"I think you'll find our brand new duel arena to be quite exciting Yugi! And how lucky you are to be one of the first to test it out!" Seto laughed.

"There is a heavy energy around him," Azila said, materializing into the room with a frown. "It feels dark but… not in the way the shadows do. Has anything happened to him lately?"

She shook her head. "No, not that I can think of. Mokuba and Noah haven't said anything either." Mokuba, of all people, would have told her if there was.

"Odd… he was not like this before, was he?"

The duel began, both players making their first move.

"No, he seemed okay, until a couple of days ago," she said, coughing into the crook of her elbow miserably.

"Have some tea, and a spoonful of honey." When Reika gave her an odd look, she shrugged. "I was a healer before my marriage. There has been much changed in the world since my death but those two have remained."

Reika rolled her eyes as she got off her bed and moved to the small kettle already filled with hot water. While waiting for the tea to steep, she did indeed take a spoonful of honey. With that done, she returned to her bed with a mug of chamomile, leaning back to watch the rest of the duel.

It… was not going well for Yugi. He was down to four-hundred points to Seto's one-thousand, and Seto had all three of his beloved Blue-Eyes cards on the field. She could tell Yugi was using Grandpa's deck, so what other tricks could he possibly have…?

Surely not -

"You are pathetic Yugi, and so is your deck! So go ahead and draw your last card so I can end this duel already!" Seto still had that manic grin on his face, that seemed to only grow with each turn taken.

"Pathetic? The only pathetic thing I see here is you, Kaiba! My grandfather's deck may not be the strongest, but it does contain - "

It was.

"The unstoppable Exodia!"

Grandpa was a lot of things, but a fool was not one of them. He had stacked his deck for strategy, not just for strength, and it seemed that was a lesson about dueling Seto had forgotten.

The other Yugi was standing in Yugi's place as Seto's life points hit zero. "You have so much hatred in your heart, Seto. It has started to cloud your judgment. But don't worry… I can help you. Mind Crush!"

The Eye of Anubis flashed on Yugi's forehead, and Seto fell to his knees, his eyes clearing, pupils returning to normal.

And the feed went black.

"Reika…" Azila asked. "Are you certain there has been nothing wrong with Seto recently?"

Reika's heart was in her throat. "I - I - "she glanced up, spotting the calendar hanging on the wall across from her bed.

October thirtieth.

"Oh shit," she whispered. "Today is the anniversary of Gozaburo's death."