Mark (discontinued)

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I do not own YuGiOh! nor any characters within.
I do not make any money by writing this story.
I do own my original characters: Tendou twins, Naya and Kaya, Takayuki Tendou, and demon Asmodeus. Even though for Asmodeus, originally I got idea to build his character based on folklores, myth, and some theological explanations.
YuGiOh! belongs to Kazuki Takahashi and others who have its license.


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01


“Have you ever been told by someone around you that you are such big-mouthed, most babbling and ranting wench who likes to prattle about useless things such as friendship bullshits et cetera?! I don’t think you have.” Cold and sarcastic remarks which were coming from the other girl’s mouth successfully made Anzu Mazaki gaping in shock.

Naya Tendou was a new transferred student to their class, which was third grade in Domino High School. She was such a beauty, with long, straight, silky black hair, oval-framed face, and fair skin, high cheekbones that made her looked aristocratic and elegant, well-full sensual lips and deep yet striking-sharp purple eyes. Her demeanors were calm and composed; she was also high developed in brain departments and physical capability. She wasn’t befriending much, only few ones, suspiciously platonic relationships, and mostly girls. She rarely talked with guys; practically she simply ignored them whenever they approached her. That was proven to peak their curiosity toward her person more.

She rarely had lunch within the cafeteria or on the roof or other places like school garden or park together with other school attendants, even her few ‘friends’; she simply had lunch alone under certain tree beside the library, which turned out to be her favorite hang out place. She read a lot and spent her break time between their class changing by reading books she borrowed from library or had been brought by herself.

She was in the same class with Anzu Mazaki, Katsuya Jounouchi, Yugi Mutou, and, eventually Seto Kaiba; who decided to finish his school in Japan before moving permanently to New York; meanwhile Hiroto Honda, Ryou Bakura, and Ryuuji Otogi were attending another class. Shizuka, Katsuya’s little sister, was also attending same school; she was in her first grade now and dated Hiroto, with Katsuya’s blessing and Ryuuji’ slight jealousy.

The gang, save Seto, still acted the same way like they previously had before Atem left them: solid, cheerful, and supportive, albeit a little down considering the leaving of their friend and former Pharaoh. They greeted Naya with enthusiasm like they usually greeted newbie in their class, much to the girl’s dislike; because once Ryuuji laid his eyes on her in the class, he instantly hit her with his cheap, love proposal. She coldly rejected the boy and decided not to stay near the gang again, except for Yugi which she considered as good natured boy and good companion.

Naya narrowed her purple orbs annoyingly and watched Anzu with less interest; the brown haired girl was still gaping from hearing her previous remarks. One more thing about Naya Tendou: she was sharp-tongued, almost every remark she let out was as cutting as a blade was, not foul but harsh and smoothly sarcastic.

“Wha—wha—?!”

“I think I’ve said it clearly then. You’re annoying, Mazaki. Get lost.” She added her bitter remark without using normally –chan or –san suffix behind Anzu’ surname.

Anzu was taken aback and still shocked; she turned to her friends, who were also gaping like her. “I—I—you—!” she stuttered, not able to retort her sarcasm.

Naya tilted her head, her black tresses swaying alongside her lovely face. She stated flatly, “I don’t like an annoying, much good-for-nothing prattling, chatterbox like you. I’m leaving.”

And with those words, she stood from her chair, scooping her books within her arms, and walked out from the class to go to the library.

“Just—just what the hell is wrong with her?!!” Anzu exploded. Both Yugi and Shizuka soothed her with comforting words and pats on her shoulders. Katsuya yawned and scratched his head absentmindedly; he was still sleepy from his usually lack of sleep, while Hiroto and Ryuuji decided to shrug off and resumed their previous duel. Ryou wide eyed Anzu and Naya’s now empty desk back and forth, but he remained silent. They all were gathering in Yugi’s class; it had become their habit to hang out in the smaller boy’s class since the first time they formed their gang.

Eventually Naya’s desk was side by side with Anzu’s; resulting their brief moments of a bit chatting here and there, and, or, lending notes each other some times. Naya didn’t really like Anzu, but she held her patience and stilled silent hearing Anzu’s usual noisy prattling, until this time, when the brown haired girl started to babble about friendship speeches and such bullshits, Naya just couldn’t stand it anymore. She snapped and threw her sarcasm remark right to the other girl’s face.

“Ya know, Anz’?” Katsuya suddenly spoke in mild tone, carefully looked at his fuming friend. “She was strangely right. Ya did annoyin’ some times… I mean, no offense, yer speeches of friendships, although true and inspirin’, are gettin’ borin’…”

He trailed off when he saw Anzu’s wounded and angry glare stabbing him. Shizuka frowned, annoyed, and elbowed her brother on the ribs. Katsuya just winced.

Seto Kaiba heard all the commotion although it was covered by his usual façade of cold mask and nonchalant behavior. He was typing on his laptop, working on his mounting reports from his company when the remarks were made. He mentally praised the new girl for her sharp tongue and began to be slightly impressed by her.

Oh, he exactly knew Anzu was annoying and noisy wench; he had marked her as one from the beginning and had clearly told her as one in almost every time they met; but he rarely heard others to label her like that out from himself. Seto was never being in good terms with Yugi and the gang, especially with Katsuya, whom he called “mutt”, and he enjoyed to scold and harshly teased the boy in one moment and another. He usually ignored the others and rarely spoke to Yugi, whom he secretly regarded and saw as rival and, maybe, true friend. Well, it wasn’t exactly Yugi, it was Atem anyway.

Seto had learned his past life from Isis Ishtar, and albeit he didn’t believe in magic, past life, or reincarnation, he had to admit he felt some connection with Atem. He learned that he was reincarnation of Atem’s cousin, the one whom people called High Priest Seth, who happened to live in Egypt 5000 thousand years ago. He learned and finally accepted the fact. Still, it didn’t mean anything to his current life.

After Atem’s departure for the afterlife, Seto thought he lost the other duelist. He inwardly felt saddened and disappointed for not being able to at least see him for the last time. He was his rival after all; the one who matched him in card duels and the one whom he finally considered as true friend after long time.

But his name wasn’t Seto Kaiba if he slumped just for losing his rival like some weaklings. No, he stood still and walked straight to reach his dreams: building Kaiba Land and expanding his company. His Duel Disk and Visual System were greatly appraised after the moment of Battle City and he got many offerings of sale presentation and treaties from other businessmen. He was now satisfied and glad for his works.

Seto glanced to the corridor while working on his laptop. He wondered where the newbie girl went after snapping at Anzu previously. Maybe she went to the library. She looked like some nerds, reading many books and kept silent all the time… much like him, he thought. The sudden thought made him mentally kicking himself; he didn’t want to be involved, personally, with any other person save his younger brother, Mokuba.

He typed some more information within his report before sighed and decided to end his work. His curiosity toward the girl started to peak, something he got disapproved for. Never had he felt this curious since he firstly got rare God Card of Obelisk the Tormentor and won several duels using it. She was truly something different.

Seto frowned when he felt he was attracted to the girl’s odd behavior. She wasn’t like the other crappy girls within his class. She was calm, composed, and rather cold, much a loner; like himself; she rarely chatted and went out for shopping or just strolling at the city like girls usually did. Seto also noted he some times caught her not paying attention to the teacher and she was doing her other works, whatever works were those; but he suspiciously guessed that she worked in somewhat similar charts and reports like he did.

Seto kept thinking about the girl. He vaguely remembered he had heard her name somewhere. Maybe in business conference… her name sounded familiar. Tendou… he knew about a company with the same name, lining in design business.

Finding the idea, Seto discreetly opened Goggle Search and typed the girl’s name. Naya… Tendou… true? He clicked Enter and he raised his brows as the long list of news and articles emerged on the screen. He picked one most prominent news from almost thousand related articles about her; his eyes went wide when he read the information listed on his screen.

*Naya Tendou, 17, one of youngest and most brilliant businesswomen in the world of graphic and digital designs, wins another award of business talent for her work designing features and backgrounds for newest and apparently most favorable RPG sold in market nowadays, Realms of Dragons. She and her company, Tendou Design, Inc. design and recreate most of the dragon characters within the game; including the infamous dragons from M&W Cards Duel Game, Blue Eyes White Dragon and Red Eyes Black Dragon, which she has legally borrowed from the cards duel game. She has the license to redesign and use them within the game from Gekkou Tenma himself, the current CEO of M&W Corporations after Maximillion Pegasus’ resigning two years ago…*

So true, it was her, Naya Tendou from Tendou Design, Inc.

Seto, still wide eyed, clicked another tab beside Naya’s picture, apparently showing her latest designs of the dragons. He literally gawked at the sight of most glorious and gorgeous Blue Eyes White Dragon he had ever seen. Even his hologram didn’t look so much real and stunning like this one, he thought, amazed.

The dragon looked like it usually did, white in feature and another, but what was most striking was its eyes. Eyes so blue like crystal orbs, so stunning and absorbing, were the one which really made Seto amazed. Its wings opened in wide, graceful forms and its limb was strong and beautiful. The dragon was shown as if it roared and was ready to leap to the sky. It was drawn with high accuracy and clean lines, being two dimensional. Seto right clicked his mouse and clicked the command ‘Save Picture As’ and saved the image of the dragon.

He clicked another tab, showing the three dimensional feature of the same dragon. He contemplated it for a while, admiring the clean and perfect lines of the now real-like model, before clicked same command and saved it. He randomly clicked another tabs and found other images of dragons, some from M&W, and some others were original. He stopped on one original image of a silver dragon with deep purple pupil-less eyes and wings consisted of feathers rather than scaly ones like dragons usually had. He stared in awe; this dragon looked so much alike BEWD, but it was also seemed different in one and other ways. He also saved this one.

He satisfied himself by surfing on one image to another until it reached the last page. He closed the searcher, not forgetting to save the news and articles about Naya and decided to stroll down the corridor, searching for certain girl. It was almost lunch time though, and the teacher who supposedly teaching History now was absent and just leaving several essays to be done. Good, he hated History after all.

Seto put his laptop inside his metal briefcase and locked it, then stood and left to his locker. He didn’t really trust the security concerning the school so he had his locker double locked even though he rarely used it; except when he did have to keep his things inside, like this time. He put his briefcase within his locker, locked the key and walked over to the library.

The bell ringing indicated lunch time and Seto decided that he was a bit hungry, but he didn’t want to go to cafeteria and bumped himself amongst the crowd within. He loathed that; hell, he was beyond all of them to lower himself to eat on the same crowded place with them. No, Seto Kaiba wouldn’t do that thing. He was rather starving than buying and eating some cheap breads and juices from cafeteria alongside the others.

He kept strolling until he reached his destination: library. He doubted the girl was staying within, though; the library was closed during lunch time. So he turned around and began to walk aside the school. He had no idea where he could find her, so he just kept walked. His stomach growled in hunger and he cursed his ignorance to bring some food with him from home. Well, he didn’t normally eat from lunchbox, off course.

Ignoring his stomach’s growls, he had himself turning one more time on an opening and saw a big tree. He knew the tree was located beside the library. He found her there, sitting under the tree while eating her food from her lunchbox. A sketch pad was laid on her lap; she let it open and abandoned, still resuming her food. She some times stopped eating and drew something on the pad. Seto could see her serious expression when she was content by drawing; and strangely he found it was cute.

He stealthily circled the tree so he appeared behind her and peeked at her work, curious about what she had been drawing right now. He inwardly gasped when he finally saw it. She had drawn Blue Eyes White Dragon and that feathery silver dragon together, leaping to the sky and confronted each other in some breathtaking battle scene. Bluish white electrical thunder was bursting out from BEWD’s mouth, charging straight to the silver dragon which releasing similar attack with different color of flash; it was light purple. The drawing was colored using oil pastels.

Seto watched in awe while Naya added the details little by little using her pencil or some times sharpened the color. When the image was finally finished, she let out a heavy but happy sigh and raised the pad to look at her work in different angle. She kept the drawing straight from her eyes within her arms’ length and she humphed once more with satisfied tone. She was about to put the pad aside and resuming her abandoned meal when Seto grunted intentionally.

Naya nearly jumped at the sound and jerked her head aside and upward to see Seto Kaiba stood behind her; an amused look plastered on his face. To see such expression on him was a rarity if we talked about Seto Kaiba. Naya recalled that Kaiba was a cold and aloof person, yet cunning and keen businessman inside his ice block attitude. She knew him by name and appearance only, not minding herself to cross her path with him, knowing that they were in different kind of business to get work for. But not quite different though… she pondered. They were actually walked on the same path: developing games. The difference was that Kaiba developed the entire games, while she didn’t; she just designed the features of the games.

Naya raised one brow questioningly and asked softly, politely, “What do you want, Kaiba-san?”

Seto inwardly smirked by the politeness. Everyone in his class usually called him Kaiba-kun or just Kaiba. Well, mostly just Kaiba. His employees generally called him Kaiba-sama. Others who called him using suffix –san were his colleagues. Right, being a businesswoman, she could be considered as colleague.

“I just want to know what you’re drawing.”

“I see.”

Naya nodded, resumed back to her food and gestured Seto to sit beside her. She practically ignored him and just shoved her pad to him. Seto felt slightly annoyed by her nonchalant attitude; he usually got full attention from everybody; and took the pad. He managed to sit beside her, pushed the disturbing feeling for sitting on the ground directly down to his gut; and looked over the drawing on the pad. He once again found himself stunned at the artwork; the dragons were just perfect, beautiful, and strong. He raised one finger to trail the drawing’s outline when he heard her warning; her voice was commanding.

“Don’t touch the line. They’re still wet.”

Seto lowered his finger. “Wet? But you use dry media like oil pastel to color it.”

“Semi-dry. Oil pastel can be used wet. I use it wet, mostly. Beside the remnants of the colors can make your finger dirty. Don’t touch it.”

Seto frowned hearing the stern tone within her voice. She still didn’t look at him. He decided to shrug it off and went back to see other artworks inside the pad.

“Don’t see the last page.” She warned again.

Seto scowled inwardly, but he complied with her warn. He skipped the last page and opened the pad from the early pages. He scrutinized each art; almost all works were exposing the dragons of various kinds and colors. He observed each one with increasing awe, her works were astonishing. Most artworks depicted about BEWD and the silver dragon.

Seto turned to look at her and asked, “You like Blue Eyes White Dragon, don’t you? You draw it a lot.”

Naya glanced at him. She still didn’t finish her meal; her cook always made very stuffed lunchbox for her, ignoring her disapproval. She nodded.

“She is one graceful dragon. Gorgeous, glorious, stunning, breathtaking… she is everything a dragon should be.”

Seto stared at her, inwardly impressed; very impressed indeed. With simple words, she described all he wanted to say about BEWD. She praised the dragon; she was stunned by it, just the same way like him. Rarely he found other people than him who really admired his favorite dragon.

“What about the other dragon? The silver one? You also draw it a lot.”

Naya glanced at her pad and her eyes caught the image of her feathery silver dragon. She finally gave up her unfinished meal, shoved the lunchbox aside, and simply retorted, “I like her.”

Seto let out a small smirk. “Just that?”

She sighed. “What do you expect?”

“Well, you praised BEWD a lot, but you just said three simple words to describe that dragon.”

Naya snorted. “Simplicity is necessity, Kaiba-san.”

“I know.” He stifled a laugh; not his habit at all. How come this girl made him almost laughing out loud? He stiffened his cold façade back and stated, “I want to hear your comment about this silver dragon. And explain to me about its origin. It’s your original work, isn’t it? I’ve never seen it before.”

Naya stared at him intently. Seto looked back at her and almost gasped out loud. Her deep purple eyes met with his brilliant blue ones. Her eyes were as stunning as her dragon’s, Seto amazed. He mentally kicked and scolded himself, how can you be so romantic like this, Seto?!

Naya turned her gaze to her lap. She pondered her answer before she spoke in soft voice, “That dragon is my older sister.”

Seto was almost choked by his own breath. “What?!”

“I mean, the dragon was originally created by her. She was always sick and stayed at her bed. She was better artist than me, so while she was on her bed rest, she drew a lot and created many spectacular works. This dragon is her most favorite creature; she always told me she wanted to be one someday. Funny, isn’t it?”

Seto listened silently. Why does she use past language? Is her sister…?

“She died 3 years ago in the middle of her operation.”

“…I’m sorry.” Seto suddenly felt guilty for asking, no, for commanding her to tell him about the origin of the dragon.

Naya jerked her head back towards him hearing his apology. Just what had happened with that cold, aloof, and harsh CEO off Kaiba Corporation? She wondered while she let out a chuckle.

“…What?” Seto growled, clearly annoyed now. He deliberately softened his words and even let her heard his apology, and now she chuckled at him.

“No, nothing. I’m sorry. Kaiba-san, I think I don’t know you anymore.”

Seto frowned, confused. “And what do you mean by that?”

“Well,” she smiled playfully, “I heard from many sources about you; that you’re a cold, aloof, almost cruel young CEO of the great Kaiba Corporation. But I guess those opinions are wrong.”

Seto flabbergasted and went silent. He admitted that he almost let go his cold façade in front of her. But why… he asked inwardly, confused. Is it because she has similar interest toward BEWD like myself?

“You’re actually nice person beneath your ice mask, Kaiba-san.” Naya stated matter-of-factly. Seto didn’t respond.

She smiled faintly before turning her attention back to her still full lunchbox. She sighed in defeat. How can I eat all of these?

A sound of deep rumble startled them. Naya looked at Seto, wide eyed. Seto threw his look away, felt suddenly embarrassed about his proof of hunger from his stomach. Naya eyed him suspiciously and when the sound was heard again, she let out a giggle.

Seto was embarrassed beyond belief; he finally stood up and mumbled his excuse to go. But before he could storm off the spot, his hand had been caught by her soft one. Seto stopped dead, feeling the softness of her skin and his sudden stillness gave her chance to drag him back to his previous seat. Seto landed on the ground with ungraceful thud and he glared at her, ignoring dull pain on his bottom.

Naya smiled, and still holding his hand, she gave him a gentle squeeze as an apology. She instantly realized their awkward position and released Seto’s hand. Faint blush crept on her cheeks for a second, before it vanished and her face was back to its usual serious feature. Unfortunately, the blush didn’t go unnoticed by the older Kaiba and he felt his cheeks were also blossoming red.

He cleared his throat and when he finally spoke; his voice was as icy as his usual tone. “What were you thinking dragging me down like that?”

Naya just shrugged and handed him her lunchbox. Seto’s brows furrowed deeply, he was nearly pissed now.

“I ate just a little. You can eat the rest.”

“You mean I do really want to eat your ex-meal?!” his voice was harsh.

“No. I have parted my own portion before eating, so it can’t be considered that you will eat my ex.” Naya snorted indignantly. “By the way, ex-meal is a nice word.”

Seto glared at her, angry. How could she…?!

“Oh, just take it! It’s not meant that I feel pity for you hearing your stomach rumbling like an earthquake. Just consider that your health will be wagered here; if you don’t eat properly, you will faint out of hunger. Our next class is math and you know that numbers can drain your brain’s nutrition faster than a vacuum cleaner.”

Seto wide eyed her; his anger faded hearing her comparison. He couldn’t stand it anymore; he let out a snicker that quickly increasing to a fit of laughter. He laughed out loud while Naya looked at him as if he was going mad.

“Oh, okay.” He had stopped laughing, but still giggled here and there. “I appreciate your present.”

He took her lunchbox and peeked at the content. The food were simple, but seemed tasty. Three quarter portion of Japanese rice, two spring rolls, half part of salad, chunks of chicken katsu, some tempura shrimps, three meat croquettes, half part of vegetable stew…

“Hey, you just barely ate! I’d like to say you almost didn’t eat at all. These are still plenty of food inside. Did you really eat?” Seto asked in dismay.

Naya just shook her head. “They are too much. Eat them all. Boys do need more food than girls do.”

“That’s not the reason.”

“Just eat, Kaiba-san. Lunch time is almost over.” She simply retorted.

Seto shrugged. He went to eat the food when he suddenly remembered about the chopsticks. He muttered, “How can I eat without chopsticks?”

Naya looked at him blankly. Then she smiled sheepishly while pulling out a wrapped bamboo chopsticks from her pouch. “Here. I always bring additional chopsticks, in case I want to share my meal with somebody else, like you.”

“At least, I won’t use your ex-chopsticks.” Seto remarked sarcastically. Naya just grinned.

Seto mumbled ‘itadakimasu’ and ate his meal. The food was delicious, home-made-tasty for his usual, expensive tongue. He smiled inwardly and wondered when the last time he ate something like these? It seemed years ago.

While Seto was eating, Naya drew another picture of Blue Eyes White Dragon. She sketched it using her pencil, forming the dragon in relaxed and submissive pose. She added the details one by one and finally she crushed her oil pastels of white, light blue, and a little of cerulean blue. She used her right index and middle fingers to blend the colors onto the small pallet and applied them on her sketch. She colored it with swift pace and pro ability. Next moment, the artwork was done.

Seto eyed her while eating and was impressed with her ability. She could make the artwork so beautiful with quick movement and in short time. He watched her every movement and noticed her blank expression when she went to make another sketch; the sketch of feathery silver dragon. Same like her previous BEWD, she made the dragon in submissive pose. But the difference was that she portrayed the dragon to be dead.

Seto noted her rough yet still swift pace when she sketched the silver dragon and finally applied the colors. She used silver, deep purple, pastel brown for shades, and last color was red, bloody red. After she colored the dragon, she roughly brushed the red onto the dragon’s neck and chest, and then she just splattered red color to the picture, as if she ruined the work. But when she finished, Seto realized that the work wasn’t ruined at all; it was looked like ruined but actually it was artistically splattered. He stared in awe, but one curious thought was emerged to his mind.

“Why do you paint it like that? Pretending the dragon to be dead?”

Naya kept silent as if she didn’t hear him and just snapped back to reality when Seto asked one more time in louder voice.

“What—oh! That… well, it’s kindda habit. Dunno. I always draw her like that when it comes to submissive pose…” She trailed off. Her eyes went blank again.

Seto stared at her. A feeling of sympathy suddenly crept up within his heart, made him frowned. Why do I feel like that? It’s as if I felt similarities with her. She undoubtedly had bad memory, maybe concerning her sister… and I had my own too, about Gozaburo… Stop it, Seto! You’re just being too sentimental!

“Have you finished your meal?” her question snapped him back to reality.

“Oh, yeah. Thank you.” He awkwardly returned the empty lunchbox to her.

“You’re welcome.” She smiled a bit and packed the box within her cloth-pouch. She also packed her drawing tools into one separated pouch. She then offered him a can of black coffee. “It’s still new. Don’t worry.”

Seto took it and mumbled his gratitude. He opened the can and emptied the content within minutes. Naya just raised her brows gracefully.

“Sated, huh?”

Seto nodded, but went a beet of red when he realized the word. “Uh, I’m full now, thanks.”

It seemed she realized it too; but she cleverly covered her blushes with her hand which she raised to shade her from the sunlight. They stood up hearing the bell indicating their next class and walked to the class together.

Naya suddenly halted midway when she remembered something. Seto who walked behind her also stopped. “What’s wrong?”

“…A moment…” she opened her sketch pad and looked at him. “Well, you accompanied me all along lunch time, even helped me emptying my lunch. I want to give you something as memento. Which one do you want to have?”

Seto gaped and retorted, “Are you serious?”

“Uh huh. Just choose and pick it up. You can have two if you want. You favor BEWD, right? Well, she is your company mascot.”

Seto nodded and mentally danced for his luck. He instantly picked two pictures and pointed them. “Can I have these?”

Naya wide eyed the pictures. She didn’t seem offended by one picture but when she looked at the other, she seemed like she was about to voice her grave, but then she only nodded. She tore the rim of the papers carefully and handed the pictures to Seto. He received them with same careful attitude.

“Please take care of them, will you? Don’t expose them to sunlight, dampness, or dirt.” She warned with playful tone. Seto just smirked.

“Well then, go ahead to the class. I want to go to the rest room first. Thanks for the compliment, Kaiba-san. Bye.”

Seto mumbled. “You’re welcome. Thanks again for the food. Bye.”

She then walked away. Seto watched her until she finally disappeared behind a turn way and sighed. He looked at the pictures he had gotten. One picture he asked was the Blue Eyes White Dragon which he firstly saw she drew: the one which battling the silver dragon.

And the other one was the last picture of bloodied, dying feathery silver dragon, splattered with redness of blood.


***


Naya looked at her reflection on the basin mirror at the ladies room. She seemed fine, like usual. She tidied her appearance and suddenly thought about her brief encounter with certain CEO. Well he’s not so bad when you’ve known him. He’s kindda cute too…

Naya mentally scolded herself. What am I thinking? You dumb shit, he won’t look at you twice; he’s just interested with your artworks, because they are concerning his favorite monster, Blue Eyes White Dragon.

Anyway, I don’t have time for fluffs… yes, time… one thing I don’t have much on this life…

She huffed, suddenly feeling exhausted. Two days before her eighteenth birthday. She had to prepare everything… and the final stage would be her twentieth birthday, two years later… she had to prepare…

Sudden pain stung her chest. She yelped and clutched her front tightly. The stinging pain mixing with burning sensation overwhelmed her body. She abruptly yanked her blazer and shirt open and gazed in horror at the angry red, burnt rose-shaped mark on the middle of her upper chest.

It was his mark… she thought, horrified. The mark that he owned her…

She quickly tidied her clothes once more and, grabbing her pouch and sketch pad, she hurried outside the ladies room. She didn’t have any intention to go back to her class, not after the sudden pain. Here, outside her house, outside the protection seal, she was vulnerable from his assault. He had promised her that he wouldn’t touch her before her twentieth birthday, but who knew…

Naya was half running to the back gates of her school. She still clutched her front tightly; her mark was throbbing painfully, it was too much! She didn’t care about her bag, her books, her stuffs; she remembered she kept them within her locker before she headed to the tree for lunch. She kept running and was crying now… and almost collided with someone in the turn way to the gate.

“Whoa! Oww… Tendou-san?! Why aren’t you in class? …Tendou-san, what’s happening?! Why are you crying?!” Yugi asked in genuine concern as he saw the girl he almost collided with was crying.

Naya gazed at him and shook her head in denial; her tears flowed down her cheeks. The stinging pain suddenly stabbed her again, made her yelling in agony. Yugi half shouted at her asking her whether she was all right or not. She shook her head again. She just tightened her clutch and shoved Yugi aside, and then she ran outside the gate, leaving Yugi at the corridor, shouting for her.

She ran and ran… until she suddenly felt the darkness surrounding her in hollow emptiness. She screamed in fear when she felt shadow hands grabbing her, immobilized her…

She was caught…

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Idea of blood-rose curse marking is taken from manga Rasetsu's Flower by Chika Shiomi; I do borrow her idea to formulate Naya's predicament.
This is the result for reading many YGO fan fictions; some of them are very dark and heavy plotted I think I want to mourn...

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