Dead Passions: 1/?

[luved_by_bishie_duelistch]

Dc: hey all. Is back with new ficcy. ^.^ however, you will find this a lot more depressing than my other fics, which I took time out of rewriting to write this. I hope you enjoy it, and you may want to keep a box of tissues handy (I nearly cried just writing it). Oh, and I don’t own this anime (i refuse to say what it is until the last chappie. Most people think this anime is stupid and pointless, o i'm making you all give it a chace! and yes, i am evil), but I do own Rumiko Ikharia and Nakari Anakashi. So please don’t steal them? Enjoy!
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Chapter 1
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Rumiko Ikharia walked through the forlorn midnight streets of Domino; lit by the few streetlights and the full moon. She stopped, and stared at the moon. The light glinted of her black hair, streaked with dark silver and made her honey-colored eyes gleam. She sighed and continued on to her apartment.

After tomorrow, she would be starting school at Domino High. Rumiko had moved to Domino with her father from downtown Tokyo, where the level of crime and duelists were high. Her grandfather had taught her Shotokan karate since she was five, and she now was a fifth degree black belt. However, her most prized skill and been taught to her by her best friend, Nakari Anakashi. He had been the one who taught her to duel.

Rumiko loved to duel. Thanks to Nakari’s teaching, she had been the downtown champ for nearly two years. However Nakari was the only one who could ever beat her. It had always puzzled her why he never entered a tournament. One day, she had asked him why. He just smiled and said, “”Cause you’re the one that belongs in the tournaments, not me. I just like to duel for fun, besides, I like seeing you as champ. I could never take it away from you and have everyone call me your rival. Besides, I always go with you, I’m there with you. It’s enough for me to just watch you.”

Until about a year and a half ago, they had been just best friends. One day, they both realized that they had true feelings for each other. Rumiko loved Nakari with all her heart, and he loved her back just as much. Then came the accident.

Rumiko’s mother was driving them home from the movies… the semi driver had lost control of the truck and hit them. Rumiko’s mother and Nakari had been severely injured, while Rumiko escaped with a large gash from her right shoulder to her left side. After she was released from her own hospital room, she immediately ran to her mother’s. When Rumiko entered the room, she could tell her mother was about to pass on. Tears began to pour down her face. “Rumiko, my daughter, don’t cry. I’m not leaving forever. I’ll always be by your side and in your heart. Live a happy life, and don’t mourn me longer than necessary. I don’t want you to be sad because of me. I love you Rumiko.”

“I love you too, mom. Please don’t leave me.”

“I know you don’t want me to go, but I’m in your heart always. Go find Nakari. He needs you Rumiko. And I need to speak with your father.” Rumiko kissed her mother’s cheek, “I’ll see you later mom. Promise?”

“Promise.”

Rumiko ran to Nakari’s room. To her surprise, his parent’s hadn’t arrived yet, but she wouldn’t wait until they got there to see him. She dashed in and grabbed his hand. “Rumiko,” he whispered. “Nakari, my love, don’t let go.”

“I can’t hold on much longer Rumiko. Take all of my cards, my deck. I want you to have it. Don’t forget me Rumiko. Let me have one last kiss, before I have to go.”

“Nakari, please don’t leave me. I love you.” She kissed him with such passion that she’d never felt before. “I’m sorry Rumiko, but I have to go now. Remember me, and I’ll always be in your heart. Say my name when you need me, and I’ll be right there. Tell my parents that I love them and that I said goodbye.” He quickly kissed her lips. “I love you Rumiko.” Then his eyelids closed over his bright, violet orbs forever. “Nakari, Nakari.” Rumiko began to whisper his name over and over as she ran her fingers through his blond bangs, entertwined her fingers in the silver-white hair behind his bangs, making it mix with the black hair that covered the back of his head.

Nakari’s parents arrived to find her there, with her head on his chest, sobbing, whispering his name over and over. Rumiko stood to allow them to say goodbye to their only son. “He… he said he loves you both… and he told me to tell you goodbye from him.” she managed to say through her tears.

After the funerals, Rumiko became withdrawn and absolutely ruthless when she dueled. Her father became a drunkard, trying to drink away her mother’s memory, so Rumiko was left to herself. Then one year after the accident, he decided that they needed to move. And he picked Domino.
*****
Rumiko came back to the present when she reached the little gameshop near her apartment. She paused and looked up; a light was on in one of the upper rooms. A spiky haired boy sat at his desk , and even in the dim light and the distance, she could see that his eyes were violet. He just happened to look up from what he was doing and he saw her. They stared at each other for long moments at a time before she looked away and moved on.

When she reached her apartment, she found her father passed out on the couch and the TV still on. A bottle of sake was in his right hand with not more that a shot. Without knowing why, she eased it out of his hand and drank what was left. Rumiko slowly walked to her room and slipped into her nightclothes before collapsing on the bed. Just before she drifted off, she thought that boy… his eyes were just like… Nakari’s.
*****
When Rumiko woke up the next morning, her father wasn’t anywhere to be seen. She opened up the fridge and grabbed some orange juice and fixed herself some toast. When she sat down at the table, she noticed a note and some money. The note read: Here’s some money to buy your uniform and whatever else you think you’ll need for school. Love, Dad.

Rumiko sighed and counted the money. He had given her $100 dollars. She finished her breakfast and grabbed the money and left. She bought her uniform and some street clothes, and decided to stop at the gameshop to see if there was anything good.

As she walked in, a bell tinkled and an old man sat behind the counter. She looked around for a moment. Everything seemed to be duel monsters related. Rumiko picked up a couple of card packs that seemed as though they may be useful in building her deck. As Rumiko was paying, the boy came down the stairs. “Hey Grandpa…” he started to say, but saw Rumiko. “Oh, hello. I don’t believe I’ve seen you around here before.” Rumiko gave him a small smile. “No, I suppose not. I just moved here last week.” He gave her a bright, innocent smile. “My name’s Yugi Muoto. You’ll be going to Domino High then?” Rumiko nodded. “My name’s Rumiko Ikharia.”

“You like to duel?”

“Yeah. I was the downtown Tokyo champ for two years running. You defeated Seto Kaiba, yes?”

Yugi smiled and nodded. “Can I see your deck?”

“Sure.” She slipped her deck box from beneath her shirt and slipped the cord over her head. He glanced quickly through the cards. “You’ve got some really good cards. You must be an excellent duelist to have been the downtown champ for two years.”

Rumiko smiled ever so slightly. “Thanks.” Just as he was returning her deck to her, several people walked in. “Hey Yug.” The tall blond with brown eyes said. “We’re goin’ to the arcade and the park. Wanna come along?”

“Sure. Do you guys mind if Rumiko comes too? She just moved here last week.” They looked at her a moment. The guy with brown hair and hazel eyes looked as though he’s ready to pounce-huggle me, the blue-eyed brunette girl looks kind of ditzy, and the blond girl with violet eyes looks sophisticated, but tough. She couldn’t help but think I kinda like these guys. I think Nakari would’ve liked them too.

“Sure. The more the merrier. I’m Joey Wheeler.” The blond boy said. The brown haired boy introduced himself as Tristan Taylor, the ditz as Anzu Mazaki, and the blond girl was called Mai Valentine. “I’m Rumiko Ikharia.” Joey’s eyes widened. “The downtown champ Rumiko Ikharia?” She gave a small laugh. “Yes. That would be me. It’s nice to meet all of you.” Tristan spoke up, “Hey guys, we have school tomorrow. Let’s get going ‘cause if I’m not home at a ‘decent’ time, my mom may decide to kill me.”

“Can I meet you guys there Yugi? I need to run this stuff home…”

“Why don’t you leave it here Rumiko? You can pick it up on your way home.” He replied. She nodded and handed her bags to Yugi so he could put them behind the counter. Rumiko followed them out and down the streets to the arcade. She stayed to the back of the group, not really feeling like she belonged. She smiled to herself though. I’m moving on like mom wanted me to, and at least the money I have left isn’t going to dad’s drinking habits. It’s going to the fun I should’ve been having six months ago.

Yugi walked in with her. “What kind of games do you like Rumiko?”

“Well, I like skiball, pool, and fighting games.” Yugi smiled. “Ok, well, there’s skiball over that way,” he pointed left, “the fighting games are over by the pool room,” he pointed forward right. “Do you need any money?”

“No. I’ve got plenty left from shopping today.”

“Ok, if you need anything just find one of us. I’d stay with you, but Joey wanted me to race him.”

“Ok.” Rumiko headed toward where the skiball was. It was nearly like a pinball machine, but it turned out to be fun, nonetheless. She ended up winning a little unicorn figurine. Wow. That will look good in my room, even though it kind of has the skater-boy look. Rumiko then decided to go and play some of the fighting games. Fortunately, they had Street Fighter, her favorite. Not long after, Mai came over and asked if she would like to play a game of pool. Rumiko agreed immediately.

Mai was good at pool, no doubt, but Rumiko was better at it. 10 minutes after the game had started, Rumiko had won. “Good game. You’re better at it than I expected.” She glanced at her watch. “Wow. It’s five already. We better go round up the others if we want to go to the park.” Rumiko nodded and began to look around for Yugi, but found Joey first. “Hey Joey.” She said. “Mai said if you guys want to go to the park we better leave now. It’s five already.”

He nodded. “Ok. Lemme finish this race.” Rumiko just smiled and said ok. She watched over his shoulder to see the course. He was doing pretty well on it, even though it was a one-lane road and had traffic coming toward him. She hoped that it didn’t have a… Rumiko turned her head as the semi came at the car. She could feel the searing pain in her back…

Joey pulled her back to reality. “Hey Rumiko, you ok?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. We need to find the others… oh, here they come.” Yugi and the others came towards them. Yugi smiled, “Ready to go to the park?” Rumiko nodded, and they began the walk there. Rumiko didn’t know what they were going to do, but she figured it was a lot better than going home. Upon arriving, Yugi challenged her to a duel.

20 minutes later, Rumiko sat victorious by one lifepoint. Rumiko smiled, “Sorry Yugi, but no one can beat me. The only person who was ever able to beat me was Nakari.” Shit. She thought. Well, I guess there’s no turning back now. Anzu looked at her for a second, then spoke, “Nakari must be pretty good then. Maybe he could come visit and meet all of us.” Yugi and the rest nodded their agreement. Rumiko put on a fake smile, “I’ll do that.”

She was about to put her deck box around her neck, but Tristan stopped her. “I wouldn’t put that on just yet. Joey’s probably going to suggest we all go down to the little sea inlet and throw you in the water. At least, that’s what he did to Mai when she started hanging out with us more.” Just about then Joey said, “Hey guys, let’s all go down to that little sea inlet.” Mai said she didn’t want to, but ended up being dragged along anyway. Tristan took her deck and laid it up a bit from the water. “It’s prolly safe from the water in the deck box, but just to be safe, we’ll leave it there,” he said. Rumiko gave a slight nod and started to sit down, but Joey grabbed her. “Joey, what… ACK!!” she said as he waded out a bit into the lake and dropped her in the water, laughing. For reasons unknown to her, she also began to laugh.

An idea suddenly came to her mind. She stood up and took a flying leap at Joey, knocking him into the water. “Hey!” he yelled. He splashed her for knocking him into the water, and she splashed him back. Back and forth between the two until the sun began to set. “Hey guys,” Anzu called, “We really should be going. We’ve got school tomorrow.” They both got up and walked out of the water, Rumiko stooped to grab her deck and they walked towards the gameshop.

“See you tomorrow,” Rumiko called over her shoulder as she continued past the gameshop and to her apartment, where she made the unfortunate discovery that her father was awake. And definitely drunk. “Where the hell have you been?” he demanded.

“Out. With friends.” He staggered toward her a bit. “School hasn’t started. Where did you meet these friends?”

“At a gameshop. I saw it and went in to look around…”

“You didn’t buy anything?”

“Yes, I did.” His eyes scanned her for a moment, “Why the hell are you wet?”

“I fell in some water. I stumbled into a sea inlet…’

“With these gameshop friends no doubt. What did they want? All your money? Where did they take you?”

“We went to the arcade and the park. They all had their own money, so they had no need of mine. We were goofing around in the park and that’s how I fell…”

“Rumiko, you’re too old to be goofing around. You should be focusing on your studies, not spending money in the arcade!”

“Since when have you cared what I do? All you’ve cared about after the accident is whether or not you have enough money to get drunk!” Tears began to pour down her face.

“I WILL NOT BE SPOKEN TO THAT WAY!!!” he bellowed at her. Before she knew it, she was on the floor and her head was throbbing. She heard the door slam and her mind began to scream my father hit me!

Rumiko groaned as she sat up. She went to her room and put her nightclothes on and threw her laundry in the washer. She then went back to her room, set the alarm, and collapse on her bed; falling quickly into a dreamless sleep.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Rumiko groaned and blinked when her alarm woke her. She quickly got up and shut it off incase her father was home. Thankfully, he wasn’t. She got a quick shower, and noted a small bruise under her left eye. Hell. I hope Joey or anyone else doesn’t notice. She pulled on her uniform and sped out the door with a piece of toast in her hand, as she had no time for anything more than that.

She reached the gameshop in time to see Joey, Yugi, and Anzu walk out the door. “Hey guys!” she called cheerfully. “Hi Rumiko… what happened to your face?” Yugi asked. Damn… she thought.
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TBC

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Dc: well, whatcha think? Please review, or I won’t post the next chappie, which I’m currently writing now.
*Yami no Misty pops in* YM: she will! She keeps her threats! Or other…
Dc: anyway, please review!