once upon a time I was really into YGO and especially 5DS and this was inspired by a different friend who was also p into it with me

and then I lost interest in this story and we had a falling out a few years down the line and now we're left with this husk of a story yaaaaaaay

it is 900% unlikely I will continue writing for this so... which is why that's in the summary

if someone had been avidly following this from back then... sorry.

anyway this story was originally started and uploaded back in June of 2011 holy hell

Day 1: The New Girl

It always sucked to be the new kid at a school in the middle of the year.

Not only was everyone already acquainted with each other, but it would be blatantly obvious that you had just arrived. Teachers always either forced you to introduce yourself or they singled you out by saying, "This is so-and-so, they're new." And people would call you "the new kid" for weeks.

Aki wasn't having any of that.

Her parents helped her get her things out of the car, though she didn't really need the help. She may have been staying at a boarding school, but she felt that she didn't need to pack excessively.

She didn't even have that many things to begin with.

Once they were at the main office and her parents checked her in, they hugged her warmly and bid her farewell.

"See you in the summer!"

Sometimes, she swore they chose to do this just to have her out of their hair.

Well, whatever. She'd be back to bother them in six months.

"Good morning!"

She heard a voice behind her and came face to face with a girl with large, circular glasses, long, black hair, and eyes that matched her hair color. "I assume you're the girl who just transferred here?"

She could tell this black-haired girl was a student because she was wearing the school uniform. "Yes. I'm Aki Izayoi."

"Carly Carmine. Nice to meet you." Carly held out a hand and Aki stared at it for a moment before she decided she may as well shake it.

"I offered to be your guide for the day since I was near most of your classes." She didn't want to add that she was the only one that volunteered for the job. It would be rude of her to offend the new girl on the first day.

Not that she knew Aki wouldn't have cared anyway.

"I'll lead you to your room first. You'll be rooming with Sherry LeBlanc and," her tone changed a bit when naming the last two, "Stephanie Geen and Mikage Sagiri."

Aki got the feeling this Carly girl didn't exactly get along with them.

As they walked around the campus to the dorms, she noticed that hardly anyone was out. "Where is everyone?"

"Class doesn't start until 8:30am. We start comparatively later than most schools." Carly shrugged.

Once they reached the girls' dorms, Aki was surprised to see how grand it looked. She knew it was a prestigious school, but she wasn't expecting anything so… elegant.

She got a second shock upon seeing the inside.

Though only her eyes showed any of her surprise, Carly noticed. "It's beautiful, isn't it? It was amazing to me when I first saw it too." She walked to the central grand staircase in the dorm, waving Aki over. "The room you're sharing with them is upstairs. There's a lot of space in each room since it's four people to each one. So you should be fine."

Being a little scatterbrained, she just took notice of the bags and suitcase that Aki had been carrying around.

"Oh, gosh, I'm so sorry! Do you want me to carry some of these for you?"

"No, it's fine. They're not all that heavy."

Carly still bowed apologetically to her, continuing on the path once they were at the top.

As she was being led, Aki made sure to take note of where everything was so far. She didn't want to rely on a guide for longer than today.

"Here's your dorm room. Number 547," Carly said, motioning to the door. "And the key." She handed it to her and stepped away from the door, moving further down the hall. "They're probably still sleeping, but I'm not going to take any chances today."

Aki chuckled a little at her action, sticking the key in, opening the door as quietly as she possibly could. The door squeaked just a little, but otherwise, she was home free.

As she peered around her new, temporary home, she saw the empty area and an open mattress on the bunk bed in the corner near the window.

She also saw a pair of green eyes staring at her in return. "I azzume zat'eou aure ze new stoodunt? {I assume that you are the new student?}" This girl had a thick French accent and it took Aki a few seconds to decipher what she said. "Yes."

"Ah, pardon moi {Ah, pardon me}," she said, getting up and grabbing the burgundy-haired girl's shoulders, giving her a standard French greeting: two kisses, one on each cheek.

"I'm sure zat'eou can zee whure'eour zings can go {I am sure that you can see where your things can go}," she then said, while Aki attempted to recover from that traumatizing experience. "Ah, I shood 'elp 'eou with eour bags, oui? {Ah, I should help you with your bags, yes}"

The long-haired blonde grabbed two of Aki's bags and placed them next to the bunk bed. "I 'op eou don' mind sleeping on ze bottom. Mikage shoze ze top bunk a vile ago {I hope you don't mind sleeping on the bottom. Mikage chose the top bunk a while ago}."

After Aki finally defrosted and put her last bag and only suitcase away, the green-eyed girl held out her hand, a more normal greeting this time. "I am Sherry LeBlanc. I 'ope zat I weel be abel to zee eou around campus latear {I hope that I will be able to see you around campus later}."

She shook her hand. "Aki Izayoi. I hope the same." With a small, apologetic nod, she then said, "Sorry, but I have to finish the rest of my tour."

"Mais oui, bien sûr! Go, before eour guide becomes impatian. {But yes, of course! Go, before your guide becomes impatient.}"

She closed the door behind her, raising an eyebrow at nothing in particular; assessing the first impression she got form Sherry.

"Were any of them awake?" Carly asked, walking over to Aki.

"Just Sherry."

"I'm glad you got to meet her first, rather than any of the other two."

"May I ask why you have such a deep hatred for the other two?" She didn't blame her. She herself had a deep hatred for a lot of things.

Being touched for no good reason being one of them.

Carly looked flustered, unsure of how to say this without looking like a complete fool. "Err… we're all rivals. Mikage and Stephanie are rivals against each other as well."

"Rivals of what?"

"It won't be long before you find out, I'm sure," she answered instead, looking down shyly and sounding embarrassed, earning her a sigh from the other female.

'It's probably something ridiculous if she can't tell me,' she thought, following the girl with the glasses down the stairs. 'Petty women.'

"There isn't really anything else to show you until the day starts. We can sit by the central fountain. I need to take some pictures for my journalism class there anyway. It's a really lovely area."

With the way this was looking so far, she didn't doubt that.

When they got there, Aki marveled at the beauty of it, her impression further boosted with the fact that there was a ring of grass and flowers around it.

Instead of sitting at the edge of the fountain like any normal person, she sat in the grass, stroking flower petals.

Carly looked at her strangely, but shrugged it off, figuring that everyone had something strange about themselves.

Aki looked up when she heard lively chattering coming from somewhere not too far off.

Within her line of vision, she saw a group of boys walking by, acting chummy with each other.

There was one boy with short, blonde hair, spoke in some places, becoming annoyed when a comment was made, probably about him. He crossed his arms, looking rather regal for a student when he did that. His height increased the image he portrayed.

The other one had bright orange hair, spiked up completely, with the rest held back with a headband. He was the shortest one out of all of them. His attitude, it seemed, was one of childish nature.

The blue-haired boy was about as tall as the regal-looking one. He seemed very interested in one he was saying to the slightly shorter boy next to him.

The last one she observed was taller than the orange-haired one, but shorter than the other two. He had jet black hair with yellow highlights, spiked up kind of like… well…

Crab legs.

She laughed to herself at the thought, glad that they were far away enough that they didn't see her watching them.

They looked like an interesting bunch.

But she wasn't the type that got along well with others.

... - ...

By the time lunch came around, she had told Carly she wanted to eat alone. The news had already spread that she was new and she was cold. The journalist didn't need to have a reputation with a girl that was dubbed the "Black Rose Witch." She had only been here less than twelve hours and they already had a name for her.

Oh joy.

The name came from three things: "Black" for the color they assumed her heart was, since she was so vicious whenever someone tried to approach her, "Rose" coming from the color of her hair {though it was more burgundy than anything}, and "Witch" for the fact that, once the person finally left her alone, she mumbled under her breath, and they thought she was jinxing them all.

"She's casting spells!"

Are all students idiots?

No one bothered to remember her by her real name. Just the one they had given her.

Imbeciles. The whole lot of them.

As she was on her way to lunch, she heard someone call out, "Hey, Izayoi!"

That was a shocker. Someone actually bothered to remember her name?

She turned around at the call and was surprised to see one of the boys she saw earlier.

The orange-haired one.

"Do you have anywhere to sit for lunch?"

She was going to lie, but she decided she didn't need to ruin her reputation any further.

"No," she answered simply. "And how do you know my name?"

"I asked Carly. I saw that she was your guide to getting around the school. Anyway, do you have any money to buy lunch or did you bring your own?"

"Neither."
"… You're not one of those anorexic girls, are you?"

"No! I just came ill-prepared." This boy was starting to get on her nerves.

"Lucky for you, I have extra cash to spare. But you'll have to pay me back later, alright?" He grinned widely at her.

She had no expression whatsoever.

"I'm Crow, by the way. Crow Hogan. Your first name is Aki, right?"

She liked it better when she was called "Izayoi."

"Call me by my last name, please," she told him, forcing herself to give him a smile.

"Seems I'll have to work my way to a first-name basis with you. I always did enjoy a challenge."

She had half a mind to kill him where he stood.

When they entered the Mess Hall, it was bustling with activity.

There was gossip and chatter all around as people ate, tossing bits of food at each other, sharing food, throwing it away.

And boy, the looks she got when she walked by.

It didn't help that she was walking with someone, a boy, no less.

Oh, the rumors that would spread now.

"Here's where I sit."

Looking down the table, she saw the other three boys she saw earlier, as well as a few other people.

"Ah, ma amie! Eou have decided to seet with us, oui? {Ah, my friend! You have decided to sit with us, yes?}" Sherry got up from where she was sitting and kissed both of her cheeks again in greeting.

She wasn't going to have to get used to that, was she?

"Wait, you know this girl? Isn't she the one the one they call… what was it… 'Black Rose Witch'?"

Asshole.

"Cork it, Aussie boy," Aki hissed, glaring at him. It wasn't until she saw the startled expressions on everyone's faces that she realized she spoke out of line.

She was ready to run away and crawl in a hole and was about to do just that when the black-haired boy from earlier recovered first. He laughed and seconds later, the others joined him.

Except for Aussie boy. He was brooding.

"She stuck it to you good, Jack," he said, sapphire eyes smiling.

"Garçons, garçons! Ze mademoiselle doez not know eour namez! Introduce eourzelvez! {Boys, boys! The madame does not know your names! Introduce yourselves!}" Sherry tutted, mumbling something else in French to herself.

"While you guys do that, I'll go get lunch." Crow waved before he left.

"The one you just told off is Jack Atlas." The sapphire-eyed boy pointed to him.

"He's the 'king', don't mess with him," the blue-haired boy said, causing another round of laughs.

"The one who just make that smart remark is Bruno Borelli." Bruno put his hand up and, without looking away from Aki, the crab head gave him a high-five.

"If you'll look next to Bruno, you'll see Kyosuke Kiryu. His name's strange, so we just call him 'Kalin'." Kalin nodded his head in greeting.

"I'm Yusei Fudo."

If she hadn't met him and no one ever told her his name, she would have just kept thinking of him as "crab head."

She was sure that would have gone down quite well.

"Has Sherry already told you all who I am?"

"Yeah. Aki Izayoi, right?" He held out his hand and she shook it.

He and his friends were a little strange, but she could probably get along with them.

If not all of them, then at least Yusei.

That was doable, right? For her, it would be a struggle.

Crow came back not much later, caring two trays.

"Eating more than you know you can again?" Yusei raised an eyebrow at him.

"No!" he replied a little too quickly to defend himself. "Izayoi didn't bring any money or her own lunch, so I bought some for her." He turned to her now. "Hope you don't mind what I picked." He handed her the tray and she examined what he had gotten.

"Thank you," Aki said with a bow, before she turned away and started to walk off.

"Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa." Crow ran after her and blocked her way. "I brought you to the table so that you could sit with us."

"Mademoiselle, reviens, s'il te plait! {Madame, return, please!}" Aki glanced over her shoulder and saw the French maiden with a saddened expression on her face.

And her eyes also slid over to where Yusei was sitting. 'I'd rather you stay, but if you don't want to, I won't stop you,' his gemstone eyes seemed to say.

Well, she wasn't going to argue with that.

"Okay, I'll sit with you all."

Crow, thinking he was the one to persuade her to stay, fist-pumped the air. "Glad you changed your mind."

She shook her head and stat down next to Sherry, since she was the only one she felt at least somewhat comfortable sitting next to at the moment.

"Mon amie, je suis heureuse que tu es revenue. {My friend, I am glad that you returned.}" She hugged the witch lightly before she left her alone.

Aki had no idea what Sherry just said, but it made her feel like she was a little welcome.

As she was listening to everyone talk, a chorus of three voices chiming "Jack!" cut through the noise, elongating the 'a'.

She stared at him curiously with her head tilted while the others at the table were looking down, trying their hardest not to crack up.

Jack shot them all a dirty look before he sighed, closing his eyes and putting three fingers up.

Two…

One…

"Jack Atlas!"

His mood worsened.

Aki raised both eyebrows in surprise when she saw Carly, along with Mikage and Stephanie.

'This must be the rival thing she was talking about earlier.'

But it was over Jack? Seriously?

As they were all approaching him, they shoved each other out of the way, racing to see who could get to him first.

Mikage got there first.

"Good afternoon, Jack!" she said, squeezing herself in between Crow and him.

Carly and Stephanie looked considerably pissed with their arms at their sides and their hands in fists.

The glasses girl was just about to voice something when she spotted the rose. "Oh, Aki! I thought you were going to eat alone?"

"I was, but I was kind of pushed to eat lunch with these guys." She shrugged nonchalantly.

The journalist was about to respond kindly, until she saw Mikage inch closer to Jack.

"Whore!" she screamed, grabbing her arm and pulling her out of the seat.

"Manipulative bitch!" Stephanie added, grabbing her hair.

Seconds later, they were viciously attacking each other.

This would be a most interesting year.

Most interesting indeed.