Full disclosure: I don't own Yugioh, Beauty and the Beast, or even the idea for this story. My inspiration for yugioh/musical crossovers comes entirely from WritingAmateur.

Prologue

Thousands of years ago, when the sands of Egypt were still young and the waters of the Nile still untainted and clear, the kingdom of the Pharaoh rested on a beam of shimmering, golden sun.

The Pharaoh's court lived in splendor and ease, untroubled by any thought of cold or darkness. However, the prosperity of this inner kingdom did not spread far beyond the palace walls, and in the shadowed corners of the city and fallow slopes of the countryside, sharp whispers of dissent began to rattle the air.

The courtiers, shrouded as they were in the dazzling veil of youth and privilege, paid no mind to the rumbling of the common people outside their palace walls—until it was already too late.

Sensing that the time of revolution was at hand, the Pharaoh's guardian stole away to the outskirts of the kingdom, armed with a book of dark, forbidden magic and an army of one hundred men. They raced against the night to the small village of Kul Elna, where only the most ruthless and desperate dared reside.

Following the text of the forbidden scriptures, the Pharaoh's guardian performed an ancient ritual that sealed the fate of the villagers of Kul Elna—and his own kingdom. The pharaoh's army unleased fire and bloodshed on the villagers, forging their spirits into seven mystical and all-powerful items: an Eye, Key, Ring, Necklace, Scale, Scepter, and Pendant. With these items in the possession of the court, the Pharaoh's guardian believed that his kingdom would forever be safe from whatever danger might dare threaten it.

But there was something the Pharaoh's guardian did not know: in addition to immense and unspeakable power, these seven Millennium Items also unleashed a great and frightening evil—an evil strong enough to corrupt the hearts of those who wielded them.

When the Pharaoh's guardian bestowed his new gifts upon the court, their hearts were consumed by a merciless thirst for power, callousness, and cruelty. They turned the dark and mighty magic of the Millennium Items against their own people, and even the wisest of the Pharaoh's priests and magicians were unable to control the energy contained within. In the battle than ensued, the Millennium Pendant was shattered—taking with it the memories of its bearer—the Pharaoh himself.

The battle cast a dark spell upon the palace. Those who had survived were forced to reside in a gloomy and frightening spirit world—neither alive nor dead, completely estranged from all the joys they had once known. The Pharaoh's pendant was their only hope of salvation: if the Pharaoh could learn to love another, and earn their love in return, the Pendant could be reassembled, his memories would be restored, and he and his court would find peace in the afterlife. If not, they would be doomed to wander like shadows through the human world for all time.

As the eons passed, the Pharaoh's heart receded further into darkness, and his courtiers gradually lost all hope. For, whose heart could ever be strong enough to love the embodiment of bitterness and despair?

Chapter 1 - Belle

"Hey, Yuugi, look out!"

"Huh?...Ow!" Yuugi winced and rubbed his forehead, glaring at the bright orange basketball as it bounced away and was snatched up by a member of the opposing team.

"Ha—sorry, Yuugi! I guess I didn't see you there." Honda sneered and casually tossed the ball towards the basket. "You better look out better next time."

Jounouchi rolled his eyes and groaned. "Look, Yuugi, if you want to play on my team you have to pay attention."

"Forget it," Honda continued, chuckling, "Yuugi's hopeless at this game. You'd be better off playing with a monkey, Jou. At least a monkey wouldn't space out in the middle of a game…"

The two exchanged a mischievous glance. "Hey, Yuugi, what were you thinking about just now?"

Yuugi spoke to his shoes. "It's nothing really, nothing important…"

"Ah, c'mon," Honda cajoled him. "Important enough that you let yourself get hit in the head with a basketball. Spit it out already."

Jounouchi Katsuya and Honda Hitoro—the two opposing sides on the spectrum of justice. Jounouchi—the alleged former gangster who never thought twice about talking back to teachers or forcibly procuring pocket money from his classmates (often with the assistance of his fists). In fact, he rarely thought twice about anything at all. And Honda—the twice-elected class president who made no qualm about using his rank to cut in the lunch line and 'solicit' academic assistance from his more studious peers during exam season. Sometimes when the exams themselves were still in progress and their teacher was conveniently looking the other way.

Together, with their greasy, brutish faces, crude jokes, and smug voices, they were perfectly cast for the roles of crooked king and enterprising outlaw—figures that loomed both larger than life and significantly larger than Yuugi.

"Well," Yuugi giggled and tried to hide his inflamed cheeks behind his bangs. "You'll think it's stupid, but—" he fished into his pocket and carefully extracted a fistful of notched wooden blocks. "It's a type of puzzle, you see," he explained, holding one of the pieces up for Jounouchi to scrutinize. "You have all these different-shaped puzzle pieces, and you have to find a way to put them all together to make one shape. The shapes are usually pretty complex. I've completed a simple puzzle like this before, but this one is much harder! I haven't quite figured it out yet." His voice became stronger and more steady as he spoke, his eyes larger and brighter. "It's a lot of fun!"

"Eh, really?" Jounouchi looked skeptical, but accepted the piece that Yuugi placed in his palm. His eyes flashed. "Hey, Honda, catch!" He hurled the piece at Honda, who laughed and darted to the opposite side of the basketball court.

"Looks pretty dumb to me," he chuckled and threw the piece back at Jounouchi. "You can keep it!"

"Guys, please be careful!" Yuugi pleaded. "If I lose any of the pieces then I won't be able to complete the puzzle!"

"Why do you bother with stuff like this, Yuugi?" Jounouchi tossed the pieced back on Honda. "When you could be doing something that actually matters?"

"The puzzle does matter to me…"

Jounouchi and Honda snickered. "That's your problem, Yuugi. You should think less about these stupid games and puzzles and more about normal stuff."

"…normal stuff?"

"Yeah," Jounouchi smirked at him. "God, Yuugi, you're such a little kid, y'know that?"

Yuugi frowned. "Please just give me my puzzle piece back."

"You hear that—he said please! Think we should give it to him, Jou?"

Jounouchi pretended to consider. "Maybe…we should make him work for it!" Jounouchi dangled the puzzle piece a few inches above Yuugi's head. "Hey Yuugi, how high can you jump?"

"Hey—back off, idiots!" Jounouchi and Honda paled at the voice they heard behind them.

"Oh shit!"

"It's Anzu!"

It was too late to run. Anzu marched onto the basketball court—arms crossed, hips jutting, fiery glare fixed firmly on Honda and Jounouchi. "What do you think you're doing?!" She demanded. "Can't you see that's he hurt? And you continue taunting him? You guys are disgusting."

"Okay, okay," Jounouchi winced under the weight of her condemnation. "Chill out, Anzu." He shoved the puzzle piece back into Yuugi's fist. "It's his—happy?"

Anzu turned her attention to Yuugi as the two boys sauntered off, shooting her irritated glares over their shoulders occasionally. "Those boys are so infuriating," she huffed, teeth on edge. "Are you okay Yuugi? I saw what happened to you…"

"I'm fine, really!" If Yuugi had been blushing before, his cheeks were flaming now.

Anzu bent down closer to examine the bruises that were blossoming on his cheek. "Are you sure? Your face looks kind of swollen. Come with me, I'll help you clean up."

Yuugi raced after her towards the school building. Anzu might have been bestowed with the long legs and burgeoning candor of a formerly downy young girl pecking her way into womanhood, but to Yuugi—except for the moments when he was (fruitlessly) trying to sneak a peak down her top—she was the same round-eyed childhood companion who had taught him how to play jacks on the sticky cement blacktop in the park, who he had once made laugh so hard that milk had shot out her nose and she hadn't been able to drink it for weeks afterwards. In her face he saw the iridescent layers of those tender memories—blinking in and out of focus with the light just like the freckles on her nose.

"You didn't have to do that, y'know."

She sighed. "I know I didn't have to, Yuugi. It's just—ugh—boys like that get on my nerves so much! Trying to take advantage of people like that!"

"Take advantage…no it's like that," Yuugi laughed. "We're friends—we were just playing!"

Anzu's lips twisted and her pace slowed. "Yuugi—"

Yuugi looked up at her. He was still clenching the puzzle pieces tightly in his chubby fingers. "What is it?"

She shook her head. "Never mind. I'll tell you another time."

Anzu led Yuugi back to their classroom, which was empty save one seat in the back.

"Wait here a minute—I'll go get some ice and towels and I'll help you with your face."

When Anzu returned Yuugi was still toying with the pieces of his puzzle, brows furrowed and tongue protruding slightly.

"So this puzzle is really important to you, huh?" Anzu asked as she sat at the desk next to him, wrapping an ice pack in a paper towel.

Yuugi shrugged. "It's really just for fun. I know I should be better at paying attention, but when I get a new puzzle to solve it's hard to think about anything else until I find the solution." He smiled in a way that looked more like an expression of melancholy than contentment. Puzzles were easier than people. Puzzles didn't hit him the face with basketballs. Puzzles didn't make him feel as if the world was a secret that everyone was keeping from him—a note hastily scrawled on a scrap of paper and passed around under the tables during class. "I guess that means that I'm not too great at sports, though. The team I'm on always loses…"

Anzu rolled her eyes. "Don't worry too much about that. You know those boys just use basketball as an excuse to look up girls' skirts—when they can get the girls to play with them, that is." Her expression was sour. "It's despicable. I wonder though, what made you so interested in these types of games?"

"Oh!" This time Yuugi's smile was whole and his voice sparkled. "I live in a game shop with my grandpa! He gets all the best games and puzzles, and I get to try them all!"

"Hm, gameshop? That's interesting."

"Yeah! And he gets all the gaming news, too! There's this one game—Duel Monsters—that he thinks is really going to take off. He's been collecting cards for ages, before most people even knew about it, and he has some really cool rare cards. He's teaching me to duel—though I'm not very good yet."

"Hm, what is Duel Monsters about?"

"It's really interesting," Yuugi effused. "What's great about it is it's a really great strategy game, but there is a strong fantasy component as well. You use monster cards to attack your opponent and defend your life points, and magic and trap cards to augment your monsters. Grandpa says you have to build a really strong connection with the monsters in your deck—you have to give them your loyalty and duel with honor—you have to put your heart into your dueling. Otherwise the monsters, even the really powerful ones, aren't worth anything. Grandpa has a card that he says is the one closest to his heart, the Blue Eyes White Dragon—"

There was a loud crash behind them.

"Hm," Yuugi turned around to see Kaiba hunched over, picking his book and his jaw up off the floor. "Are you okay, Kaiba-kun?"

"Y-yes!" Kaiba stammered as he shot to his feet and slithered toward them, eyes wide and face slightly paler than usual. "Yuugi, I couldn't help but overhear your conversation—do you also play Duel Monsters?"

"Yeah—"

"And your grandfather is the possessor of one of the legendary Blue Eyes White Dragon cards?" Kaiba leaned closer, and at short range Yuugi could see that while his eyes were clear and placid, his eyelid was twitching slightly.

"Yeah. A good friend gave it to him a long time ago."

Kaiba stepped away suddenly. "How cool! I myself am a very accomplished Duel Monsters player—and the Blue Eyes White Dragon card is my personal favorite." He struggled to keep his voice solid and calm, but it was burning at the edges. "If I could—I would love to see it sometime."

Yuugi beamed. "Of course! Grandpa always says that games are best when shared with friends—I'm sure he'd love to show you his card since it means so much to him."

Kaiba scoffed slightly. Friends.

"We could even duel sometime—I bet you could teach me a lot!"

Kaiba giggled. He had a way of making laughter sound like a chore—a complex technical skill that could only be mastered through endless hours of tireless training and fastidious note-taking. Despite Kaiba Seto's formidable genius, the end product of his studies was a laugh that conveyed very little humor and that most found profoundly unsettling. Fortunately for Kaiba, Yuugi was not one of them.

"I don't know, Yuugi. You'd have to be pretty good to be worthy of dueling me. I am the national Duel Monsters champion, and I have hundreds of strong cards and no time to go around giving tips to amateurs like you."

"Wow, I didn't know that there were Duel Monster championships! You must be a really strong duelist, Kaiba-kun."

Kaiba smirked, tossing back his head. "I am. The best in the world. But—" his breath caught. "The Blue Eyes White Dragon! With that card…I would be completely unstoppable!" He grinned, and his dazzling white teeth just barely contained the dark claws of his feral appetite. "I would do anything for that card." He contorted his face into a ghastly travesty of a smile (like laughter, his smiling skills left much to be desired). "But then again, what kind of duelist would I be if I didn't share my love of the game with my—friends?"

Kaiba began to trace slow circles around Yuugi's desk, clenching his fists until the knuckles turned white. "Maybe I will help you, Yuugi," he mused. "And in return, you can do something for me."

"Sure! Is there something I can help you with?"

Kaiba rolled his eyes. "Please, Yuugi—I've never needed help from anyone. Hmph." As if he had earned all his Duel Monsters trophies by holding hands and having feelings. "In exchange for the privilege of my mentorship, you can let me use your grandfather's Blue Eyes card!"

Yuugi squirmed. "I don't know, Kaiba-kun. Grandpa's pretty protective of that card…"

Kaiba leaned over him, planting his hands on Yuugi's desk and letting his voice slip into a soft whisper. "Your grandfather couldn't make just one exception? For me?"

Yuugi could feel himself blushing again, and began to fidget. "Well, maybe under different circumstances, but he's about to leave town for a while—and I don't think he'd like it if I let someone use his Blue Eyes without him there to supervise…"

"Your grandfather is absurd," Kaiba huffed and crossed his arms. "He can't possibly appreciate the power of that card."

"He's just very protective of his treasures…You can come by and see it, though! I'm sure grandpa wouldn't mind that!"

"Hm, how generous." He rose and began to glide back to his post at the back of the classroom. "I may take you up on that, Yuugi."

"Ugh, what a creep," Anzu groaned as soon as Kaiba was once again absorbed in his books. "Did you see the way he was leering at you like that? It weirds me out."

Yuugi frowned. "I think Kaiba-kun is nice, I think." He tried to laugh, but the sound came out a little colder than usual. Maybe that was one of the side effects of talking to Kaiba—forgetting how to laugh. "I mean, he loves Duel Monsters—so how bad could he be?"

Anzu frowned. "If I were you, I wouldn't want to find out."