Hi! Aoi here, this is a story that is very near and dear to my heart. I have fallen in love with this character and all her counterparts and I hope that you enjoy this as much as I do daydreaming about it each and every day. Now, on with the story!

'Crap, crap, crap!' Eiko thought to herself. 'I'm late!'

Why was she surprised? She had been late since the day she was born. She couldn't count all the times she had told someone "Sorry I'm late!". She also couldn't count all the times people had brushed it off as if it happened all the time. Which it did.

She finally reached the Kame game shop, hands on her knees, huffing and puffing. "Huff, huff, huff…must…huff…get…huff…job…huff." She had been in Domino for two weeks, and in that time all she could say for sure is that she had unpacked. She desperately needed a job. The rent on her one bedroom apartment wouldn't pay for itself, and her parents weren't exactly thrilled that she had decided to leave home three months before school started.

"I want to get a jump on things," She explained to her parents.

"A three month jump?" her mother said, trying not to yell.

"Yes," she said simply.

"Just let her go."

Eiko turned to see her sister, Hiro, standing in the doorway, arms crossed. "She's the only one who actually got in to college. Might as well." It might've sounded like a compliment. But it wasn't. "The only reason you got in is because you do nothing but study. But hey, it can't be helped when you have no friends."

How she had wanted to punch her in that instant. They only reason she didn't have friends is her! She made her look like a freak in high school, and she had taken away the only true friends she had ever had.

'Damnit, Eiko, stop thinking about that!' She thought to herself. By then she had caught her breath and was staring at the door with an "Open" sign. 'Now or never' she thought and then reached for the door handle.

"Um, hello?" Eiko said as entered the shop.

"Hello! You must be Eiko." A man was standing behind a counter, hands folded, with a black bandana covering white hair. He had purple eyes and was wearing green overalls. "Welcome to Kame game shop! You called about a job, right?"

"Uh, yes. I just moved to the city and I could really use one—"

"You're hired!" the man said, smiling, with hands still folded on the counter.

"Really?" Eiko said with shock. She herself had never applied for a job before. But it had to be harder than this.

"What's going on, Grandpa?" said a voice from behind the counter. A short boy with spiky hair came walking in. He, like his grandpa, had purple eyes, and had on leather pants and a black top. "Who's this?" he asked politely. "A customer?"

"Yugi, this is Eiko. She's my new employee!" Yugi's grandpa said, still smiling.

"Grandpa! If you needed help with the shop, you could have told me. I don't mind."

"Nonsense, Yugi! You have school, and you're dueling!"

"Dueling? Like with…." Eiko was unsure if she could continue with the sentence. "Swords?" she wanted to say. She wasn't sure if she could work for yankees. The idea of living in a city all by herself already frightened her. She looked at Yugi and his grandpa; they looked like they were holding back a laugh. And they were.

"No, no not like that," Yugi said while smiling, happy that someone thought that he could survive in a sword fight. "I duel with this," he said, turning around and grabbing a silver and blue item.

"Uh, what is it?" Eiko said sheepishly.

"What? You've never seen a duel disk?" Yugi grandpa said, looking like he was about to have a heart attack.

"No," Eiko said simply. "What's it do?" she asked, tilting her head to one side.

"I'm going to guess that you've never heard of 'Duel Monsters'," Yugi said while looking up at her.

"No, I haven't. What is 'Duel Monsters'?"

It looked as if Yugi's grandpa was going to faint.

"Well, you see," Yugi started to say, "It's a card game where—"

"Yugi!"

Eiko turned around to see a boy with blond hair and brown eyes. He was wearing a blue school uniform and sneakers. "Yugi! Kaiba is back from America! He wants to talk to you."

"What?" Yugi turned around to look at the boy. "About what?"

"Mokuba wouldn't tell me. By the way, who's the chick?"

"Oh, Jonouchi (also known as Joey), this is Eiko, she's going to be working at the game shop." Yugi said, motioning to Eiko.

"Hi!' Eiko said, smiling.

"'Sup. Come on Yugi, Rich Boy's waiting." Jonouchi said, pointing towards the door with his thumb.

"Right!" Him and Jonouchi started to walk towards the door when Yugi stopped suddenly. "Hey, Jonouchi," Jonouchi stopped to look at his friend. "I think we should bring Eiko. She's never heard of Duel Monsters and I think she might enjoy it."

"What?" Jonouchi looked shocked. At first, Eiko thought that he didn't what her tagging along, but then he said, "You've never heard of Duel Monsters? Well then you need to come! Besides, the more the merrier, right?"

"Um, ok…" Eiko said.

"Then let's go!" Jonouchi said excitedly. And then they were off.

"Ok, so you have forty cards in a deck that consist of monsters, spells, and traps, and you use them to battle with other duelists. Right?" Eiko said, trying to remember all that Jonouchi and Yugi had taught her in their ten-minute walk they had spent walking to the Center of Domino Park.

"Yup, that's pretty much the basics of it. Wow, you're a fast learner!" Jonouchi said, impressed. "It took me a while to get it right. Remember, Yugi? My first deck was nothing but monsters."

"That's right. You lost a lot of duels with that deck, didn't you, Jonouchi?" Yugi said jokingly.

"Hey," Jonouchi said while Eiko laughed, "I got better. Semi finals in both Duelist Kingdom and Battle City."

"Those were some of the bigger tornaments, right?" Eiko asked.

"Yup, one was set up by the creator of Duel Monsters himself," Jonouchi said. "The other was set up by the creator of the Duel Disk."

"That's those things you guys have on your arms, right?" Eiko asked, pointing to the item on Jonouchi's arm.

"Yup, the second best duelist in the world and the head of Kaiba Corp." Jonouchi said simply. Eiko stopped in her tracks.

"Wait, hold up." Jonouchi and Yugi turned to her. "So he created the duel disk AND he's the second best duelist in the world?" Yugi and Jonouchi nodded. "And this guy we're about to see; his name is Kaiba, as in Kaiba Corp.?" They nodded again.

"They're the same person." Yugi said. Eiko's mouth was wide open in shock.

"But what does he want with you, Yugi?" Eiko asked, confused.

"Probably a rematch." Jonouchi said, answering for Yugi. Eiko looked more confused than ever. Jounouchi gave Yugi a look that said "You haven't told her?"

"Well, you see," Yugi said a bit sheepishly, "I'm the number one duelist in the world."

"Yugi."

Yugi and Jonouchi turned to face the ever so familiar voice; Kaiba's. "I see you brought the dog." He said, looking at Jonouchi.

"Shut it, Rich Boy!" Jonouchi said his, hand turning into a fist.

'He…he looks just like' Eiko thought to herself. 'It can't be, can it?' She thought back, far back. 'Oh, my God.'

"What do you want, Kaiba?" Yugi asked, hoping to avoid a fight.

"Nothing much. I just know that the last time I saw you and your friends, you were talking about the other you and his memories," Kaiba said, his arms crossed. Kaiba didn't believe in magic, but he couldn't help but notice that Yugi wasn't wearing his necklace like he usually did. In fact, he could only think on one occurrence that Yugi hadn't worn the thing; when he was dueling Jonouchi and had put it on his 'friend' to try and snap him out of the trance Marik had put him under. It was very unusual that Yugi was without it.

"It's already done, that other me is gone." Yugi said, looking up at Kaiba. Meanwhile Eiko was asking Jonouchi a question.

"Hey, Jonouchi?" Eiko whispered into his ear.

"Yeah, I know it's confusing, I'll explain the whole 'other me' thing later."

"Well, I am a bit confused about that. But that's not what I was to ask about."

It was Jonouchi's turn to ask a question. "Oh, then what was it you wanted to talk about?"

"Well it's a bit of a weird question, but…." Eiko hesitated; did she really want the answer to her question? Yes, she did, she HAD to know. She just had to. "Well, Kaiba is just his surname, right?"

"Yeah, why?" Jonouchi asked, a bit confused.

"Well, I was wondering what his first name was."

"Oh," it was a bit of a strange question but it would be rude not to answer it. "Well his first name is—"

"Seto!"

The voice came from above. Everyone looked up in shock to see Mokuba being held captive by a man in a dark suit inside a helicopter. "Seto, help!" Mokuba screamed in fear.

"Mokuba!" Seto didn't know what to do. The helicopter must have been 50 feet off the ground. If Moukuba fell or jumped…

"Are you just going to stand there, looking like an idiot? Go help him!" Jonouchi yelled at him.

"And I suppose you have a way to get all the way up there? It's a 50 foot drop!" Kaiba said sharply.

"He has a point, Jonouchi." Yugi said.

"And besides, you should worry about yourself. For starters, you could find that girl you were traveling with."

"What are you talking about?" Jonouchi said. "Eiko is right here!" he motioned to the empty space next to him. "Neh! Eh, Yugi have you seen Eiko?" Yugi turned, and he saw Eiko in the top branches of a tree. If she jumped she could reach the—

"Is she insane?" Kaiba asked as Eiko jumped from the branches to the helicopter.

"Let go of him!" she screamed as she held on to the helicopter deck.

"Yeah, right!" the man holding Mokuba said. Eiko hoisted herself onto the helicopter deck; she took her fist and aimed at the man's head. He quickly dodged and lunged himself at Eiko, making her fall onto the deck. Mokuba was able to escape the clutches of the man, and he ran to the other side of the deck. The man ran to catch Mokuba again but Eiko got up and was able to lay a punch. The man fell to the ground.

"You ok?" she asked mokuba.

"Y-yeah," Mokuba said, a bit shaken "I'm fine." They looked at each other for a few seconds.

"Your name is Mokuba. Right?" Eiko asked, her head tilted to the side.

"Um, yeah," Moukuba answered. "My name is—look out!" he said as another man in a black suit approached them from behind. Eiko grabbed Mokuba, with the man approaching quickly. Eiko had no idea what was running through her head when she decided to do this; she decided later that it was a subconscious thought that she couldn't stop herself from doing. Either way it was still a stupid thing to do. But it happened, she did it, and she couldn't take it back. She jumped from the helicopter.