Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's: Rainbow Stardust

Chapter 1: Fallen In The Rain

AUTHOR'S NOTE: The art above belongs to me. I marathoned this just to republish this chapter--or maybe not, I don't even know. The Duel Disk, Duel Runner and helmet, and character design belong to me, too. Just like before, this fic is entirely inspired by Yu-Gi-Oh! World Championships 2009-2011, which have story modes in which a new character is introduced to the main anime plotline: you, the protagonist. I've taken this and run with it. I will also take some characters that are unique to the games and bring more attention to them, fleshing them out. While they technically are not my characters, they are so insignificant in the games they may as well be, because I want to give them bigger roles and I think they're cool.

Since I'm mish-mashing three plotlines into a single character (as well as attempting to follow the anime as accurately as possible, mostly sticking to the Japanese plot but using English names and small additional details like Yusei's fear of bugs and Jack's accent), my character may come off a bit... Mary Sue-ish? Maybe not even at first, idfk, but I'm trying to make her work as a human character as much as possible despite that. If it's still cringe despite my greatest efforts, well, I tried, and I'm still attached to this story. But there's a reason this is on Wattpad, not Archive of our Own.

EDIT 12/8/2023: I've rewritten the chapter. I'm officially calling this the start of Part 1 because I realized maybe my characterizations have been a little inaccurate. But despite me rewriting the story for a third time, I don't think the plot will be toooo too different. The idea is just to set up the story better than I'd done before (and better than the anime had done, because I don't think they gave us enough background information). I'll be rewriting future chapters as well, but the end result should hopefully be the same, maybe even better, than what I intended. Enjoy~

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It's cold. So, so cold.

The ground was cold and wet and hard, gravel sticking to her skin and hair. She could vaguely see some lights reflecting off the drops of rain, and hear distant sirens over the thunder.

Tip tap tap tap tip tap...

Were those footsteps? In this darkness and rain? Who could it be? She couldn't tell. Her vision was swimming too much. But it didn't seem threatening... Was it a child? She hoped not. If they saw her like this...

Try as she might, she couldn't move. Her arms and legs felt like they were made of lead. One of her arms was dripping with something warm. Probably her blood.

Oh, something was dripping down her face, too. It was warm and sticky, lazily making its way down her face and into her lips. As soon as the metallic taste hit her tongue, she came to a calm realization.

Ah. I may die today.

She couldn't lift her head or limbs. She could barely breathe or think. More importantly, she couldn't remember anything. Perhaps that was for the best. Forgetting everything before she died... maybe it was a mercy bestowed by the gods.

Tap tap tap tap tap tap tap!

The footsteps were getting closer. She wanted to groan, to at least use her voice to say, "Please, run, just leave me here." But she could barely part her lips, and her vocal cords remained still. There was no way for her to talk. To save some poor soul from seeing her mangled body. She only hoped they would run as quickly as they could upon seeing her.

She could hear a faint gasp of surprise. A trembling, small hand shook her shoulder. A flare of pain twisted her face against her will, shooting heat through her entire upper right side. Quickly, the hands pulled away, and the footsteps began pacing frantically.

C'mon, tongue... Move...

She willed herself to finally take a breath and speak.

"R... Run..."