A Means of Communication

Chapter 1: Instant Messaging

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Yugi slammed the door to his bedroom hastily behind him, trying to put as many walls between him and his grandfather as possible. Inevitably however, there came the familiar sharp voice of the old man from the foot of the stairs.

"Yugi! You better get your homework done before you go online! I mean it! I don't want you staying up all night!" Yugi rolled his eyes tiredly.

"Don't worry, Jii-chan!" he called through the door, having absolutely no intention of following his guardian's advice.

The teenage boy looked around his room and sighed with relief, breathing in the familiar musty scent of fossilized gum and unwashed socks. Finally he was in his sanctuary again, away from his teachers and the bullies at school and especially his overly-caring mother and grandfather. Not that he didn't love his family very much, it would just be nice if they would learn to trust him a little bit more to manage his own life instead of pestering him all the time.

Yugi let his school bag fall from his shoulders onto the floor, school assignments and worksheets temporarily forgotten as they scattered across his carpet.

On the walls of his room were more than half a dozen posters, all picturing one specific hard rock band called Descendants of Ra. Most of the posters were devoted to one person in particular. He was Atemu, the lead singer of the Descendants of Ra, and he was the center of Yugi's small world. The teenager had an especially large picture of the rock idol on the ceiling above his bed, clad in a costume of black leather, several draping belts and a single, heavy, silver chain around his neck. Yugi stared dreamily up at his god, purple eyes clouding over in rapture.

In his mind there was no other specimen of ultimate human perfection. To say that he was obsessed would be an understatement. Besides fawning day and night over his gorgeous features and his voice as smooth and deep as melted chocolate, Yugi had gone so far as to copy Atemu's own hairstyle although he had never actually gotten his golden bangs to stick up all the way. He knew he could never look exactly like Atemu. The rock star's eyes were red, dark and enticing, while Yugi's purple ones were too round making him look five years younger than he actually was. His scrawny figure and limited height didn't help either, any more than it helped keep the bullies and taunters away from him at school.

After a few minutes of his daily admiration, Yugi finally returned to his senses.

"That's right, Ryou will be online today," he reminded himself, dashing to his computer.

Ryou was his best friend and Yugi had been begging him to get an Instant Messaging address so they could talk together outside of school without his mom or his grandfather eves-dropping on their phone conversations in the next room. The white haired teenager had claimed that technology was too complicated but Yugi had finally managed to convince him.

Yugi got onto the internet and loaded his favorite web page. It was an entire site devoted to fans of Descendants of Ra. It had pages and pages of pictures of the band, which Yugi drooled over, and updates of where the band currently was on their international tour. Yugi's favorite part was the forums, where strangers from every corner of the globe could talk about the band, or fight about it. He had once got into a heated debate with another fan about whether the band lip-synced during their concerts.

Yugi signed onto his own name and looked at his watch.

It was 6:34. Ryou had said he would try to be on at 6:30.

'Now, what did he say his name was?' Yugi pondered. 'Something... noOji, right?' Yugi searched the various live discussion groups for anyone who had a name similar to that.