Past Repeating - Book 1

Ancient Rivals

Star Chips: Yugi: 6/Joey: 4/Sarah: 5

Joey was the first to confront whoever was lurking about.

"Come out of there, right now!"

From behind the bushes emerged a young boy with long white hair and the softest chocolate eyes. He wore a sweater over a green shirt and jeans, and that what struck me as odd from the very beginning was that he was all by himself.

What was he doing lurking around in the middle of the night?

Téa gasped at the sight of this boy. "Ryou!" she said, all signs of tension flying away from her face. What replaced it was a bright smile. She knew this person.

"Eh? You mean from class?" asked Joey, placing his hands on his hips. With no real threat in sight, even Yugi and Tristan approached this new person with a more relaxed composure. However, I still felt uneasy.

"See? I told you he was really here on the island!" exclaimed Téa.

"I'm sorry if I frightened you all," said Ryou. He had an accent I didn't think I would recognize, but again, because Modern Sarah had been out in the world for a while before, I knew that it was a British accent.

"Pssh. You? Scare us? Naaah." Joey tried to laugh it off, but we knew he was just trying to act tough. Tristan shook his head at his friend.

"Anyways, what are you doin' here?" asked Tristan. "Are you in the tournament too?"

Ryou smiled. "Why, of course," he said. "I didn't want to miss the chance of dueling some of the top duelists."

"But why'd you leave when I saw you at the edge of the forest?" asked Téa. "You could have joined us! Walking around alone doesn't seem like a lot of fun."

Wait... this was the same boy she mentioned seeing when we were walking up the stairs after arriving? The one whose name made my hair stand on end and my heart race? Ryou Bakura? Of course, there wasn't enough evidence to suggest that it was the same person, just because the name was the same. It could have been a coincidence.

Ryou shyly placed his hand on the back of his neck. "Well, I wanted to ask if it would be alright, but in the end I thought I may be a bother..."

"Nonsense! Come on, we were just talking about the tournament so far."

Ryo smiled gratefully, and it was a genuine smile, one that made me feel like we could trust him, but I was still so tense about him, even after deciding that there was a slim chance of this person having anything to do with the Bakura that I knew of. Besides... they looked nothing alike... and yet I was still so tense.

My Locket glowed, after all. Right when he had arrived. That couldn't have been a coincidence though, right?

Before I could determine what to do with this feeling of uncertainty, I noticed Ryou looking at me.

"You're... Sarah, aren't you?" he asked as he approached. "I don't believe I've introduced myself in class. I'm Ryou Bakura. It's nice to finally meet you."

He held out his hand for me to take. Even though I felt so uneasy, I didn't want to be rude, so I took his hand.

"It's nice to meet you too..." I said, a little quietly. It was strange... when I was expecting my Locket to start glowing again at his touch, it didn't, which confused me even more. So was Ryou not the reason why my Locket glowed?

"You don't need to be shy, Sarah," said Tristan, patting me on the shoulder. "Ryou's a nice guy."

"Aw, thanks Tristan," said Ryou, beaming. He was really cute, and I did feel a sense of comfort from him... so maybe I should be less worried.