The Broken Doll

Chapter 1

Yuma and his friends were just coming back from school when it happened. They were taking their time today by going to the park and dueling. It was Yuma against Tetsuo as usual, and this time Yuma won. After celebrating for a solid five minutes, the boy finally went home.

Little did he know, a girl was watching over his every move. She was hidden behind the bushes, watching his movements, noting how confident he seemed. The way he dueled in the past was powerful and experienced, even if his casual dueling with friends was silly and seemingly stupid. She also knew he had a friend from another world that helped him duel from time to time when he was in a tight situation.

The girl's tail flicked as she watched Yuma go home. She had been watching him for a while now after she left her own home world in search of a new one. She found this city, Heartland City, and settled here in a large building she bought. That building was to be the center of her operation.

She followed Yuma home, even going so far as to wait for him since she knew where he lived. The girl noticed that his sister and grandmother were gone today. She suppressed a giggle; she would do it today.

"Akari, Grandma, I'm home!" Yuma called and waited for them to respond. There was nothing. The boy shrugged and went to the kitchen to make himself a sandwich. He made his way leisurely to his attic room, where he laid on his hammock and ate his snack.

He thought about what he would do for the summer. School just ended, so he had a lot more free time. He supposed he could spend a lot of time with his friends, and now that school was out, he had more time looking for Numbers for Astral. He smiled as he made his mental list of things to do.

The girl snuck into the house when it was clear that the others weren't home. It made it easier for her to grab her target without anyone knowing for the time being. She made her way up the stairs and peeked up into the attic for her victim to become completely at ease. It didn't take long. This was his home, after all; he had no reason to be wary. Furthermore, he didn't have the sensing capabilities of energy beings. There was no way he could even guess that there was someone in this house, especially since the girl was skilled at things like this.

Soon, with the speed of a hunting snake, she struck.

~.~.~

Yuma groaned and opened his eyes. His vision wavered for a good while before it finally cleared up. He looked around to try and take in his surroundings, but there wasn't much to take in. It was just an empty, lab-like room with a machine some feet away from him and another machine right beside him. Coming from the machine was a tube that stretched from the machine all the way into his neck. The needle of the tube was already in his skin and taped on so it was secure. He tried to lift his hands, but a metal band on each wrist kept his arms bound to the chair he was strapped in. The same applied to his legs. On his temples and forehead were little pads attached to wires for some reason.

"Hello!" Yuma called into the room. "Is anyone here!?" He waited a while, but there was no answer right away. He was about to try again when the door in front of him and a female voice answered.

"Hello, my little Yuma," the voice purred. In walked a girl who was approximately five feet three inches in height. She wore black skinny jeans with a red tank top. From behind her jeans poked out a jet black tail, which swayed from side to side. Her hair was short and blond, and her eyes were green with slits for pupils. 

"Who are you?" Yuma asked. "And why am I tied to this chair!?"

The girl walked over to the machine and grinned at him. "You, my dear, can call me Shing." She started pushing some buttons on the machine farthest from Yuma. "And I'm planning on using you for a little something."

"What's that 'little something,' huh?"

Shing took her time answering, pushing buttons as if she knew exactly what each one did. "I plan to take over this city. Your ruler is incapable of leading effectively. I plan on fixing that, and I'm using you to be my knight."

Yuma took a while to process what she was saying because it just sounded so ridiculous! If he didn't know any better, he would say she sounded like some kind of monarch spreading her rule over countries. That was impossible, though! In this day and age, there were only a few places with kings and queens, and even their armies couldn't possibly take over whole places.

"Do you know how crazy you sound? You're acting like you can even do this!"

"Only the ones who can't see reason think that." Shing finished pressing buttons and stood in front of her victim. "Don't worry. I'll help you see reason. Are you ready, my knight?"

At this point, Yuma tried struggling out of the bonds that held him to the chair. He didn't know what this girl was going to do to him, but he knew it wasn't something good! He wrenched his wrists until they turned red, and all the while, Shing walked to the machine and held her hand over a button. She watched his brain waves spike in adrenaline.

He'll see reason soon enough. She flipped a switch.

Yuma felt something cold go into his neck. He felt instantly weakened, and his thoughts became jumbled. He still fought, though, even though he knew it was useless. The Key started to grow dim as it locked, a defense mechanism when there was danger. Soon, he stopped struggling.

Shing looked at the monitor in disapproval as she watched the brain waves drop. She was hoping this wouldn't happen, but she had the foresight to make something to fix it just in case. She exited the room just long enough to grab a headset, then she brought it back quickly so the damage wouldn't be too deep. The moment Shing set the headset on Yuma, he started to wake up.

"Hello, my knight," she purred. Yuma looked up at her sleepily and blankly. "Are you feeling well?"

"I'm...better," Yuma slurred, still not looking her in the eye because of the effort it took to lift them.

Shing knelt down to his level so he could look at her. "Before I send you to rest, I need you to answer some questions." She held up pictures of his friends that she collected over the time she watched them. "Are these your enemies, or are they friends?"

It took him a while to answer. Yuma's eyes squinted as he tried to think of who they were and what they would do. Finally, he answered. "Enemies."

"That's right. They'll try to stop me from reining as queen of this place. I am the rightful ruler, and you will help me gather an army to take over. Understand?"

"Understood."

"Good. Now, come on. You need to rest." 

Shing nodded and helped Yuma out of the bonds and led him to a room.

Mkay, so this was an rp with RyuRan2200 at random, and it became story material. X3 It was her idea to turn it into a book, but she wanted me to write it. Enjoy!