"Yeah, it has. But I wonder why she wanted me to be in the Federation in the first place?" Ashleigh wondered.

"Your dueling skills most likely," Selena typed.

"Hold it; if that's the case, then why'd it take so long for her to ask us to join?" Jonouchi asked.

"It takes more than just dueling skills genius." Melhana said. "My guess is that your dueling ability makes up for your lack of brainpower, which last time I checked was one of the things that's taken into account."

"I don't duel, and you guys know that! It has to be something else than that" Ashleigh said, clasping the locket with her hand for a moment before grabbing a napkin and a piece of cake.

"That would leave your power," Melhana said. "You're as strong a fairy as Yugi is a mage." Yugi blushed, and promptly tried hiding behind his napkin. "You should've figured I'd know how strong you are, Yugi. Your teacher was my dad after all."

"That makes me wonder; why did your dad have to teach Yugi? Couldn't it have been someone else?" Ryuji asked.

Melhana shook her head. "Anyone with the skills of a mage would have been able to teach him the basics, but the full-blown training would've had to have been from someone with a working and intimate knowledge of the auric nature of the Ankh family." She replied. "In ancient Egypt, there were several mages with the knowledge to be able to work with the fire-natured auras of my family. Now, that's just limited to the family members. Since some of Atem's power rubbed off on Yugi and--what I'm guessing--was the catalyst for the dormant power he already had, which was similar to Atem's to begin with, that made it rather easy to narrow down possible teachers."

"Uh, what?" Jonouchi asked dumbly. Ryuji had an expression on his face that said the same thing. Melhana sighed.

"Anyway. When Max chased me, I reminded her about the No Family Rule. That's when Hikari was born. And the new outfit that you saw me wearing, she made it for me because she knew I hated the uniforms that you guys wore, so we made it as a new design for the new recruits" Ashleigh said, munching away on the cake.

"I see," Melhana said.

"You going to be competing in the tournament, or just singing?" Selena typed.

"Singing. I don't duel that much, I'm more of a collector. As a hobby" Ashleigh replied before she took another bite.

"I've seen you duel for fun against Honda and Jonouchi though," Melhana said. "You're not a bad duelist. Maybe you should consider entering a few pro tournaments also."

"Sez the one who's not competing!" Jonouchi teased.

"Can it bonehead. I'd be competing, but the motocross race for the Olympics qualifiers is taking place at the same time." Melhana retorted.

"They let me win. If it was a tournament duel, I be eliminated after my first duel" and she took out her two folders and collectors tin.
"I started in 2003, when I was back home for a while. This is the Konami's version" she said, "and this is my collection." She took out her deck box also.

Jonouchi whistled. "That's a lot of cards." He said. "Your collection's almost as big as Yugi's or Selena's."

"Probably Yugi's." Selena typed. "Mine's only about 3/4 of the size of his."

"You could still probably put together a pretty strong deck." Melhana said as she flipped through the collector's book. "Hey, how's about a duel, for fun?"

"I don't know" Ashleigh said.
"Mel, I think it's best for her to open her presents first" Aka told her.

'Heh, right.' Melhana said. At that same moment, Selena typed a message into her phone and showed it to Ashleigh.

"Just open your presents already girl!" Selena had typed.

"Ok, ok! Who's should I open first?" Ashleigh said as she finished her piece of cake.

"Just pick one!" Jonouchi exclaimed.

Ashleigh grabbed a bulky one which was on the top and opened it. Inside was an easel, palette, brushes and paint. She knew who that was from.
"Thank you Nefe and Mel" she said.

Mel blushed slightly and smiled. "Well, we all know how much you draw." She said.

"That's a new sight," Ryuji said. "Why so red, Melhana?"

Melhana blushed even more. "Ah, well..." She said nervously. "Um, I'll tell you guys later, okay?"

"Why not tomorrow?" Yana asked. Everyone murrmered. Ashleigh took another present.

Melhana nodded, her face still tinged pink. Oh boy...we're going to have to be careful with that one. She thought as she saw that it was from Honda.

Ashleigh opened it and......
"OMG! The whole 7 Volumes of Othello!!!! Thank you! Now you guys will know who I meant by Yaya and Nana!" she exclaimed.

"Wow. I didn't know that Honda had the amount of taste to know enough to buy that for ya." Selena typed, the phrase laden with sarcasm.

"He and I are in the same Manga and I keep borrowing his copies" Ashleigh explained, "That's when I learnt the two types of Yamis."

"Just open the next one." Ryuji said, going for a second piece of cake. Selena swatted his hand away.

"You're being impatient and greedy" Ashleigh said as she picked up a peculiar present, "and I hope this is not a practical joke too."

"It isn't." Selena typed. "And Ryuji, quit being a big. That's Jonouchi's job."

"Hey!" Jonouchi protested.

Ashleigh laughed.
"Typical Joey" she said. Ashleigh is the only person to call them by their english name.....except Selena. She hasn't told Ashleigh about her outer ego, Sakura. Ashleigh unwrapped the present.