The black limousine parked just outside the house.
Although Jun had lived in several places around the world in his life, the Manjoume mansion was the place where he had spent most of his childhood and the summers of his teenage years where he wasn't abroad.
After time seemed to stretch and fade while he stared through the closed car window to the house, he opened the door and got out.
The scenery was beautiful. The huge white house surrounded by a thick evergreen forest. The flowers that grew perfectly in order just right by the entrance. Everything was peaceful, dream-like. Just perfect.
He absolutely hated this house.
The people who worked there had told him once that his parents had built it for him before they died. With that classical innocence of little kids, he was proud he had meant that much to them.
Yeah sure, as if that had ever been true… but Jun preferred not to dwell on the past that was now so useless to him.
The only thing that mattered now was to fulfil his promise.
He walked through the path that divided the huge front garden towards the front door, watching all those flowers and statues that somehow were still intact and he immediately felt nauseous. Who could care for this house anymore?
He entered. The huge wooden door wasn't even locked. After he had announced his visit, the coward employees that still served his brothers had immediately fled.
Good, at least there wouldn't be any casualties for which to pay later on.
Once inside, his nausea grew. Everything was in its place still. The old photograph still hanged on the centre of the parlour, the blue vase that he had once broke was still on the corner, the ostentatious dining room, the living room where so many times he had played with himself.
Everyone he had ever met remembered fondly their childhood years but for Jun the mere thought of remembering was horrendous.
The only thing that remained was the never-ending loneliness and the desire for greatness.
Those have been useful in a sense, or so he thought as he walked around every room in the first floor and up the stairs to the second floor.
His room was still there, untouched. Although it was curious his brothers hadn't thrown everything away, he didn't really care.
Every second he spent there; he had more desires to leave. Every room was filled with ghosts someone had bothered to keep clean and nourished for him to see.
For him to be filled with rage..
Why had he even bothered to come here? Some stupid promise when he was a stupid kid.
"Jun..you can't leave your past behind." The tone on Light and Darkness Dragon voice was more than only concerned. He was angry and sad. His
"Watch me." I wasn't in the mood for this, who the hell was he to start bossing me around? The fact that he was my partner didn't mean anything when my family was involved.
"It will come back someday if you don't do it first."
"Then that's what I will do"
Jun grimaced at the memory. It was stupid, idiotic. No one pushed him to do this. Everything with this was just wrong, wrong, WRONG!
He started pacing around in the place that once was his dueling room. Ignoring the childish dreams that took form on Hibiki and Kaiba posters pasted all over.
He paced faster and faster as his anger grew. Things should always make sense, why did they suddenly didn't?!
He stopped. There it was. The reason.
Quickly and gracefully, as only he could do things, he ran down the marble stairs.
Everything in this house was so white, so fucking perfect, it needed a little more…colour.
He was outside once again but now smirking. With this, he would burry his past six feet underground. All his mistakes, gone forever.
They say start as you need to go on.
With a small laugh, he went back inside his limousine and told his driver to get him back to the airport. He started a championship the next day and he couldn't be late.
The next day, no one knew what had caused the fire. No one saw anyone come and the ones who did, received a fairly generous amount of money so they all kept their mouths shut.
All the people who saw the house as it was burning did agree on one thing though. It was extremely unusual behaviour for a fire but it was one of the most beautiful things they have ever seen.
The flames started licking the sides of the house, as if even they denied their never-ending hunger just for this house but that didn't last long. Soon the orange fire had consumed most of it, just leaving a trail of smoke to remind everyone of the grandeur that place had once had.
The report said no one of the Manjoume family was hurt and there actually weren't any casualties after all but that it had been a great piece of architecture and that people regretted the loss of such an important place for the company, as it was there where it was found.
An anonymous writer sent the newspaper this lines that same day.
"Some'll laugh and some just sit and cry
You just sit down there and you wonder why."
It had indeed been a weird incident as the youngest of the Manjoume brothers had made very strong statements about his company but no one really thought of him as guilty. Jun Manjoume had never been the one to do things and then blame it all upon a rush of blood to the head.