Cousin of Ishtar, Sister of Orichalcos
Chapter One: Cousin of Ishtar
A girl with hazel eyes stared up at the school and sighed as she looked at the building.
'Domino High School? Does that mean we can topple the building over with some other schools then?' she thought as she glanced around the empty entrance. 'Guess I'm late too' she added before heading inside to her new prison.
"Alright class, let's take our seats" the teacher said as he walked into the class room. Everyone rushed to their seats in a hurry and waited for their sleeping pill.
"Before we begin, I'd like to introduce a new student. This is Keri Tsunki, everyone please make her feel welcome" the teacher continued and the hazel eyed girl walked in while the teacher wrote her name on the board.
'No wonder people get prank called in Japan, the teacher writes our last names on the board for everyone to copy' Keri thought, eyeing the people in her class. One was buried in a laptop, four were whispering to each other; a girl and three guys, one midget, one loud mouth blond, one monkey, and a frivolous one. 'Oh someone shoot me now' she thought, almost missing where the teacher was telling her to sit.
"There's a seat, right next to Mr. Kaiba" the teacher said, all heads turning to the one with his head buried in his laptop.
'I hate high school' she sighed and walked to the back where he was, sitting down silently next to him. 'I'll just stay quiet and he won't bite off my head' she continued to herself, taking out her notebook.
'That poor girl, Mr. Gresco really sent her to her death with that seating arrangement' Tea thought, eyeing the two before turning her attention back to the lesson at hand.
Bring!
"Finally, freedom of this snooze fest before another one" Tristan commented as everyone packed up their books for their next period.
As Keri was packing up her bag, her hand accidentally nudged Kaiba's laptop which he looked up from to glare at her.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to" she apologized quickly; his glare was sending cold shivers up her spine.
"Stray" he muttered before turning his attention back to his laptop.
She left quickly, not wanting to end up in another confrontation with Kaiba or be late to her next class.
"Did you guys see what I just saw?" Joey asked the group as Keri quickly brushed by them.
"Kaiba scaring another student?" Tea offered but the blond ignored it.
"No, Kaiba being rude to another girl other than Tea and callin' her an animal" Joey said and the three looked at Joey with surprise.
"Will wonders never cease? Joey actually sounded smart for once" Tristan commented, riling Joey.
"Watch it" the blond told him but Tristan wasn't affected by his friend's threat.
"That was weird though, Kaiba may be mean but the only person he makes reference to as an animal is Joey. It doesn't make any sense that he'd call a person he doesn't even know a stray" Tea commented and the others nodded as the warning bell for second period sounded.
"Oh no! I've got class on the seventh floor, I'll never make it!" Joey exclaimed and took off running for his second period class.
"Is Joey ever on time for anything?" Tea rhetoricalized as the three left the hall for their classes.
Lunch Hour…
"I don't believe this, I break the sound barrier to get to class on time and the teacher gives me detention for being one second- ONE SECOND- late" Joey complained as they sat down outside near a sakura tree to eat.
"Maybe you should've left earlier instead of chatting about the new girl" Duke Devlin said as he came and joined them.
"How'd you find out about her?" Tristan asked as their Dungeon Dice playing friend sat down next to Joey.
"Word gets around when you're both new and beautiful" Duke shrugged, forming a plan in his mind.
"Should've known" Tea said with a shake of her head, sometimes these guys were unbelievable.
"Speaking of which, isn't that her over there" Yugi commented, inclining his head towards the student bench area.
"Yeah, you're right Yuge. Wait a minute, what's with Kaiba? He looks like he's pissed and he's heading her way!" Joey shouted and the gang looked at each other before they took off running.
"How dare you show me up like that in front of the class?!" Kaiba growled as he reached Keri who was about to sit down with her lunch.
"It was one question! It's not like I was re-writing your duel disk system because you missed something!" she argued back at turned her back to him to say that she was done discussing the matter.
"Don't you dare turn your back on me stray! My duel system is flawless and so was my answer on the invasion of Rome!" he shouted, grasping her wrist and turning her back around to face him just as Yugi and the gang reached the bench area.
"Let her go Kaiba. Just because you can't stand someone being better than you is no reason to hurt them" Yugi told him and Kaiba's glare redirected itself to Yugi as Kaiba threw Keri's wrist out of his hand.
"I'm not done with either of you two by a long shot" he said and walked away from them.
"Ra Almighty what the hell is his problem?" Keri muttered as she glared at Kaiba's back before facing the others.
"Kaiba's always been a hot-shot-know-it-all, he can't stand anyone being better than him at anything" Tea answered Keri's semi-rhetorical question.
"So I noticed. It's just gonna get worse tomorrow morning, we have to sit next to each other in first period and we're across from each other during third. Can't wait to see what fifth's gonna be like if we're in that class together too" Keri said, setting her lunch down and rotting around in it for her drink.
"All Kaiba takes are advanced classes though, you must be pretty smart to be in any other class other than homeroom with him" Tristan commented as Keri found her bottle of water at the bottom of the bag.
"I guess, I don't really notice if I am or not, could care less" she said with a shrug as the bell rang.
"We best go before we're all late. It was nice meeting you Keri" Yugi called as he and the others ran off towards the school before they could get detention.
It turned out that Keri was in the same fifth period class as Kaiba and the teacher placed her next to him again, causing her to wonder what she'd done to deserve such a fate. She barely knew Kaiba and yet here he hated her with every fiber of his being.
The bell couldn't have rung sooner and as soon as it did, she was gone. She practically ran through the parking lot towards her car, she had to get as far away from Kaiba as humanly possible. She wouldn't feel safe otherwise. She automatically locked all four car doors before driving away just in case Kaiba caught up with her.
Kaiba…
Immediately after arriving home, Kaiba locked himself inside the room with his super computer. He typed quickly; searching for the information he knew he'd find-Keri's records. What he found made him hate the girl even more and confirmed what he'd called her. She was nothing more than a stray.
"This information will be useful in bringing her down" he said with a smirk, printing off the information, he left to where he knew she'd be.
Domino Museum…
Her hazel orbs stared at the stone carving for the millionth time in the past week since she'd come to Domino. As soon as she'd found her mother and father dead because of her older brother, she'd gone to the only family she had left.
"Are you looking at that carving again cuz?" a voice said from the door way and she spun on her heels to see her youngest cousin.
"Marik, you shouldn't sneak up on people" Keri replied as he came and stood beside her, looking up at the carving for a moment.
Marik and Keri were one month apart in age, Keri being born ahead of Marik and never letting him live it down. Ishizu was next, being four years older than them, then Keri's brother who was a few months ahead of Ishizu. Odion was the oldest but since he was obliged to the family, Ishizu ran the household but let Odion have some freedom as well.
"What do you expect to find by looking at it constantly?" Marik asked as he motioned to it causing Keri to sigh deeply before answering.
"Answers. I want to know why he did what he did" she replied, her eyes lingering on that of the right placed figure depicted on the carving.
"Too bad I'll get my answers before you get yours" a cold voice commented from behind the two, Marik scowling as he recognized the voice without having to look.
"Kaiba, what are you doing here?" Ishizu's voice asked as she entered the room and stood in front of her brother and cousin, Odion not too far behind.
"I could ask the same of the stray but after listening to these two jibber jabber over meaningless stuff combined with what I hacked into, I already have that answer. Question is, how long do you think the charade's going to last?" he sneered, stepping into the room and stopping a few inches away from the four.
"That, Kaiba, is none of your business. None of this is, you had no right to hack into government files just because she knows more history than you do" Marik replied coldly, stepping in front of his cousin and his sister, glaring at Kaiba.
"I make everything about everyone my business, especially stray's with filthy family history and blood" Kaiba retorted, the turned and started walking out of the room while the cousin's glared daggers into his back.
"Kaiba, don't blame me for your past of pain. Both in this life and the past one you lived, Kisara would weep if she were here to see what you've become" Keri's small voice told him just as he reached the door causing him to pause and look over his shoulder at her, her eyes adverted to the floor with sadness reflecting in them.
The Next Day…
It was Tuesday, a day before the middle of the week that seemed to drag on for forever and a day. This week was no different. The teacher's lectures seemed longer but what was most excruciating was sitting beside or near Kaiba and never seeming to be able to leave. She could feel his gaze on her; she figured he was still sour about yesterday's confrontation and what she said before he left.
When the lunch bell rang, she headed to her locker and stashed her books away before heading to the cafeteria, the one place she could always find without getting lost. She just followed the sounds of people suffering. Thirty seconds after opening the door, she heard someone yelling her name, their hand waving in the air to indicate where they were.
"Sure you couldn't have yelled my name loud enough?" she asked sarcastically as she sat down next to Yugi while glaring at Joey.
"I just wanted to make sure ya weren't gonna get lost or somethin'" he answered in his defense as she sighed and stared out the window next to their table. Leaves falling whenever the wind blew in the trees. The world outside seemed to have no worries at all, but she knew differently, knew her brother and his friends were up to something she couldn't stop.
"Keri, why the long face? Sure it's school but why so down?" Tristan asked, breaking her from her reverie back into the harsh cold of reality she wished she could escape from.
"Just pondering life" she replied simply, she didn't need anyone to know more than they really should at that point.
After school…
She decided to walk that day, wanting to escape walls that surrounded her yet she was forever trapped in a web of lies and empty promises. Her brother had promised never to let anything happen to her, he lied. Her parents promised to always be there for her, they lied. Her cousins promised her a better life, so far they lied.
She felt warm tears trail down her lightly tanned cheeks as her thoughts triggered the emotional break in her barrier. She sat down on a hill overlooking the lake where she'd wondered to, not caring that she didn't know the way to her cousins from there. She just wanted to be alone.
Elsewhere…
Concerned eyes looked from the clock to their brother's back to the clock again as they fretted about. Ishizu's cousin had not returned home from school yet and it was well-past eight; no word had been heard from her.
"Sister, shall Odion and I go look for her? Marik asked, trying to keep his sister's worry to a minimum as well as his own. Ever since their cousin had come to live with them, things had become stressful for all. Keri was becoming more and more distant with each passing day, neither knew how to make her happy and now Kaiba intended to destroy her.
"Miss. Ishizu, Master Marik; the Pharaoh and his friends are here to see you" Odion interrupted, moving aside for Yugi and the others to pass by.
"Ishizu, we're not interrupting anything are we?" Tea asked as she looked at the expressions between the siblings.
"Nothing for any of you to worry about Tea, my cousin just forgot to check in with us" Ishizu replied with a bow to Yugi, her brother and Odion leaving silently. From his soul room, Yami seemed to note that things were going on in the Ishtar family that maybe needed to be revealed soon, just not yet.
"Ishizu, do you know anything about Atlantian history?" Tea asked, getting to the heart of the matter at hand. Even though Marik's dark side was gone, she didn't like to linger near him for longer than necessary.
"I'm afraid my knowledge of their history is limited. I only know of a prophecy that ties in with Egypt. It says that if the Atlantian evil were to revive, that only one person could stop it with the Pharaoh's help for they would hold power beyond human comprehension. Even the blue-eyed one pales in comparison to their power. When disaster harms both our worlds, seek the broken one with the crescent moon. That is all I know I'm afraid" she explained, the five of them seeming to awaken as the prophecy ended, it was as though they were seeing it in their minds.
"How do ya suggest we find this 'broken moon' person? I case ya didn't notice, the world's full o' people" Joey commented less then a minute later and Tristan conked him over the head.
"Fortunately, before I lost the ability to see into the past and future events using the Millennium Necklace, I saw the face of who it is that would help you. However, I cannot tell you for undisclosed reasons. I can tell you this though, they are closer to you then you think" she replied, the all knowing smirk on her face and a mischievous glint in her eyes.
No one but her knew what fate had in store for the Pharaoh and his friends, no one but fate.
Kaiba Corp…
Kaiba was debating with himself, he didn't know whether to help find the stray or not. He'd seen Marik out searching; Odion on another side of town was also looking. Smirking to himself he recalled the look in her eyes that morning, fear dwelling within them when she entered the class. He felt no sympathy for the girl, she was in alliance with two evil forces-she could destroy him.
"I don't know who your family is stray, but I will bring you down" Kaiba thought aloud as he tried to get past security codes blocking her family history files.
Museum…
"Sister, we had no luck in finding her" Marik announced as he and Odion entered the Pharaoh's Wing, noting that the Pharaoh and his friends were still there.
"Who are you looking for Ishizu?" Tristan asked, getting a funny feeling that Marik never meant for them to hear what he'd said.
"Please, do not trouble yourselves in our affairs" she answered, not wanting them to worry about someone they'd never met. Her cousin's behavior worried her, she thought for sure Marik could've found her; but then he had been used to having Rare Hunters do his searching for him.
"Come on, we're ya friends! We're always ready to help" Joey persisted to the trio, Ishizu looking away and Marik sighing heavily as he thought of all the times his dark had caused them all a great deal of torment and they still refused to back down until he was defeated.
"Our cousin came to live with us recently since her parent's death and her brother's disappearance. So far she's been having trouble adjusting and now Kaiba's threatening to expose family secrets to other people to degrade her reputation. She was depressed when she went to school this morning, she's yet to come home" Marik told them, not looking at any of them in the face since he felt he was letting Keri down by revealing that much information to the Pharaoh.
"What's your cousin's name; we could help look for her" Yugi offered, a determined look in his eyes, Marik looking up at the sound of his voice, his frown turning into a smirk.
"Don't bother, I'm right here in the doorway" a light voice sounded and all heads turned it the direction of it, Yugi and his friends gasped as their faces lit with shock.
"K…Keri?! You're their cousin?" Tristan exclaimed as she walked into the room, her hair dripping wet from the rain pouring outside, strands clinging to her face as her shoes squeaked when she walked.