"The Rose Duelist"
A Yu-gi-oh Fanfic
By: Seto's Princess
Disclaimer – I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh… I simply own Maki and Mr. and Mrs. Kaichi.
Thank you guys so much for the reviews! I felt sorry for Maki too… But hey, you can't call her a Mary Sue now, can you? Nope nope nope…
Chapter 10 – Help and Insecurities…
"Maki, are you sure you're alright?" Tea asked.
Maki was still deep ion thought. That is, until she noticed Tristan and Ryou. They were not with Yugi and the others the last time she saw them.
"Hey, aren't you Tristan Taylor?" Maki asked, ignoring Tea's question.
"Uh… Yeah," Tristan replied.
"I thought so. I believe you're Ryou Bakura?" Maki asked Ryou.
Ryou nodded and shook her hand.
"Boy, Maki. You know them, too?" Yugi asked.
"Yeah, sort of," Maki replied.
"How? I don't remember ever meeting you before," Tristan stated.
"Well, I uh… I just know these things," Maki said and her gaze wandered around.
Duke stared at her intently. 'Hey, she's pretty cute…' Duke thought.
"Do you know who I am?" asked Duke.
"Uh, no," Maki replied.
"What?" he asked as he fell, anime-style. Everyone laughed, with the exception of Maki and her parents. They did not understand.
"This is-" Tea began but Duke interrupted her.
"I'm Duke Devlin. Nice to meet you, beautiful," he said as he winked at Maki.
"Um… hi. I'm Maki Kaichi," she said.
"Well, it's nice to meet you Maki," Ryou said as he smiled.
"Same here," added Tristan. 'Hmm… Duke seems to like her. I hope this means he's going to leave Serenity to me!'
"Well, we'd better get going," Maki said, trying to get away from the large group of Yugi and his friends.
"Why are you leaving so soon, Maki?" Serenity asked.
"Well, err…"
"Hey, you kids wouldn't happen to know if there are any houses for sale in this city, would you?" Mr. Kaichi asked.
"Not really, but we could help you look if you'd like," Tea suggested.
"Thank you. We would really appreciate that," Mrs. Kaichi said.
'What? No! I don't want them to help… Do my parents really think they're my friends?' Maki thought.
"Alright then, you guys up for helping Maki and her parents?" Tea asked the gang.
"Sure! Joey and I will help," replied Serenity.
"Count me in," added Tristan.
"We'll all help you, Maki," Yugi said.
Mai immediately took charge. "Okay, then, let's split up. Yugi and Tea, you guys search that way; Serenity and Joey, you search that way; Tristan, Duke and Ryou, you search that way, and I'll search that way with Maki and her parents," Mai said as she pointed out the four different directions.
'Wait! Don't I get a say in this? I don't need any help! I don't want any help! I can search on my own! Why do they keep trying to be my friends?' Maki thought.
"Well, let's go Maki," Mrs. Kaichi said and put her arm around Maki's shoulder.
"Huh? Oh… Sure…" Maki said and followed reluctantly.
They all split up and went their separate ways. Duke of course, took one last look at Maki before he followed Tristan and Ryou. The Kaichis left the car where it was and followed Mai.
'Wow… I can't believe Maki has so many friends. I never thought I'd see the day when she would even have one friend, let alone eight or nine,' thought Mrs. Kaichi. Boy is she seriously wrong.
'Why are they helping me? Do they really want to be my friends? But I- NO! I can't let that happen. I can't have friends. I can't. I can't trust anyone. The only person I can trust is myself. I've learned my lesson. Twice…' Maki thought.
"May I ask what your job is, Mr. Kaichi," Mai asked.
"I'm a computer technician," he replied.
"Then I'm sure you can find a job here easily," Mai said. "As you can see, Domino is a very big city with many job opportunities."
"Do you like living in Domino, Mai?" Mrs. Kaichi asked.
"Yes. There are many things to see. I'm sure you will enjoy living here, Mrs. Kaichi." Mai looked over at Maki. She had taken the white rose out of her hair and was now fidgeting with it. She touched it ever so gently. Her mind was in another place; she looked like a walking zombie.
"Maki, girl, are you okay? You've been carrying that rose with you everywhere and now you're staring at it as if your life depended on it," Mai said.
"What? Oh, I uh…" Maki faked a laugh and immediately turned to stare at the ground. "I'm fine," she said and gently put the white rose back in her hair.
'Hmm… She doesn't seem fine to me,' Mai thought. 'She always seems to be thinking. I wonder what could've happened to her to make her like this. I've only just met her, but I've never known anyone who is as spaced out as she is. Not only that, she always looks so sad, as if she's been seriously hurt emotionally. I barely know her, but I feel sorry for her. She reminds me of how lonely I used to be.'
After a while, they reached a tremendous mansion behind beautiful silver gates. It was unlike anything Maki had ever seen before. It surely was a lot bigger than the Valentine estate.
Mrs. Kaichi gasped at the sight. "Wow! What a beautiful mansion! I wonder who it belongs to."
Maki had not been paying attention, so she looked up when her mother gasped. Maki's eyes widened and she gasped as well. 'Wow… It's almost as amazing as the castle in England…' Maki thought and sighed.
"That's Kaiba's place," Mai said. "Come on let's go."
They started to walk away to continue searching for any homes on sale. Well, at least Mai, Mr. Kaichi and Mrs. Kaichi did. Maki was still standing in front of the gates to the Kaiba mansion. She just could not take her eyes off it.
"Hmm? Maki?" Mrs. Kaichi asked and looked back at her daughter.
"Come on Maki, we have to go," Mr. Kaichi said.
"What? Oh, sorry… Coming," Maki said and followed them.
"Maki! Wait!" someone shouted from behind them.
TBC…
So… Who called out Maki's name? Find out on the next chapter of "The Rose Duelist"! Please Review! I love getting reviews. They give me motivation. By the way, I posted my pictures of Maki. I have two pictures up so far. I'm going to try to work on more. Anyway, the links for the pictures are in my profile where Maki's bio is...