The train came to a stop with a soft screeching sound, jerking the passengers forward just slightly with the change in momentum.
"No, no, no, it's pronounced how are you," Anzu said. "Say it with me again. How are you?"
"How are you?" Jonouchi and Honda both stumbled.
Yami no Yugi smiled from the back of Yugi's head, listening to his friends practicing the English words. He stood up as the train started to settle and people started to file into the aisles down towards the doors.
"Well, you're getting the hang of it, at least," Anzu said, standing up too. "It's pretty nice to see you two actually working hard at something for once!"
"Well, you make it make more sense than our teacher does," Jonouchi said. "Thanks for the extra help, Anzu, Bakura."
Anzu blushed a little at the comment, and Ryo smiled and inclined his head slightly.
"You really did make a lot of progress, you two. You'll get the hang of it through using it, it's the best way," Ryo said. "And don't be too worried about making mistakes, all right?"
"Heh," said a darkly bemused voice from behind their seats. "If the deadbeat doesn't make a fool out of himself in less than five minutes, I'll be surprised."
"You pickin' a fight with me, Kaiba?" Jonouchi snapped, whipping around.
Seto just smirked at him and muttered something in French as he stalked past them.
"That wasn't very nice," Ryo said, frowning.
"Just forget about him, man," Honda said, holding Jonouchi's shoulder tightly before the blonde boy launched himself after Kaiba's disappearing frame. "He's really not worth it."
"What'd he say, Bakura? What'd he say? Just because I don't speak a million languages doesn't make me dumber than you!"
"Why did he even come with us?" Yugi wondered aloud. "It's not like he enjoys hanging out with us or anything..."
Anzu shook her head.
"Mokuba forced him into it," she said. "Something about making him take a holiday vacation; although why he came here instead of the billion other places he could afford to go makes no sense to me. He'll be a joy to have around, don't you think?"
"Just wait, I'll pop him one if he gets too irritable,: Jonouchi said, punching his fist.
"Please don't do that," Yugi said.
They moved through the train and out towards the platform.
"So we're going to be staying at a little motel a short drive away from here," Anzu said, looking at a pamphlet. "And –"
"Yami!"
Yugi snapped back into the Puzzle just in time for Yami no Yugi to take on the full force of Mana's tackle hug.
"Gah!"
They both went tumbling down into the snow.
"You're back! You're back! You're back!" Mana squealed. "Oh! Right!"
She popped back up off of him and fished around in her pocket.
"Here!" she said, thrusting the Dark Magician Girl card at him. "You came back! So I don't need to hold this over you anymore!"
"Could you maybe let me get up before you give it back?" Yami no yugi said, laughing.
"Oh! Right!"
Her tan skin darkened to a brown with her blush, and she hopped back to her feet, extending a hand to help him up. Grinning, he took her hand and got back up. Then he took the Dark Magician Girl back and slipped it into his deck box.
"Wow!" Jonouchi said, grinning widely. "That was quite the greeting. You're a smooth one, Yami."
He winked as he used Yami no Yugi's fake name, and Yami no Yugi felt a slight blush growing on his cheeks that had nothing to do with the cold.
"Hey!" Jonouchi said to Mana, his English actually sounding pretty good. "I'm Jonouchi Katsuya. So you're Mana, huh? We've heard a lot about you."
"Oh, I hope they were good things," Mana said, giggling. "I've heard a lot about you all, too! I'm so excited to finally meet you!"
"We've all been pretty excited, too," Anzu said. "I'm Mazaki Anzu. And this is Honda Hiroto, and Bakura Ryo."
"I'm super pleased to meet all of you!" Mana said. "I'm Mana Raful. I can't wait to spend Christmas getting to know everyone!"
"Oh, right," Jonouchi said. "And that sourpuss over there trying to avoid us is Kaiba Seto. Oi! Kaiba! Ya gonna join us or are ya gonna spend the whole time pretending ya don't know us?"
"Probably the latter," Seto said dryly, although he had remained standing close enough to be paying attention to the goings on.
"Is everyone else here?" Yami no Yugi asked.
"Oh, yeah! They went into the station to get some coffee. Oh! Here they come now!"
She waved with both arms at the four teens headed out of the station. Dawn waved excitedly back with both of her arms too. Cadence had to quickly grab her arm before she lost the lid on her coffee and sent it flying everywhere.
"Yami!" Dawn said.
She threw her arms around his neck for a tight hug and then bounced back.
"Ah!" she said. "These must be your friends!"
Yami no Yugi repeated introductions for each of his friends, who each nodded or said hello in return.
"I'm Dawn Marisa Grey!" Dawn said, still bouncing on her heels. "I hope we can all be friends!"
"I'm Dominic McGuire, and this is Kisara," Dominic said, pulling the shy Kisara over. "I hope the same!"
"Oh, and this is Cadence! Cadence Mulloy," Dawn said, grabbing Cadence's arm and hugging it.
Cadence had a sour expression to rival Seto's. Her gray eyes flicked to Yami no Yugi, and there was actual rage reflected there for a second before she looked away again. Yami no Yugi felt his smile slip slightly.
But he couldn't help but smile when Mana gave him another tackle hug that almost sent them to the ground again.
"This is great! This is going to be so much fun!" she said. "What do you guys want to do first?"
"They probably have to check into their motel," Cadence said, a slight frostiness to her tone.
"Ah! You're right!" Anzu said, checking her watch. "Do you know how far the motel is?"
"Oh, it's actually just a ten minute walk from here," Mana said. "And from there its easy to walk into town!"
"Yeah, we can go Cherry Bites from there," Dawn said.
"What's that? A cafe?" Ryo asked.
"It's the best one in town," Dominic said.
"Okay, we'll go to the motel first, then," Anzu said, nodding. "And the cafe sounds nice."
"Awesome!" Mana said. "This is going to be so much fun!"
The group got itself together and started off from the platform. There were a few bumps and jostles and squeaks of sorrys as they figured out what kind of spacing they were going to need with a group this big.
"Oh, sorry," Kisara mumbled as she accidentally bumped into Seto's shoulder.
He just kind of glanced at her and made a noncommittal grunt. Yami no Yugi frowned. He was about to tell Seto to be a little more gentle with her considering her position, and then he saw something quite odd.
Seto Kaiba did a double take.
His blue eyes passed over Kisara's face a second and third time. His mouth half opened. Then he closed it, turned around, and walked away with the rest of the group with his hands shoved in the pockets of his long black winter coat.
Kisara didn't move for a second. Her mouth was half opened, too, as though she had been about to say something but nothing had come out. One hand hovered halfway up as though about to reach for something, and her deep blue eyes stared at nothing.
Yami no Yugi paused, most of the group already ahead of them.
"Kisara?" he said softly.
She snapped out of her daze.
"Oh," she said. "Sorry. I spaced out."
"Are you..."
"I'm fine! Sorry! I've been doing that a lot more lately – anyway, let's catch up!"
She hurried past him. Her face was a bright red.
Yami no Yugi hesitated a moment longer, watching her run to catch up, watching the back of Seto's head.
What had...he just seen?
. . .
The walk from the motel to the cafe was almost spent in awkward silence.
Almost, except Dawn was in the group.
"Hi, Anzu-san!" she said, bouncing over to her. "I heard from Yami that you like to dance! Have you ever tried ballroom before?"
"Oh, no, I haven't," Anzu said. "I've always wanted to try, though. It looks really beautiful."
"It's a lot of fun!" Mana said, jumping in. "I've been doing it with Dawn and Dominic and Cadence for about a year now."
"Oh, wow," Anzu said, smiling with interest.
"You should come to one of our club meetings while you're here," Dawn said.
"That would be great!" Anzu said.
"What kinds of dancing do you do?" Mana asked.
"Mostly hip-hop...I've tried my hand at copying some moves from Broadway productions I watch online."
"Ooooh!" Mana said, brightening. "Have you ever seen Footloose? It's the only thing I've ever seen on stage!"
Anzu's whole face lit up.
"That's my favorite!" she said. "I've watched it online five or six times – I keep hoping it will come to the opera house in town someday."
They continued to chatter excitedly about shows and dancing as Dawn hopped back to the middle of the group where most of the boys were walking.
"Hey, so Dom, how's your collection going?" she said.
"Which one?" Dominic said immediately.
How many does he have...? Yami no Yugi thought.
"The one with the little toy motorcycles."
"They're not toys! They are accurate scale replicas of motorcycle models," Dominic said, sounding offended.
"You collect motorcycle replicas?" Honda said. "Which companies?"
Dominic looked surprised at the interest.
"Oh, I haven't been collecting for long, but I have some Günthermann, Lehmann..."
Honda smiled widely.
"I've been trying to complete a collection of Günthermann models for ages! What's your favorite model?"
"Oh, well it would have to be..."
Smiling mischievously, Dawn bounced backwards again and found herself in between Kisara and Ryo.
"Hi, Bakura-san!" she said. "So, I've heard from Yami-san that you like playing Monster World and stuff. What else do you like to do?"
"Oh? Well, besides Monster World...I do read quite a bit."
Kisara perked up.
"What do you like to read?" she asked shyly.
"A variety of things," Ryo said, rubbing the back of his neck. "I just finished one about the occult..."
He looked a little bit embarrassed about it, but Kisara picked up on that quickly.
"I've spent a lot of time at the library lately," she said. "I read a book about hauntings yesterday – it was really fascinating!"
"Oh, you like that kind of thing?" Ryo said, looking surprised. "I mean, you're not freaked out?"
"It's cool," she said. "I like ghosts. I wish I could meet one."
Ryo blinked. Then he smiled.
"Oh, well have you read any by..."
Dawn grinned again and hopped over to where Yami no Yugi was walking.
"You're kind of incredible," Yami no Yugi said. "How do you do that?"
Dawn winked at him and patted the deck box attached to his belt.
"I've spent enough time around you all to know what you're into, and what you'd share with everyone," she said, grinning. "Excuse me while I turn Dom and Honda's conversation to something that Jonouchi gets involved in."
"What about Kaiba and Cadence?"
"They can just be sourpusses together."
She danced off to drop some leads into Dominic and Honda's conversation that turned their talk to shoe brands, which Jonouchi eagerly joined in on. Yami no Yugi tried to smother his smile, but it was hard.
Everyone was really getting along. This was great.
Or so he thought until Cadence suddenly appeared beside him, her black dress swooshing around her feet. His smile faded.
"What?" he said.
"Why did you come back?" she said under her breath.
"Because I'm friend with Mana," Yami no Yugi said. "And I promised her."
Cadence almost looked resigned.
"Let's make one thing clear," she said. "I wish you had never come here. I wish Mana had never known that you existed."
Yami no Yugi's lips pressed together.
"But it's too late now," Cadence said, and her dark eyes were strained.
She turned to look him right in the eyes.
"And I hope you're willing to face the consequences of meeting her."
She stalked ahead of him. Yami no Yugi picked up the pace to catch up with her.
"What do you mean, the consequences?" he said. "Cadence, if there is something wrong here, I want to know."
"There's no point in telling you," Cadence said.
"Cadence –"
Cadence snapped towards him. Her eyes were so full of fury that he almost took a step back.
"I hate you," she muttered. "I hate you. Why did it have to be you? Why? Why did you even have to come here? You're ruining everything."
"If I knew what this 'everything' was –"
"It wouldn't make a difference if you did," she said venomously.
"What did I do to deserve your hatred?"
Cadence glared at him.
"You exist."
They had reached the cafe.
"Yu – Yami?" Anzu said, glancing over at them. "Is something wrong?"
Her eyes narrowed slightly to see the glares that Yami no Yugi and Cadence were exchanging. Yami no Yugi broke off the gaze.
"It's nothing," he said. "Don't mind us, Anzu."
She didn't look convinced, but left off. She did give Cadence a suspicious glance as they poured into the cafe.
Kiera, Mana's foster sister, was working here again. She grinned, although her eyes widened at everyone piling in.
"Wow! Big crowd for me today!" she said. "What can I get for all of you?"
Anzu fell into her role of helping Jonouchi and Honda translate the menu, while the others went up, made their orders and headed for a back corner.
Yami no Yugi followed Dominic to the back where they started shifting some tables around to make enough room for everyone. There was no one else in the cafe, so they didn't tone down their chatter or laughter at all.
"Oooh, yeah! I did see Chicago. That was amazing!"
"Lucky! I wanted to go, but I didn't have enough money for a ticket and then they ran out!"
"So yeah, I'm thinking about getting a Kawasaki, but I dunno about the gears..."
"I've always liked Sherco trial bikes myself..."
"You don't watch any baseball? Come on, man, baseball is the best..."
"Not a chance, football is so much better."
"I haven't read anything of Hemingway's yet...or at least, I don't think I have..."
"I personally don't recommend him, to be honest; I prefer Fitzgerald..."
Chatter continued as everyone pushed around the table. Yami no Yugi ended up sitting across from Mana, with an irritable Seto to his left. Yami no Yugi wondered how he had even ended up joining them here – he had seemed to be making to go elsewhere. Anzu's wicked grin in their direction told Yami no Yugi that she was the one to blame for Seto's forced participation in the group. He wondered how she had managed to drag him here, and if Mokuba had asked her do it. He shook his head, smiling as he sipped at his hot cocoa.
"Budge up a bit, there, would you, Yami?" Dominic said, squeezing into the seat on his other side with a plate of food. He turned his attention back to Honda and Jonouchi, who were getting into the seats across. "So wait, you two blokes have never been to a football game before? What is wrong with you?"
"You're the one who's never been to a baseball game," Jonouchi said. "So what is this again, Anzu?"
"It's just fried fish and potatoes," Anzu said, breaking off in the middle of her conversation with Dawn about musicals. "You'll like it, trust me."
"And you've never had fish and chips before?" Dominic said, sounding horrified. "Blimey, we're going to have to get you two straightened out."
"Oi, I'll bet you've never had really good curry before, so there," Jonouchi said. "Huh, this is pretty good!"
Mana leaned over the table towards Yami no Yugi.
"Dom's pretty happy to have some guys in the group for once," she said.
"I can tell," Yami no Yugi said. "What are you eating?"
"I got a strawberry tart – what did you get?"
"I'm trying one of those mini pies," he said. "I think it's raspberry."
"Oh, sounds yummy!"
"Want to try a bite?"
"Sure!"
He broke off a piece and handed it to her. She closed her eyes, making a delighted humming sound.
"Oh, it is good!" she said. "I love raspberries. Wanna try a bite of mine?"
Without waiting for an answer, she broke off a piece of her tart and put it in his hand. He grinned and tried it. It was delicious – not that he had thought it would be any different.
"This is so much fun!" Mana said. "I've never been in a group this big – there's so much energy!"
"There certainly is," Yami no Yugi said. "I wonder if we'll be sick of each other by the end of it?"
"No way!"
She glanced over at Anzu as the topic of cooking was brought up, and was drawn into a conversation about pastry baking, although she insisted that she was a terrible cook and burned everything she made.
"You seem to be enjoying yourself," Seto said.
Yami no Yugi sent him a sidelong glance.
"And you seem to not be enjoying yourself."
Seto grunted. He had only a mug of coffee, and he hadn't put anything in it. No wonder he looked so sour – Yami no Yugi hated black coffee.
"You know, there's a thing called socializing," Yami no Yugi said. "You might want to give it a try."
Seto grunted again.
"What's the point of that? There's nothing to be gained from something as pointless as this."
"With an attitude like that, you'll never have any fun at all."
Seto glowered at him. He took a sip of his coffee.
"I've never seen you out for so long before," he said. "The back Yugi. I thought you only came out when things were stressful, or when you were playing a game."
Yami no Yugi shrugged.
"I can come out whenever I want to, and whenever Yugi wants to switch."
Seto snorted softly, and Yami no Yugi was reminded that Seto seemed to think that both Yami no Yugi and Yugi were simply faces of a dissociative personality disorder. This man. Yami no Yugi didn't know what to do with him – he could smack him in the face with a unicorn and he would still refuse to believe in the supernatural.
"Mokuba wanted you to go on this so that you could relax," Yami no Yugi pointed out.
Seto's lips pressed together, and Yami no Yugi thought he knew what he was thinking. If Mokuba wanted me to relax, he wouldn't have forced me to go out with the geek squad.
"Umm...excuse me?"
The boys glanced up. Kisara was looking across at Seto, across the table and a seat down from him.
"Sorry," she said quietly. "But the salt shaker...could you pass it to me?"
Seto blinked at her for a minute. Then he took the shaker and slid it down to her. Kisara mumbled a thank you before adding the salt to her dish. She took a small bite. Then she glanced up at Seto and swallowed again.
"Umm..." she said.
"What?" Seto snapped. "Spit it out."
Kisara flushed.
"I was just...wondering...if you liked to read too..." she said. "I saw you looking over here...when Bakura and I were talking...so..."
Seto stared at her for so long that Yami no Yugi felt like slapping him.
"They're called words," he hissed at Seto. "Use them."
Seto shot Yami no Yugi a furious glare. But he wiped that away before he looked at Kisara again.
"I guess," he said, shrugging. "Don't have much time to read, though."
"Oh."
Kisara looked a little disappointed that the conversation wasn't going anywhere.
"Um, so what do you do with your time?"
"He's a workaholic!" Jonouchi shouted across the table.
"Shut up, deadbeat!" Seto snapped back.
Jonouchi stuck his tongue out at Seto and turned back to his own conversation. Seto glowered at the side of Jonouchi's head for a moment before he glanced back at Kisara. She ducked her head a bit.
"So...you work? Where?"
Seto seemed to hesitate.
"Kaiba Corporation," he muttered. "I'm the CEO. That's all I have time for. Until my brother sends me on forced vacations."
Kisara looked up with surprise.
"You run a company? But you're...you're not older than me, are you...?"
"Well, how old are you?"
She blinked. Then she looked down at her lap, brow furrowing.
"I'm...seventeen?"
"You mean you don't know?"
"Kisara has amnesia," Dawn piped up. "We're trying to figure out where she came from – until then, she's hanging out with us!"
Kisara flushed a deep red.
"You didn't...have to tell him..."
But Seto blinked, and seemed to...soften? Just a tiny bit? Yami no Yugi wasn't sure.
"...I'm seventeen," he said, as though the revelation of her amnesia had never happened. "Same as you. Yeah, I already run a company. No, it's not that much fun."
Kisara looked up from under her bangs, still blushing a bit. But she was smiling – gratefully, perhaps? That he hadn't made a big deal of her amnesia?
Yami no Yugi smiled to himself.
"So he can be a nice guy after all," Yugi said.
"Seems so," Yami no Yugi said.
Mana leaned over the table again, cupping a hand around her mouth to whisper.
"Someone has a crush on Kaiba," she whispered.
Yami no Yugi blinked and leaned towards her.
"What? Who?"
"Oh, you silly! Kisara of course! Look at how shy she is!"
"She's always shy...besides, they've only just met. How can she have a crush on him already?"
Mana sighed dramatically.
"Boys would never understand," she said.
And then she, too flushed a deeper tan, and popped quickly into Jonouchi, Honda, and Dominic's conversation.
Confused, Yami no Yugi sat back in his chair and returned to finishing his pie. It was then that he realized that he had to use the bathroom. He excused himself and pushed away from the table, picking his way around their messy collection of tables and chairs and people so he could get to the back of the restaurant. Kiera grinned at him as he passed.
"You guys are a rowdy bunch," she said. "You're lucky there aren't any other customers."
"Sorry about that," Yami no Yugi said.
She just laughed and waved him off. Smiling slightly, he hurried on his way to the bathroom.
As he was walking out, he heard a foot squeaking in the girl's bathroom.
"Here to give me another lecture?"
"You went overboard last night, and even you know it! You know that's not the way to deal with them!"
"How do you wantme to deal with them? Shower them with flowers and send them on their merry way?"
That sounded like Cadence and Dawn. What were they talking about?
Yami no Yugi shifted on his feet, uncertain of whether he should be eavesdropping like this.
"You almost killed her."
"She's fine."
"No, you don't get it. The way you treat those things is the way you treat them. That's why we have to purify, not destroy!"
"I know what I'm doing, Dawn!"
"I don't think you do! If you had gone any farther last night, Kisara would be dead!"
Yami no Yugi sucked in a breath.
What?
"Purifying the things only lets them come back – do you want other people to get hurt? None of them asked to be in the middle of this."
"And you are perfectly aware of what happens when you destroy them!"
"We have different approaches. You don't know anything for sure."
"I know things better than you do."
"Stop it! You don't understand! I'm not letting her go, do you understand me? I'm not letting her go – "
SLAP!
Yami no Yugi flinched at the sound.
"...that's not your decision to make."
Yami no Yugi took a half step forward – did he need to intervene? What was going on between those two?
CRASH!
The sound of a chair crashing to the floor drew his attention with a snap to the front of the room.
"You – you don't know anything, Seto Kaiba! You don't know anything!"
Yami no Yugi was only halfway to the front of the restaurant before he saw Kisara whipping towards the door and fleeing out into the cold without her coat.
"Kisara!"
"Kisara!"
"The hell did you do to her, Kaiba?"
"What happened?"
"Kisara, wait!"
Yami no Yugi rushed the rest of the way to the group. He could hear the footsteps of Dawn and Cadence across the tile floor behind him.
"What's going on? What happened?"
"She ran without her coat!" Mana said, gathering up Kisara's big blue coat. "It's getting dark out there! She'll freeze!"
"Mana, Mana, calm down," Yami no Yugi said, putting his hands on her shoulders. She was trembling so badly that she was going to fall apart, and her eyes were wide. "What happened? Why did Kisara run away?"
"I missed most of it," Anzu admitted. "But Kaiba started arguing with her as we were cleaning up and getting ready to go once you all got back..."
"Seriously, what the hell did you say to her, Kaiba?" Jonouchi said, eyes narrow.
"What kind of guy makes a girl cry like that?" Honda said.
"Shut up! Both of you!" Kaiba snapped. "I didn't do a damn thing; she just – forget it!"
He snatched up his coat and stormed out into the dark.
"Oi! Get back here, you lousy piece of –" Jonouchi said, starting after him.
"Jonouchi, please, calm down, we need to figure out what happened," Yami no Yugi said.
Jonouchi's jaw tightened, but he stopped. He folded his arms tightly, looking a bit flushed.
"Okay," Yami no Yugi said. "Obviously...maybe Kisara needs a few minutes. I'm sure she'll be back for her coat. She knows where we are."
Mana looked on the verge of tears.
"Everything was going so well," she mumbled. "Everything was going so well."
"It's not your fault, Mana," Yami no Yugi said, squeezing her shoulders. "Sometimes things...just snowball."
He glanced around the ground.
"Well...did anyone hear what happened between them?"
Ryo looked up, hesitant.
"I missed most of it, but...I think they got on the topic of a book she had read recently, a fantasy...? Anyway, I think somehow they started talking about the supernatural, and it was making Seto irritated...and then I didn't see what happened, but Kisara was trying to give Seto something he dropped while we were getting up and getting ready to go? And then I don't know, he snapped at her, and Kisara was running away."
That didn't clear things up much at all, but perhaps it didn't really matter. Yami no Yugi heaved a sigh.
"Okay. Let's just...wait for a few minutes. She'll probably come back, right?"
Everyone mumbled some yeses and uh-huhs.
"Don't worry," Yami no Yugi whispered to Mana. "It will work out."
Mana swallowed. She kept hugging Kisara's coat, and leaned into Yami no Yugi's chest.
"I hope so," she muttered.
. . .
The time stretched on. Twenty minutes. Thirty minutes. An hour.
"It's full dark," Dawn said, looking worried.
"Enough waiting," Jonouchi said. "We need to go make sure she's okay."
Even Cadence nodded.
"Okay!" Dawn said, taking charge. "Everybody from Domino City, please team up with someone from Risgate who knows the area. We'll spread out."
"There's an uneven number," Yami no Yugi said.
"We can make a group of three..."
"No need," Yami no Yugi said. "I think I know the place well enough. It's better with more groups, right? I'll go by myself."
Dawn nodded.
"If you're okay with it."
He nodded.
It was cold tonight. And the snow was starting to fall.
. . .
A/N: I know it's been forever since I said I would update. Life happens, I guess. Hope this extra long chapter is enough for you! Kisara's portion of the story will take up the focus for a chapter or two. Hope you're ready for it! An acacia flower means "concealed love"
Next time: The Runaway and the Dragon's Jonquil