Ancient Magics

By Silverdust

Chap 4. Modern Destiny-Homecoming

One heart, one mind

Walking the future, lost in time

In a world, where you don't belong

With tattered memories, and a wordless song

A caring friend, you yearn to find

To replace those you left behind

***

            Sekhmet glanced at the bell tower. "This must be it."

            She scanned the crowds, trying to put up a mental image of Yugi's description of this Kaiba person. Tall, brown hair, blue eyes. She had no idea why he threw in the blue-eyes part. Like she could tell what color a person's eyes were from her vantage point. Kiiraa had fallen asleep, curled around her neck.

            She sighed in frustration. Great Yugi, she thought. You're a nice boy and all, but there are at least fifteen boys here that match the description tall with brown hair!

            She stopped a passing girl. "Excuse me, do you know a Seto Kaiba?"

            "Oh yeah," she said, pointing to the side of the building. "He's right over there."

            "Arigatou," Sekhmet said, relieved. She ran over to figure, leaning against the wall. "Are you Seto Kaiba?"

            "Yes," he said, icily. "Your Yugi's friend, Sekhmet?"

            "Yeah, nice to meet you."

            "Oh no, the pleasure's all mine," he answered sarcastically.

            Sekhmet frowned then rolled her eyes, giving up talking to the solitary figure. Jeez, Yugi should've told me he was an ass.

            "Watch your language," Kiiraa muttered sleepily.

            "Don't go into my head," Sekhmet whispered sharply.

            Kaiba looked at her warily. "Do you hear voices or something?"

            "No," she replied, angrily. He shrugged, then went back to staring into space.

            Fifteen minutes later, which seemed like all to long for Sekhmet, a limo pulled up in front of the school. Kaiba started to walk toward it, motioning for her to follow him. She gaped for a while, before picking up his message. A couple of girls shot her jealous glances. She climbed inside, shutting the door behind her. "Wow, you have a limo!"

            "Right," came the muttered answer.

            She looked over to see Kaiba typing on a small laptop that hadn't been there a couple of minutes ago. She blinked, shrugged, and then went back to staring out the window. They passed through the busy streets of Domino Town fairly quickly. She gazed out of the window in awe at the many accessories of the modern world. They eventually stopped in front of an elementary school. A young boy with long raven-black hair and navy blue eyes ran up to the limo and jumped inside. "Hey Seto!"

            "Hi Mokuba," came the absentminded reply, followed by more typing. (Jeez, you would think he was writing a book…Maybe he is!)

            He turned to Sekhmet. "Hi! Are you Seto's girlfriend?"

            "No!" came the reply from both parties. Kaiba sighed and continued to explain. "This is Sekhmet and she's a friend of Yugi's. She's going to be staying with us temporarily, since she doesn't have enough money for a place of her own."

            "Oh," said Mokuba. "Well hi!"

            Sekhmet smiled. "So what's your name?"

            "I'm Mokuba Kaiba. Seto's my big brother!"

            "Oh, that's nice," she said. She stole another glance at the older boy. He didn't seem like the older brother type to her…Oh well.

            Mokuba chattered to her about school, games, candy, anything he could think on the way to Kaiba's place. Sekhmet listened, fascinated. There were never these many things back in Egypt.

            "Oh, and then you have to blow up the little aliens with your gun, it's really cool-Here's the house!"

            She turned to see, and gasped. It wasn't a house it was a mansion! "Woah…"

            "Oh yeah, big brother owns a company so we live in a mansion and have a swimming pool in the back but it's fall so it's a bit chilly to go swimming, but that's okay because I just play on the arcade in the basement but I have to be really quiet because Seto has his computer room right next to it-"

            Sekhmet was only half aware of what Mokuba was saying. She stared in awe at the huge grounds and the even bigger house. The chauffeur pulled up to the front Kaiba closed the laptop and stepped out followed by Mokuba and last Sekhmet.            She stared at the giant house awhile longer before following the brothers inside.

            She was greeted by a giant entranceway. The marble floors were kept almost spotless, lit by the light coming through the frosted glass windows. Two large, swirling staircases on either side of the room wound their way up to the second floor. Small doorways lined the entrance room, leading into different parts of the house. A house taken directly from Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.

            "Follow me," said Kaiba. Sekhmet snapped out of her amazement and followed the boy up one of the staircases to the second floor. They took several turns down many corridors before reaching a small room tucked into the recesses of the house. He opened the door for her. "This is the guest room."

            It wasn't fabulously decorated, but it wasn't shabby either. It was a simple room with gray tinted walls and ceiling. There was a window with a window seat overlooking the grounds on the right wall. A small  bed was tucked into the corner opposite a black desk with a computer and phone on it. In the other three corners there were lamps on tall posts. On the southern wall there was a closet for clothes, and a small doorway leading to a bathroom. There was also a TV across from the bed, in case of boredom.

            "There," said Kaiba roughly. "Sorry if it isn't appealing. It was made for businessmen. You can do anything you want, I don't have any specific rules except don't go into my room, my lab, and don't touch any of my stuff. Mokuba can explain anything else. If you need to go anywhere just go ask the chauffeur, you might be wanting to get a change of clothes and as school uniform."

            "Can't."

            "You might not have enough money to buy an apartment, but you must have at least enough money for clothes and stuff?"

            "Only enough money to buy a plane ticket. My father paid for tuition ahead of time. I'm not from a generally rich family."

            Kaiba sighed angrily. Taking out his wallet he fished out two-hundred dollars. "Here."

            Sekhmet gasped. "No-I can't possibly-but-"

            "Just take it," he growled. "You can pay me back as soon as you get enough money. Take Mokuba with you. I need to get some work done."

            With that he turned on his heel and walked off. She sighed and walked over to the bed, collapsing onto it. "Everybody seems to be giving me money. Soon I'll have a debt bigger than Horus's ego."

            Kiiraa opened one eye lazily. "Just get a job. Now go get all your stuff. I'll stay here."

            "Fine," Sekhmet said, stretching.

            She walked out the door and through the hallways. She got lost twice before finally getting to the staircase. She slid down the banister. "Mokuba! Your brother wants me to take you shopping!"

            "Oh neat!" came the boy's familiar voice. He skidded into the hallway, evidence of an ice cream caper all over his face. "Can we go to the arcade to?"

            "Sure," she replied. "You can show me those games you were telling me about."

            "All right!" cried the kid and they both ran to the waiting limo.

***

            Sekhmet sipped on a coke while she watched Mokuba ace yet another level of House of the Dead. Personally, the graphics made her sick, but it didn't seem to bother him. She idly swung her shopping bags around and turned around, seeing if there was anything she could play. Nearby, she saw a familiar spiky hairdo. "Yugi!"

            He turned. "Oh hi Sekhmet!"

            "Hey," she said walking over. "What a coincidence."

            "Yeah," he said, smiling. "Pull up a chair. What brings you to the mall?"

            "Oh, had to do some shopping. Besides, Kaiba wanted me to get Mokuba out of the way so he could get some work done."

            "Well that's Kaiba, the work-a-holic. I thought you didn't have any money?"

            "Oh, well I didn't. Kaiba gave me two-hundred bucks so I could buy some clothes and a school uniform."

            "Dang, that's a lot of money. He must have taken a liking to you."

            "No. That's not possible.  So you here all alone?"

            "Nah, I always have at least one friend with me. Joey and Otogi were with me but they went to get something to eat."

            Sekhmet nodded. She glanced at the duel board on the table. "What's this?"

            "You mean you've never seen a Duel Monsters' game before?"

            "No, what is it?"

            Yugi sighed. He fished out a deck of cards and handed them to her. "These are Duel Monsters cards. You use them to play the game."

            Sekhmet shifted through the cards. They looked familiar, like the Shadow Game they played in the Heavens…

            She gasped. This is what the modern day humans had made the Shadow Game into! Maybe she still had her deck with her…

            She put down Yugi deck and fished around in her pockets. "I think I might have played a similar game. Aha!" She produced her deck in triumph, slightly saddened that her loyal monsters had been reduced to a pile of cardboard. "Are these what you're talking about?"

            Yugi nodded. "Yeah! May I?"

            "Sure," she said, handing him her deck. "What do ya' think?"

            Yugi shifted through the cards, regarding them with an expert eye. "Hm, nice cards. Though, I haven't seen some of these cards before…"

            Yeah dumbass! Sekhmet shouted to herself. You shouldn't have given him the complete deck1 You know some of those were custom made!

            "Uh yeah well," she said nervously. "Um, which ones?"

            Yugi laid several cards on the table. She noticed some of them almost instantly. "This is Black Harlequin, sort of like a female counterpart for Saggi the Dark Clown. That's Sorceress of the Dark Arts, almost like Dark Magician. Oh and that's Shadow Eyes Silver Dragon, one of my strongest cards."

            "Yeah I can see why," said Yugi. "3500 power."

            "Oh that's nothing compared to the duels we have back where I come from," Sekhmet said ruefully, remembering Horus's Golden Eye Mercenary, or Isis's Enchanting Assassin.

            "Oh, duels that tough in Egypt?"

            "Some more than others."

            Joey and Otogi made their appearance then. Their arms were loaded with nachos and pizza and soda pop. They both grinned when they saw her. She waved.

            "Hey Sekhmet," Otogi greeted, dumping his load on Joey's and sitting down next to her. "What's up?"

            Joey, staggering under the weight of the snacks, managed to dump the pile on the table and sat down next to Yugi, glaring at Otogi.

            "Nothing much Otogi," Sekhmet laughed. "Just showing Yugi my deck."

            "Oh cool. Can I see?"

            "Of course."

            He looked over her deck and whistled. "Got some pretty rare and powerful cards in here."

            Sekhmet beamed. "I earned every single one."

            "Really? As in you dueled for them?"

            "Yep. Put my heart in that deck."

            "That's the right attitude," said Yugi. "If you trust that much in the cards you could win any duel."

            "It's the way I was taught," she said wistfully. She thought back on those long dueling lessons with Thoth and Anubis, the duels with the gods to achieve her cards, the lessons from Isis where she learned to speak to the cards, and use a portion of her soul to make her own. She sighed.

            Otogi put a hand on her arm. "Homesick?"

            "Yeah."

            "Hey Sekhmet!"

            She turned to see Mokuba, his arms full of prizes, running up to her. "Mokuba! You won all that?"

            "Yeah," said Mokuba, happily, placing the load in one of her empty shopping bags. "I won so many tokens I almost bought up the whole prize booth. Oh, hi Yugi!"

            "Hi Mokuba, how's your brother?"

            "Same as always."

            "Well that's to be expected," muttered Joey. Yugi elbowed him in the ribs. He glowered and set back to muttering. Otogi turned to Mokuba.

            "Don't worry 'bout him. He's just bummed about Mai."

            "Oh yeah," said Mokuba. "The breakup!"

            "Would ya' guys stop talkin' 'bout me like I'm not 'ere!"

            Mokuba ignored him and fished out a small charm bracelet with three charms on it. An ankh, the Eye of Horus and a tiny figure of a woman with wings for arms. "I got this for you, thought it might help you feel less homesick."

            "Aw Mokuba," said Sekhmet, blinking back some tears. "You're sweet."

            She clipped on the bracelet and gathered up her cards. "Well it was nice seeing you again Yugi. But it's getting late, and I should get Mokuba home."

            "Yeah, you're right," said Yugi, grinning. "We'll see you at school tomorrow."

            "Right. Bye."

            She waved and then turned to walk out of the arcade, Mokuba trailing at her heels.

***

            "Um, Mokuba, when should I add the noodles?"

            "When the water gets bubbly.

            "How long should I keep them there?"

"About five minutes."

Sekhmet and Mokuba were in the kitchen trying their hand at making spaghetti. It wasn't going so badly, it was edible at least. Soon the hazardous task was done, and they settled down for a good meal.

After awhile of chewing in silence. Sekhmet spoke up. "Doesn't your brother come eat anything?"

"Nah," said Mokuba, slurping up a noodle. "He's too busy working, he usually grabs something before bed."

"Oh."

"Yeah. It gets lonely sometimes, but Seto runs a business and I know he really needs to do his work. But sometimes I just wish-"

"What Mokuba?"

"That he would be more of a brother, maybe spend a little more time with me. I know it might sound selfish and all but he's the only family I have left, and I think that lately, we've been drifting apart."

He stared down at his plate, chasing meatballs around with his fork. Sekhmet chewed thoughtfully, then swallowed. "Tell ya' what kiddo. I know exactly how you feel, so let's just pretend I'm your older sister, and then you won't be so lonely anymore 'kay?"

Mokuba perked up, smiling brightly. "Cool!"

"Okay, now. Like a good little brother, you have to help with the dishes!"

"Aww, no fair!"

"It's fair! How 'bout, if I beat you at Sonic the Hedgehog, then will you help?"

"Your on!"

***

SilverD: Aww, that was cute. I can't believe I wrote this much! Thanks Yuki-chan for all your nice reviews, love them! I'll try to write Kiiraa in more often. Don't worry, Mai and Joey WILL be back together! Till next time!