Attara: Welcome back to my fic!

Aria: Hi everybody!

Attara: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh! Last time we left off where Aria was stupid enough to stay twenty kilometers away from the barriers of a dimension. This time, the story will not be in Aria's point of view, it will be Liana's, who is a person involved with the story (obviously).

Invigoration

My name is Liana. Don't ask me what my last name is since I don't know it myself. My earliest memory of life started when I saw a woman…my mother, I think. But I did not see a father until I was much more mature. But it wasn't as if he ran away from his responsibilities. He was my uncle. He was my father figure. But I'm disposing of more information than needed now.

The first memory of her was when we were riding in a car. That was also my last memory. I remember vaguely a speeding driver who crashed into our vehicle. I felt pain and I looked over to my mother in front to see her. I shook her.

"Mommy!" I called.

She didn't answer. I was too young to understand what had happened. I saw people rushing over and taking me out of the car. I didn't want to go anywhere without my mother. I felt a blow to my head.

My eyes opened to see a man with a worried look on his face. What did I do wrong? His stare was as austere as humanly possible. The man was middle-aged and seemed to be well off in life. I looked around and saw a place I had never seen before. It was huge. I had obscure memories of life with my mother and that we lived in a tiny apartment in the city of Tokyo. Now, I didn't know where I was.

The man handed me some clothing.

"Did you start school yet?" he asked me in a gruff voice.

"I'm in pre-school." I whispered.

"You'll have none of that public school nonsense here! You will be tutored by a professor and you will work hard everyday."

He didn't even give me a chance to answer as he quickly walked away. Everything about him was frightening. I couldn't talk in a normal voice around him. It would always come out too low or whispered. He gave me the creeps. I learned to call him Uncle since he was my mother's brother, as I learned later.

That day, I found another stern-looking man in the mansion. He carried a lot of books under his arms and kept a scowl on his face. If it was possible, this guy was creepier than the last one.

"Today, we're going to learn how to add and subtract." He ordered.

I was only in pre-school! Even kindergartners didn't learn that yet! But I think it would be too horrible to face him if I defied his orders, so I just listened to him drone on and on about the numbers and what they mean. I think I did pretty well for the first day of pure suffering. I learned how to add double digits already! I had thought that after understanding that much information, the day would be over, but that was completely miscalculated. Then, I had to learn some vocabulary words in reading and discuss the various aspects of certain rhymes and stories. I think he was starting to forget I was a four-year old child who did not understand the extensive statements he spoke as he interpreted the details of "Mary Had a Little Lamb" into his own rendering. I listened to him discuss the stupid rhyme as symbols of various tests of life, one of them was that the lamb symbolized the student, and Mary as the teacher. Maybe he was attempting to make me become Mary. In one day I achieved the ability to consider minuscule details as the embodiment of a larger idea. For me, that was an excellent triumph, but for the rest of my life, he pushed me so much harder than that first day.

My uncle was a very mysterious man. He would talk very little in social groups, but he constantly made speeches in front of his employees in his company. I'm not too sure what he manufactured, but I think it was pretty successful considering how much money he obtained.

I was about fourteen years old when I began to know my uncle. Usually, the servants would do all the work, and the tutor took the rest of my time, so we rarely saw each other. I found him in the library one day. He seemed to just be staring into the fireplace. I would do that often, but only when the fire was lit. This time, it was not.

"Uncle?" I called.

"Yes, Liana?"

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing."

"You can tell me."

After all of these years, I grew less and less afraid of him. I even became bold enough to question his life, not that the questions were answered.

"I am ill." He said bitterly.

"With what?"

"Cancer."

A single tear rolled down his face.

"Are you apprehensive of death?" I asked.

"No, Liana."

"Are you apprehensive of the pain?"

"No."

"Then what's so contrite for this disease?"

"You."

I didn't know he cared! After all these years, I had always assumed he hated me and thought of me as a burden he had to carry just because his sister was my mother.

"You can't live alone. I have no relatives to leave you with." He reflected out loud.

"I can live by myself!" I volunteered.

"By yourself? That's a bit hazardous for a young girl whose worth is a couple hundred million dollars."

"I can live by myself."

"No, you must have a guardian, or someone to watch you."

"The servants?"

"Someone who is not on our payroll."

"Everyone is."

"Ah-ha! Gozaburo Kaiba can be your guardian! But he already has adopted two sons…"

"What about my fish?"

"Nonsense! I am preparing to marry you to one of his sons."

"I'd prefer the fish…"

"If my memory serves me correctly, I believe that Seto Kaiba is the elder son."

"Eldest is the best…"

"You will marry Seto Kaiba."

"Convincing him is the hard part."

"Yes, but you are a very persuasive young lady, Liana." He winked at me.

Funny how life seems to plan itself out, or actually, your uncle does it for you. I didn't really mind. It wasn't as if I was planning to marry someone any time soon. Besides, my uncle said that I could divorce Seto the moment I was able to live for myself. I didn't care.

My uncle became weaker and weaker. The strong man that I had once seen had become that feeble man who could not leave the bed. But I was a good niece and sat beside him everyday for at least three hours for the rest of his tormented life. On the last day, he reminded me of the promise I made. It was as if he knew it was his final moment in this world. I'm pretty sure that he died in his sleep since his face did not seem as if it were in convulsions seconds before he died, and I'm glad for that. But this was also the time I was dreading. Now I had to go marry some stranger when I was merely fifteen years old. Life's obstacles are extraordinarily troublesome.

Attara: How was that?

Aria: Interesting.

Attara: Of course! Why wouldn't it be?

Aria: Uh…yeah…

Attara: Well…?

Aria: Oh yeah, don't forget to review!