Promises and Tears

"Hey, where'd that girl go?" Said Tristan, looking around questioningly. The four friends had been sitting on the deck for the last half hour talking, it seemed that no one had noticed the girl's disappearance till now. "What girl?" asked Joey, he seemed not to have noticed Kyrii when he was being pulled out off the ladder. Tristan looked at Yugi, expecting him to know, but even Yugi had a puzzled look on his face. Maybe he hadn't felt Kyrii lift him off the ladder either. Before Tristan had a chance to say anything, Tea filled in for him; "there was a girl, she came out of the shadows and helped us find the emergency line we used to rescue you guys." "Hmmm," Yugi seemed to be lost in thought for a few minutes, enough to get Joey impatient. "Hey Yug? What's eating ya man?" When Yugi didn't respond, Joey began to wave his hand violently in front of his face "Earth to Yugi! Come in Yugi!" Yugi ignored him, and turned to face Tea " what did the girl look like?" "Well, um, she was really tall, she had long brown hair, and um, I think she was wear a blue cloak, but it was hard to tell in the dark." Yugi was opening his mouth to respond, but Joey answered for him, "it's Kyrii!"

"Kyrii?" Tea and Tristan repeated quizzically "Yeah," Joey said "she's the girl Yugi and I met today. Weevil and Syro say she's an untrustworthy thief and I believed it too, but now that she helped out and all, maybe she ain't so bad." "Yes," Yugi agreed, "she defiantly proved herself an honest person. She saved our lives," Yugi nodded at Joey "and for that we at least owe her our trust." "So then why isn't she here to take credit for what she did?" Tristan wondered. "Maybe it's cause she's a spy!" Joey interjected, face lighting up at his joke "yeah, she works for Pegasus see, and" Joey went on into a long tale with many false evidences about Kyrii being what Joey called a Shadow Spy.' It got the others laughing, but they wouldn't have been if they knew how close to the mark Joey had been. For, at that moment, Kyrii did spy sometimes, but not on them

*

Kyrii crept through the shadows making no noise except for the almost inaudible swishing of her cloak. She wouldn't go back to her room just yet, she felt that if she did she would miss something important, and she couldn't afford to miss anything important, not anymore. One thing was for certain, though; she would not go back to the deck where Yugi, Joey, and their friends were. It was too risky. If Yugi or any one of his friends somehow uncovered her secret, there was a chance Kyrii would never see the light of day again. No, much as it hurt her, there could be no such thing as friends.

Kyrii had vowed to herself years ago that no matter how bad things got, she would never cry. But she couldn't help it; the thought of not having friends to trust, to confide in, to put faith into, was just too much to stand. So a single delicate tear escaped her now and fell to the ground where it shattered like broken glass. Tears reminded Kyrii of promises; and how easily they could be broken. Like a tear, you let go a promise and swore to keep it, but sooner or later you slip, and, like a tear, it breaks.

Without having any reason to, Kyrii unfastened two of the clasps on her cloak and absentmindedly fingered the Millennium Star. She gazed at it for a few minutes, then, just as Kyrii was starting to refasten her cloak, the Star glimmered again, as it had done before in her room, and this time there was no light to play tricks on her. Kyrii stood, transfixed, as the Star's glimmer transformed into a glow that grew brighter and brighter, then, without warning, the gentle radiance enveloped her and everything around her dissolved. All that could be seen of Kyrii through the brightness was the faraway look in her eyes

Once again, blurred images flashed through Kyrii's mind: a boy and a girl both around seven, the boy pushing her on a swing, the girl jumped off and they both tumbled onto the soft grass. They laughed and brushed the stray grass from her long brown hair saying, " I'll always be there for you." The girl: "you promise?" the boy: "yes. I promise." The image faded and a new one took its place: it was years later the girl, alone, in a dreary room, crying as she looked at a picture of the boy, "you broke your promise," the girl whispered. Another image came into view; the boy, alone in a lavish room gazing at a picture of the girl "I'm sorry Sakia, not all promises can be kept" "Kyrii?" A voice asked, " Kyrii?" Kyrii felt a searing pain in her head then all faded into blackness.

"Kyrii!" Yugi said in a voice that was loud as he dared, and, to his relief, the figure on the bed opened her eyes.

"Hey, Where am I? How did I get here?" Kyrii looked into the Yugi's compassionate eyes hovering above her in the candlelight, sliding in and out of focus.

"In you're room," Yugi responded, "my friends Joey and Tristan carried you here. You've been out cold for the past hour or so, we've all been really worried about you." Confused as she was, underneath it all, Kyrii felt a pang of gratitude, Yugi and his friends had cared about her so much as to watch out for her even though she wasn't really their friend.

Kyrii realized what Yugi could've found out, and her head shot up, "Wait, How did you know where my OW!" Kyrii's voice broke off before she could finish her sentence, hadn't noticed it before, but her head really hurt.

"Oh! Careful!" Yugi gently eased her back onto her pillows; "You've got quite a bump on your head when you fell."

"I fell?" Kyrii asked, massaging her head and rubbing the painful lump on the back of her head. It was strange, though, she hadn't remembered falling, what was the last thing she remembered? She stained her mind for memories of the past few hours but it made her head hurt more, so she stopped.

"Yes," Yugi was apparently answering her pervious question. "You probably fainted, because my friends and I all came running when we heard a noise, and we saw you lying on the floor. You're room key must've fallen out of your pocket, because my friend Tea found it on the ground next to you. It's a good thing they put the room numbers on the keys otherwise we would never have found your room. All my other friends left after we brought you back, but I decided to stay in case you woke up."

Kyrii flushed, "Yugi, you really didn't have to"

"No," Yugi responded, " it was the least we could do for you," he tilted his head slightly as a gesture of concern, "you saved my life, and Joey's."

Kyrii smiled, it was the first real smile she could remember since she came on the boat. "No I didn't, if I hadn't found the emergency rope, one of your friends would've, I barely had anything to do with it."

"Not the way my friends tell it, they say you're a heroine, and I must say, I agree." Yugi yawned and continued "well it's almost one o' clock, both of us should get some sleep if we're even going to get anywhere in the tournament tomorrow. I'll see you in the morning Kyriia, sweet dreams." As he headed for the door, Kyrii lifted her head slightly and whispered "sweet dreams Yugi, good luck. And Yugi?" she raised her voice slightly so he turned to face her.

"Mmmm?"

"Thank you. Thank you for everything."

He smiled wearily "Anytimemy friend."

*

Kyrii found it very easy to fall asleep that night, not only because she had been up so late but she also knew she would forget the pain in her head and the cuts on her hands while she slept. But before she blew out the candle, she made sure to get out a pencil and paper and lay them by her bedside, in case she remembered anything of what had happen before she fell. It was a good thing she did too, because maybe two hours after she fell into slumber, she woke up, and remembered everything. She quickly wrote it all down on the scrap she that she had laid on her nightstand, and fell back into the forgetfulness of sleep.

Kyrii awoke around seven o' clock, she had to get up at six thirty when she was at Caraway, so she had developed getting up early as a habit. She immediately looked at what she had written on the slip of paper the night before and found her usually perfect handwriting was much messier than usual, but otherwise, she could read it. Her paper said: Glow. Dream: boy pushes girl on swing. Boy makes promise to girl. Girl older, sitting alone somewhere looking at picture of boy. Boy broke promise. Boy older, sitting somewhere else alone calls girl Sakia.' Says I'm sorry, not all promises can be kept.'

This refreshed her memory but she couldn't remember why she wrote down glow.' Hmmm. Maybe the morning sea breeze would help her think, but, remembering the salty air and the affect it would have on the wounds on her hands, she bandaged them up before going out onto the deck. She looked around to find her cloak, but saw that she was still wearing it so she tucked the slip of paper into her inside pocket and headed out onto the deck.

Kyrii strode onto the deck and scanned the area. She was surprised, although, as far as she could tell, almost everyone on the boat had gotten at least a fair amount of sleep, almost no one had gotten up at the same hour she had. Maybe it was the fact it was summertime and everyone was used to sleeping in at that time of year. Maybe everyone was just plain lazy. But whatever the reason, no one was here outside, and a serene stillness hung heavy in the air. She loved this time of day, when no one was here to make excess noise, when she could really relax without having anyone stare or make comments about her. The solitude was perfect, peaceful, and calm just they way she wanted it.

Kyrii gracefully walked to the side of the deck and looked out at the small smear on the watery gray horizon that was Duelist Kingdom. A twang of eagerness surged through her body, she was almost there. Now, after years of waiting, longing, she would finally get the chance she had worked so hard for. At last, she would have the right to battle for the knowledge she should've possessed long ago. She had the chance to answer the two questions that tortured her: Who was she? Where was her family? The answers that would solve all her problems and she was willing and ready to fight for it. She knew she had a brother out there somewhere, but she had no idea who he was or his name or what he looked likeas far as her brother was concerned, she knew nothing.

But no one, especially any enemy of hers could know that she had almost no family. If that knowledge fell into the wrong hands, the results could be deadly, or worse. An icy shiver ran up Kyrii's spine, no one must know. Not even Yugi or any of his friends. She closed her eyes and a stray memory appeared in her mind: it was herself, or at least, that's who she thought it was, when she was very young. She was maybe five or six, and had just learned how to ride a bike. She had watched some bigger kids riding their own bikes near her house doing tricks and showing off, and she decided she would try too. She had tried and, of course, failed and as a result had gotten scraped up a little. The clearest part of the memory was her father, rocking her in his arms and whispering "you'll be okay, but always remember; too much knowledge can lead to betrayal."

Kyrii opened her eyes "too much knowledge can lead to betrayal." It was true. The words were her father's, and she would not forget them, next to her Millennium Star he had given her, these words were the last of the memories she could remember of him.

"It's pretty, isn't it?" The familiar voice was so close it made Kyrii jump. She looked around wildly and saw Yugi next to her, leaning against the side of the deck looking the same direction as she had been. In the momentary confusion, it took a minute for her to realize he was talking about the island in the distance.

"I guess," Kyrii responded half-heartedly, "I mean, we're just going there to compete and make enemies out of friends. I think that takes away most of it's pleasantness." Yugi smiled at this remark, but it soon faded into seriousness.

"So, what's your reason?"

"Huh?"

"For dueling. Everyone has to have a reason."

"Oh. Umm, why don't you tell me yours first." Yugi looked upset, his face and his voice were filled with concern and dismay.

"My—my grandfather's soul was taken, kidnapped, by—by Pegasus. If I can beat him, he'll give me my grandpa back. I don't know what happens if I lose," his voice broke for a second, but then came back strong and confident, as if he were trying to convince himself of what he was saying: "but I won't lose. I can't."

"Wow," Kyrii thought to herself, "if that isn't a noble cause I don't know what is. But I can't let Yugi win. He may be a nice person, but nothing is going to keep me from knowing what I need to know."

But Kyrii was wrong, at that very moment the one person who could get in her way was watching both of them, and laughing.