"I'm glad you're feeling better." Téa said as she bit into her sandwich at lunchtime. "You gave us all a fright that night."
"No kiddin'." Joey put in, popping one of Tristan's fries into his mouth. "What's the problem anyway?" Daphne blushed.
"It wasn't anything serious. I hope I didn't ruin your evening for you." She said sincerely. Kaiba scooted his chair a bit closer to her, as if afraid this swarm of dolts would infect her with a different kind of disease.
"I had fun that night," Tristan said, smacking Joey in the back of the head. "We did all miss you, though." He did look awfully disappointed.
"Boy," Bakura scratched his head. "Did my yami give it to me good after I got home that night."
"Yeah, same with my yami." Yugi nodded sympathetically. "If your yami was as bad as mine—"
"No one was as bad as Kaiba," Joey shook his head wryly. "He gave it to me and Tristan good." He ducked his head as Kaiba's eyes burned into him. That's when they all remembered they weren't suppose to let that out.
"What happened?" Daphne responded with surprise. She drifted in an out of consciousness and had no clue about what had been going on those few days.
"Nothing," Kaiba cutted in casually, his scowl slicing through the other boys. He, Yami, and Bakura simply had a 'talk' with the guys.
"Hey, Daphne," Téa interrupted. "Remember that totally cute guy that asked you to dance that night? The guy that even Mai melted at?"
"Yes," Daphne had little remembrance of that night. It was a vague memory that a handsome, magnanimous guy had asked her to dance. She had declined in her soul of misery. "What about him? I don't even know who he is."
"Well, I saw him today." Téa leaned forward, her eyes filled with excitement. "Actually, he came over to me. He's new in school. His name is Duke Devlon and he owns his own game shop near Turtle Game Shop. He rocks at Dungeon Dice Monsters and he's so cute! Of course, anyway, he inquired how you were and he asked your name and a whole bunch of other questions!"
"So?" Daphne cocked her head, missing the point of the conversation. The guys also leaned forward, their jaws clenched. They know what this means. And they're determined to eliminate any more competition.
"So he's interested!" Téa squealed. "Geez, Daph, you're so dense sometimes. He likes you! Don't you know more than 99.9% of the girl population in Domino High is after him?!"
"He should pick one of them, then. I'm not interested." Daphne refused politely, sipping her soft drink. Her ankles were crossed and she had a silky, ennuyé expression on her face.
"You better prepare yourself anyway." Téa whispered in her ear, "He's going to introduce himself to you after school. And trust me, Duke doesn't just go for just anyone. He's going after you." Kaiba caught part of the conversation and narrowed his eyes.
Absolutely no one is going anywhere near his cousin until he approved. No one.
After school, Kaiba hurried through the halls, trying to avoid people. He rounded the corner and stopped abruptly. Daphne was standing in front of a blank of lockers, talking to Duke Devlon. She was looking up at him while he leaned down suavely over her. As she laughed, Kaiba heard the distant sound of her voice.
Too seductively, Kaiba decided, setting his jaws as he straightened up and sauntered up to the pair.
"Daphne," he barely looked over and nodded a greeting at the creator of Dungeon Dice. "Let's go." He took hold of her elbows and proceeded to drag the Egyptian girl out of the school. He figured he was doing Yami a favor as well as his cousin. Daphne was having too many difficulties with too many guys, was she not? So he was simply getting her out of a difficult situation.
"Wait, Seto," Daphne pulled her arm away and stepped back to Duke. At the same time, Duke, who was not use to having girls ripped from his presence interrupted with what Daphne thought was a courteous and genteel manner.
"Excuse me, but are you not Seto Kaiba?" He began.
"That I am." Kaiba turned and stared at Duke coolly. Duke casually pushed himself off the lockers.
"Well, what luck," he said pleasantly, pulling his hand from pocket and offered it in a handshake. "Daphne had told me so much about you. I'm honored to finally meet the great Seto Kaiba, CEO of the most successful corporation in the world." His piercing green eyes stated obviously otherwise. Kaiba automatically, though reluctantly, shook his hands. Meeting with new authoritative figures had trained him to ask no questions, simply shake their hands.
But this was the enemy and with Daphne involved, it's different. They looked at each other in that infuriating way guys look at each other sometimes, like they have this secret. Daphne didn't notice as the exceedingly firm handshake did not loosen afterward, but if anything tightened up. Kaiba had silently cast out a challenge and Duke had silently accepted it. Neither of them would let go, they just stood there, gripping each other's hands, the fake cheerful smiles plastered on their faces. Rivulets of veins bulged out from their arms under their uniforms and their muscles tightened.
Finally, Daphne interrupted, "Seto, shouldn't we be going? Mokuba's going to wonder where I am." Kaiba let go unwillingly and forced a tight smile on his face.
"Not too bad, Dice-boy." He said lowly.
"The girl is taken, Moneybags." Duke returned back, just as quiet and cool while smiling graciously at Daphne, though his attitude that showed in his eyes were completely different for Kaiba.
"That girl—is my cousin." Kaiba smirked at Duke's shocked expression and walked out of the school.
Yami, Bakura, and Kaiba watched suspiciously as Daphne hummed and placed the white roses in tall vases. Her face glowed and she smiled to herself.
"Um, Daphnia, if you don't mind me asking," Yami finally stated, after watching Daphne twirl around the dining room. "Why are you so happy? It's just the usual thing, Yugi and the group coming over, right?"
"Nope." She chirped happily, as she bounced over to give Yami a hug. Yami eyed her weirdly and shrugged at the guys.
"Want to fill me in here?" Kaiba interrupted. "So who's coming over?" Daphne smiled.
"Duke." Kaiba's jaws dropped open. He opened his mouth to protest when Bakura shushed him.
"Don't you shush me, you tomb robber," Kaiba whispered hoarsely. "She's inviting the enemy into the house! My house, I might add."
"What are you two going to do?" Bakura asked skeptically, crossing his arms in front of his chest, ignoring Kaiba.
"We're going to make ice cream sundaes," she replied, making her way into the kitchen freezer. The three followed. "He told me he had a fondness for ice cream, like me." She giggled.
"Ice cream sundaes?" Yami looked doubtful. "That doesn't sound too dangerous." He whispered over to Kaiba.
"Would you guys like us to make you some?" Daphne asked, piling ice cream concoctions all over the counter.
"No!" Bakura wrinkled his nose but at the same time, Yami and Kaiba chimed, "Yes!" The thief looked over at them questionably.
"You dolt, you really think they're really going to making ice cream sundaes?" Kaiba hissed. Before Bakura could reply, "No, of course not, so we're going to have give them something to do other then…what the Duke is planning to do. They're going to have to be making sundaes if we say we all want one." Yami nodded his head viciously.
"Hopefully, after our sundaes, it would be time to boot the Duke out of your house." He put in. Bakura nodded and turned to Daphne.
"Make that three extra-large, extra-assortments, and with all the different kind of ice cream there are sundaes." He ordered. "And don't forget the cherries." He added after some thoughts.
"Okay," Daphne agreed when the doorbell rang. Her eyes lit up. "He's here!" She hurried to the door, but before she opened it, she turned back. "Be nice." She warned. Then she put up her perky smile and opened the door. Duke stood outside.
"Hey, Duke," she said happily. Duke looked just as happy as she led him into the house and to the kitchen. Yami followed, but Kaiba dragged him back by the collar. Bakura sneaked past Kaiba, trying to get into the kitchen, but the kitchen door slammed in his face and Kaiba dragged him away by his hair.
"Leave them alone," he sounded resigned. "She's got to learn to be a big girl now. We can't stay with her forever."
"Yes, we can…" Yami struggled. "At least, while I'm still alive, I am."
"Yeah, Mortal," Bakura growled on the other side. "And the retired pharaoh and I will live a long, long time. Not like you, you preposterous teenager you." Kaiba smirked. "What?!" Bakura demanded.
"In case you haven't notices, oh great yamis." Kaiba continued walking. "This 'preposterous teenager' that you speak of, is whipping your sorry behinds. I'm the one that's overpowering you guys and dragging you up the stairs, you know."
Yami gasped, "Such language." He scolded. "Coming from Kaiba?"
"Who…cares!" Bakura balled his fists by his side. "I'm going to seal his soul in the Shadow Realm!!"
Shadow Realm or no, Yami and Bakura was locked together in Kaiba's office while he talked to his executives on the phone and typed on his laptop. The two spirits fidgeted, had glaring contests, occasionally making unpleasant gestures at each other, and flinched every time laughter was heard downstairs.
"That's it." Bakura whispered to Yami hoarsely. "I'm going downstairs, are you with me or not?" Yami nodded frantically.
"Kaiba!" Yami turned to the teen on the phone. "We're going downstairs and if you don't give us the key, we'll break the door down." Kaiba frowned and said something into the phone before hanging up. Then he leaned back in his chair and eyed the two yamis.
"You're welcome to try and break the door down," he finally remarked. "But let me remind you that my door is fireproof, unbreakable, security number uncrackable, and the last person we had the nerve to try and break the door down was shipped to the hospital in three pieces and is paralyzed for life."
"Is that a threat?" Bakura growled, his white hair bristling at his neck.
"Let me finish," Kaiba waved his hand in the air. "Therefore, you are welcomed to try breaking the door down, but you might want to try this first before breaking down the door."
Something flew through the air and Yami caught it. A pair of keys and a small sheet of paper with some undecipherable number mixed with letters written on.
"Password, key." Kaiba stood up. "I'm getting hungry for my sundae anyway." He made a face as he thought of the sundae. He hoped his wasn't so big that he would pass out right after looking at it.
The three crept downstairs and heard laughter. They heard Duke's deep voice say something and Daphne burst into another fit of giggles. The three couldn't contain themselves anymore. They burst through the door to the kitchen.
Daphne and Duke turned. Daphne's eyes were merry and her cheeks radiant with happiness. She had a strike of chocolate on her cheek and a dab of whipped cream on her nose. Duke had a puff of marshmallow cream at the tip of his finger, in act of making her face a target. They stopped laughing at Yami's scowl.
"So…where's our sundae?" Yami asked pointedly. A look of guilt crossed over Daphne's pretty features. She hurried over to the other side of the counter and pointed to three dishes. Kaiba gaped. In each one of the dish was a scoop of plain vanilla ice cream, sitting in a melted puddle. At least he doesn't have to worry about throwing up now.
"Oh, yeah," Daphne hurried over to the table and came back. "There." She positioned three cherries on each scoop of the ice cream.
"This is it?!" Bakura roared. "After giving you two—no, two and a half hours, this is what you present us?!"
"What happened to the 'extra-large, extra-assortments, and with all the different kind of ice cream there are'?" Yami demanded.
"Well…" Daphne hesitated, then flashed a smile. "We didn't make the sundae's because Duke thinks the whipped cream smells funny."
"The whipped cream smells funny?" Kaiba frowned. Daphne nodded, her wind chime earrings tinkered with the result. She crossed over to the whipped cream and opened the container.
"Don't you think it smells funny?" She asked innocently, passing the container under Yami and Bakura's nose.
"It smells fine to me," Bakura mumbled to Yami. "What is whipped cream suppose to smell like?"
"You tell me." Yami grumbled back.
"See Seto," Daphne held the container up for the tall stern CEO. "Don't you think it smells weird?" Kaiba leaned down and smelled the cream. "It looks funny, too."
"It smells okay to me," he said as he leaned even closer to examine the white puffs. "It looks okay, too."
At the very moment, an evil gleam passed across Daphne's violet eyes. With a little push of her hands, Kaiba's face was in the sticky container. Kaiba's head jerked back.
"Imph gohe kilww ou!" His muffled voice said as he yanked the container off his head. At the same time, Duke, on the other side of the counter, 'accidentally' tripped over something and his elbow landed on the chocolate and strawberry sauce. Two stream of syrup shot out of the bottle and attached themselves to the two unsuspicious spirits.
"Why, Bakura," Daphne acted surprised. "I didn't know you would look so nice in red."
"You would know how you look within a minute." Bakura threatened. "I'm going to rip your precious Duke to pieces!"
"Bakura!" She protested. Duke was laughing so hard that he didn't even see Bakura advance threateningly toward them. All of a sudden, he stopped laughing and his eyes grew wide.
"Gee, Bakura, if you want to take it out on somebody take it out on me. Daphne had nothing to do with it." Then he scratched his head, looking confused. "How did you do that anyway? I had the bottle under my elbow this whole time."
Bakura stopped in his tracks. "Do what, you foolish Mortal? I didn't do anything yet."
"You mean you didn't do it?" Duke swallowed hard. The slowly looked at Kaiba and Yami. They shook their head in unison.
"What are you talking about?"
Duke slowly turned around and pointed on the counter. "So you didn't write this?" Everyone crowed around the red letter on the counter.
"We are coming after you." Yami read, then looked sick. The red letters looked like they were formed from the thick strawberry syrup that had been all over Bakura. A crude picture of a flower ended the message.
"I didn't do it." The white hair devil looked paler and shook his head, backing away.
"Neither did I." Kaiba stared at the short menacing message. Yami was speechless and Duke bit his lips.
"What are you guys so worried about?" Daphne tried to peer over Kaiba's tall shoulders. "What's on the counter?"
With a swift movement, Yami ran his hand across the letters, smearing them. Kaiba turned and said in a voice that sounded no where near his own, "Daphne, I think you should change out of your sticky clothes, alright, sweetie?"
"Listen to him, Daphne." Yami spoke up. Daphne's eyes widened, but she nodded and hurried out of the room. Kaiba immediately turned to Duke even though the Duke had an expression that couldn't be faked or duplicated.
"Alright, admit you did it." The CEO demanded, though he sounded anxious.
"I—"
"This is not a joke any longer, Kaiba." Bakura interrupted. Both he and Yami were studying the redness on Yami's fingers.
"Why not?" He turned abruptly. He felt as if an eerie feeling were surrounding them, watching their every move.
"Ancient magic." The spirit of the ring explained. "I can sense it."
"Bakura's right," Yami said dully. "This isn't strawberry syrup. It's blood."
Kaiba almost burst out laughing, but the facial expression on Yami's face was no joke.
"Blood?" He finally echoed weakly. Bakura nodded.
"No mistake about that."
"But," Kaiba faltered. "Whose blood?"
"Soon, it shall be Delphinium's!" A voice came from the entrance of the kitchen. The trio turned around and saw Daphne standing in front of them. They were taken back. This wasn't Daphne. The sweet, innocent, Daphne that they've grown to love.
This Daphne was hard and her back was stiff. Her usually dancing eyes were cold, calculating, and dull at the same time.
"Da-Daphne?" Kaiba stuttered, biting his lips. Daphne's lips curled up to a malicious smirk.
"Seto Kaiba. Pharaoh. Finally, my biggest rivals." The male voice half growled. In place of Daphne's pure, warm voice was a hoarse and evil sounding baritone. Duke looked horrified.
"Daphnia…" Yami looked at her uncertainly. He took a step forward.
"Don't come any closer, Pharaoh, if you don't want to see your own daughter's blood on your hands." The voice came again.
"Who are you and what do you want?!" Yami yelled, continuing to move closer.
"I want—" The deep voice was cut off as Daphne's eyes blinked and she gasped. The guys could see her struggle deep within her soul.
"God, Yami, help me—" She cried out before the voice returned, laughing. Kaiba couldn't stand looking at his cousin suffer this way any longer. He sprinted forward and grabbed hold of Daphne. He doesn't know what's going on…but it sure wasn't normal.
"Don't touch her, Kaiba!" Bakura hollered. "This is a battle she's going to have to fight by herself. You can't do anything!" Kaiba took no notice of Bakura's warnings. He shook his cousin and started yelling random thins.
"Daphne, do you remember me?!" He shouted desperately. "Seto Kaiba. My name is Seto Kaiba. KaibaCorp! I'm the CEO! Focus on me!" They all saw the changes in Daphne's eyes as she tried to focus herself on her cousin. "Mokuba! Remember Mokuba! And your flute?! That flute that Yami taught you how to play? And…and the music! The music that Yami said could tame the beasts and give people peace! Daphne, you can't forget any of that! Focus! Throw that guy out of your mind!"
"I…I can't!" Daphne cried as visibly struggled. "He's…taking over my mind…my soul!"
By now, Yami had caught on to what Kaiba was trying to do. He hurried over and began listing out the things in Daphne's mind that could keep her focused for keeping her soul from being trapped.
"Sheeba, Daphnia!" Yami looked straight into her eyes. "How can you forget your Cheetah! Remember how she use to catch all sorts of rodents and bring it up to the ladies when we were having the banquet?!"
Daphne gritted her teeth, her fingernails digging into Bakura's flesh, "It…hurts—" She gasped during the moments she had taken over. "I can't…can't do this!"
"You have to," Duke all of a sudden appeared beside Daphne, still looking confused yet determined. He waved a hand in front of her eyes. "Ice cream, Daphne, don't you remember our ice cream fight?" Seeing that Daphne had no recognition, Duke bounced away from the group and grabbed the first thing he saw—the marshmallow topping—and ran back.
"Here!" He took a small scoop of topping and gingerly dabbed it on Daphne's nose. Daphne gasped and her eyes cleared a little. The mysterious spirit that had taken over her body growled, but continued struggling.
The princess's mind is strong, he thought grimly. Much stronger than I thought. Well, now isn't the time to make the move anyway. I'd better retreat before I loose all power of my Rod.
"Just dump the whole thing into her face already!" Kaiba ordered. Duke held back the container, ready to let go when Daphne slumped over, breathing heavily.
"Daphnia?" Yami asked cautiously.
"Yes." Was the whisper. "I'm back. He's gone."
"Who was he? What happened?" Kaiba and Duke asked at the same time. Duke pulled out a chair and helped Daphne into it. Then he hurried off to get her a glass of water. The situation they were in had turned the "enemy" to a "friend."
"It was Marik, wasn't it?" Bakura narrowed his eyes. "Is he misusing his Millennium Rod again?"
"It had to be. Marik must have been using her and controlling her mind." Yami replied, stretching his arm out to feel Daphne's forehead. She was okay, but visibly frightened and very pale. "I'm afraid she's not out of danger yet." Kaiba stared at Daphne this whole time without saying a word.
"That's it." He suddenly turned and marched off to the phone in the hall. The other could hear him having a conversation.
"Daphne, are you alright?" Duke asked gently as he handed her a glass of water. He looked up to see if any one of the yamis were listening. They weren't, to his relief. "What happened?"
"…" Was all Daphne could say.
"Are you alright?" He insisted.
"Does she look alright, you foolish mortal?" Bakura turned around and snapped.
"No…" The creator of Dungeon Dice Monsters answered uncertainly.
"Then she isn't alright!" He snapped. "I could hear people from far away with my Ring and I could read minds." Duke's face fell as Bakura answered the questions that were in his mind. Kaiba came back into the kitchen.
"We're leaving." He told Bakura and Yami. "If I guess correct, you two wouldn't let me and Daphne off by ourselves so you guys are coming along with us. Duke, I think it's time you leave." Kaiba turned to the Duke. Duke nodded courteously and wasted no time gathering his book bag. He was surprised, however, when Daphne stood up.
"I'll show Duke to the door." She said, cutting off anyone's protests. "I'm fine now."
"Catch you guys later," he managed to call back before the gravity of the outside world dragged him to the door.
"I'm sorry the way it turned out today." Daphne apologized quietly as they were alone in the foyer.
"Hey, it's okay." Duke reassured. "We'll just do it some other day."
"Maybe not." She looked up at him. "We probably won't be seeing each other for a while."
"Well," Duke smiled understandingly. "In that case, I'll just tell you this. Whatever happened today won't make me think less of you in any way. And when you are ready to see me again, I'll be back. I still want that sundae that you owed me." He lifted his hand back in a wave as he walked down the Kaiba Mansion driveway.
"Nice guy," Kaiba's voice said from the back.
Maybe nice, Yami thought bitterly. But looks and actions can be deceiving. One minute, they could be your best friend for life. Another minute, they could be your worst enemy.