Innocence

K, a review of past events

As Kaluri looked up, Kaiba walked into the room. At first Kaluri thought she saw relief in his eyes, but the next minute there was nothing, his eyes were as blank as coal. Kaiba turned to lock the door. When he turned around, his face was full of emotion. There was sadness, happiness, relief and guilt at the same time. Kaiba took out a locket out of his pocket and handed it to Kaluri with his eyes looking down. When she took his hand, Kaiba flinched and looked up to see Kaluri's eyes staring into his, with tears glistening down her cheeks, she whispered, "Seto what did he do to you, tell me Seto, what happened?"

Kaiba smiled and answered sadly with his finger tip on her lips, "Shush, you need to rest, you don't need to know happened, it's not important." Then he ran his hand through her hair and laid her down, but as he bent down to hug her, Kaluri saw……..

….a huge scar on his back.

She backed away from him and her eyes were filled with pain as she asked, "Seto, what happened, how did you get that scar?" She was confused, all her life Kaluri was shielded away from the world and she was ignorant of the evils of man. Kaiba looked at the wide-eyed girl, 'she's so innocent' thought Kaiba, 'do I dare to shatter that innocence? If I tell her, would she still love me? Can she love a murderer? Do I dare to reveal to this angel that the world is a sinful place and that I myself had committed a sin? Will she forgive me?' Then Seto asked the girl when he decided to tell her the truth, "Kaluri, do you remember your uncle, who was the CEO before you." The girl nodded, her uncle Julian was her favorite relative that died on a business trip to Japan two years ago. Then Kaiba told her the ugly truth, "Three years ago, I forced Gonzaburo to commit suicide and thus I became CEO of KaibaCorp. Then the year after, I had a meeting with your uncle and as soon as he came in he realized that this was all a setup to steal his company and in an attempt to escape he tried to fight me and he gave me this scar. He didn't get very far for he too was injured by my bodyguards in an attempt to make him hand over the company. When we caught him, your uncle was laughing, for he had just e-mailed his will to his lawyer and then the guards took him back to the prison cell. I tried to force him to tell me who the heir was, but the man refused to talk so I ordered for him to be poisoned."

Kaluri sniffled a cry when Kaiba finished and she started to back away from him. When Kaiba reached for her hand, she withdrew it from his reach and tears were flowing down her cheeks. 'No, what have I done' thought Kaiba 'she hates me now' Then he said to her, "Kaluri, let me explain, it wasn't….." Before he could finish, the girl covered her ears and yelled out, "Murderer, get always from me, I hate you, I never want to see you again, you're not Seto, you're a monster. I hate you." As she started to run from the room, Kaiba caught her hand and pull her towards him and said, "Kaluri, don't please don't do this, I love you. Don't leave me." She freed herself from his grip and said to him, "I'll never love you again, you're a murderer, you killed my uncle. You killed him, with that you've killed my love for you. I'll never love you again; my heart is now covered with ice that cannot be melted. Good bye." With that Kaluri ran out of the Kaiba Mansion. 'Why, why did he kill Julian? Why did he kill my uncle? He's not Seto, Seto died the day that he got adopted. I'll never forgive him for killing my uncle. Never.'

As Kaiba watched the slender figure of Kaluri run down the street, he crumpled down to the floor. He hold his head in his hands and cried out, "God, why are you so cruel to me? Why do you have to torture me so? Isn't it enough that every time I try to sleep images of the sins I've committed come to haunt me? Why, why did you have to take her away too?" Then Kaiba saw the bottle of aspirin and dumped a handful into his mouth. He could not deal with the pain. 'Sleep is my only friend now, perhaps happy dreams will come to me…….

*----ThE nExT morning----*

Kaluri looked at her watch, fifteen minutes until it was time for her to go to school. She felt like she couldn't face her relatives anymore, she couldn't tell them that Kaiba had killed her uncle. 'What should I do Uncle Julian?' Her eyes began to water like they did during the night and she couldn't bear it anymore. There was too much pain, and she fell to the down screaming. Her nanny ran into the room and cradled the girl as if she was a baby. Then when she quieted down, Kaluri put on her school uniform and looked at herself in the mirror. 'Yesterday I was a happy, normal girl. Today I see nothing. But I know that I must look like I've aged twenty years and my eyes are probably red and puffy.'

            Kaiba stared at the clock, then he took it in his hands and smashed it to pieces. 'Why do I see her face on everything?' He dragged himself to the bathroom and started to get really for school. There he saw an exacto knife. He picked it up in his hands and placed the blade next to his arm. Then ever so gently he pulled the blade. Suddenly a perfect line appeared and it soothed him to see the blood bubble out of his arm. Kaiba quickly hid the exacto knife and got dressed when he heard Mokuba's footsteps.

"Big brother, why are your eyes red?" asked Mokuba.

Without replying Kaiba walked out of the door and into his black limo. When he arrived at school he watched Yugi and the gang laugh and talk. 'Why, why can't I be like them? Why can't I have friends? Why can't I be together with the girl I love?' When he saw Kaluri walk towards the gang, he quickly got up and stopped her. "Kaluri, please forgive me." The girl shook her head and whispered, "Please, let me go." When he refused to let her go she asked again, she started fighting his grasp on her. But he was too strong. All this commotion attracted no other than Joey Wheeler to the scene. "Hey Kaiba let her go." When he refused to let Kaluri go, he found himself fighting Wheeler. "Why don't you mind your own business, Wheeler?" As they fought on, Kaluri ran to them and broke them apart. "Joey, please stop it. Stop fighting with Kaiba, if anything…" She couldn't finish her sentence, what would she do if any harm came to her friends. They were all she had left. When Joey saw the tears on her face he replied to her, "Hey, s'ok, I'll stop fightin' if ya stop cryin' and smile for me." Kaluri wiped the tears off her face and gave Joey a wobbly smile. Kaiba watched as the two of them walked away, no one had noticed but tears were flowing down the CEO's cheeks. 'Life is not Fair.'