Tah dah!!! Ok, so here's the most exciting chapter so far, and it's reeeeeeeeeeally long! There's always a string attached, right? Heh *nervous laugh* hope you all enjoy it as much as I while writing it!
7. Escape~
Kinou did not know for how long she had slept, but something woke her up. She sat up and glanced out the windows to try to get some grip on time. It was extremely dark now, meaning it was probably sometime around midnight. She heard voices through the floor of her bedroom, and quickly dropped to her knees and pressed her ear to the floor. She could barely hear anything, but she noticed a small ray of light that was coming from the corner of her room. She quietly crawled towards it, and found that it was a small hole, through which she could see into the room below. There was a group of Rare Hunters gathered around a table and they were obviously debating about something. They had their hoods down, so she had a clear view of their faces. She quieted her breathing, which had become very fast, and listened intently.
"You know what's going to happen to us, don't you?" a nervous and angry Rare Hunter was saying to the others grouped around him; he looked short, even though he was standing up. He was bald, and his head was shining with sweat. "As soon as he figures out how to make her use her power?"
"Keep her as a toy?" said another, and everyone but the first rare hunter laughed.
"Snigger all you like, Laigu," he said. "But I know that he will dispose of us."
"What the hell's that supposed to mean?" asked Laigu angrily.
"I mean that once he has her power at his will, he won't need us anymore, and he will think we've seen too much and send our minds to the Shadow Realm to keep us from revealing anything!"
A stunned silence followed his statement.
"Hey, maybe Gani's right!" piped up another. "He's done it to many others, and that was when they simply failed to beat Yugi Moto in a duel!"
"I say we should leave here and take her with us; we'll figure out how to use her power and we'll get Yugi's Millennium Puzzle for ourselves! We have done more than enough for Marik, it's time we got something back!" Gani said, hitting the table with his fist.
Some of the others agreed, nodding, but not all of them. Laigu and the Rare Hunters grouped around him looked skeptical.
"What makes you so confident we can do that?" he asked.
"Because we know what the power is and one of us has the knowledge of how to train the mind to use it!" Gani said, gesturing to a man sitting to his right, who bowed his head solemnly.
"What makes you so sure she will listen to us?" said Laigu. "What if Marik has already brainwashed her to make her distrust us?"
Gani stared at Laigu, biting his lip, thinking hard. Kinou, who had only focused on Gani up to this point, turned her head to look at Laigu as well. He had brown hair, and a moustache and beard that went up the sides of his face. He looked strong and tall; he was probably the leader of the group. "Then we can just brainwash her back! You have done that to many others, have you not, Pontai?" Gani asked, turning once again to the Rare Hunter on his right, who nodded again. Pontai looked very old and feeble; his face was heavily wrinkled and his greyish white hair was shoulder length. Before Gani could look too satisfied, he spoke in a light, wispy voice.
"But, I never have reversed a brainwash as powerful as that of Marik's, so I'm not promising anything," he said, and more muttering arose from those around him. Gani, realizing he was losing his support, began stuttering, thinking very fast.
"I--well, maybe if we--ah—" he stopped and sat down heavily, accepting defeat rather quickly.
Laigu looked around at everyone, smiling--he knew he had won. "Well then," he said clapping his hands together. "Why don't we forget all this nonsense and—"but he was cut short by someone clearing their throat and standing up. "Yes, Kantugo? What is it?" he asked. Everyone turned to look at another tall man that Kinou had not noticed before. He bore some resemblance to someone that she couldn't quite put her finger on; his hair was light brown, his eyes were light teal, and he had a sort of gangly look about him, yet he still stood tall and powerful.
"I think all of us should have a say in what we do about the girl," he said, looking around at everyone. "We all fear Marik, do we not?" There was some murmured agreement amongst the others. "And with this new weapon, he will be even stronger and we will cower forever more underneath his rule. I say we should listen to Gani and take the Millennium Puzzle for ourselves."
Laigu stood up also. "Did you not hear what Pontai said? It is very unlikely that he will be able reverse any brainwashing Marik has already done!"
Kantugo looked over at Laigu. "I did hear, but, you forget that Marik might not have even have brainwashed her yet. All we know is that he went into her room and left some seven minutes later, and I believe that is not enough time to brainwash someone completely."
"Not to mention," another Rare Hunter chimed in, "he came out swearing and holding his foot. I know he said that he had stubbed it earlier and it was beginning to bother him again, but I think it was the girl who did it! If she kicked him, that means she does not show loyalty to him yet, meaning he has not toyed with her mind!"
"He's right!" said another, "I remember hearing something while he was in there, for I was in this very room, listening through that hole in the corner—" he gestured towards where Kinou was, and she gasped and clapped a hand over her mouth. Carefully leaning forwards again, she saw that the Rare Hunter had stopped and was staring at the hole through which she was looking with confusion. He shook his head as though he had imagined it, however, and continued. "I distinctly remember him yelling something about showing him respect, so she must have hurt him!" he finished triumphantly, punching his hand. All of the Rare Hunters started talking at once, most of them looking convinced, but Laigu hushed them, and they fell silent.
"Where did you say the hole was Naki?" he asked turning to the fat, blonde-haired Rare Hunter who had just spoken.
Naki pointed towards Kinou again, and before she could sit up again out of sight, Laigu had swooped over and looked back at her through the hole with his piercing grey eyes. He startled her and she yelled, falling backwards. "I thought I heard something!" he shouted, "The girl has been eavesdropping on us through your hole in the ceiling!" he pointed an accusing finger at Naki, who looked horrified.
"Let's hurry, before she escapes and reveals to Marik what she has just heard!" yelled Kantugo, and they swarmed out of the room.
Kinou stood up quickly. Shit, she thought, what do I do now? Her eyes darted around the room and found the door first. She grabbed one of the small tables and jammed it underneath the door handle, hoping it would hold the door shut. She heard thumping feet on the stairs and began to panic. She looked around, saw the windows, and ran to them. I can fit through easily, but what if I fall? Kinou had a fear of heights and she hesitated at the windows. Suddenly, the door handle began to rattle: the Rare Hunters had come. She could hear muffled curses and someone started ramming the door. She turned back to the window and climbed out clumsily just as the door burst open. She spotted a drainpipe to her right and began reaching for it as the Rare Hunters ran across her room; one almost grabbed her foot as she climbed onto the pipe and began to slide down. When she reached the ground and began to run, she heard the Rare Hunters moving again and noticed that they weren't at her window anymore: they were going to chase her.
Kinou ran up the street towards the city, thinking she might be able to find someone to help her, but as the Rare Hunters burst from the house, she realised that going into the woods would have been the obvious choice had she been thinking straight. Well, no turning back now, I've got to go faster! And she ran on, ignoring the pain rising in her legs: she knew she was not built for running and was never particularly good at it. Just keep going, she urged herself over and over again, thanking the high levels of adrenaline now pumping through her body, and never turning her head to look at where the Rare Hunters were. She reached the city within minutes, for it was not far away, and only here did she begin to think of ways to lose the Rare Hunters other than running. Almost as though some being had read her thoughts, she passed by an alleyway. I should be able to lose them in there, she thought, and she turned around and ran to it, glancing back quickly at the Rare Hunters, who were rapidly approaching. She ran in and wiped her mind of logic thought; she could not think about where she was going, it would make her think too long about which turn to make next. She heard the Rare Hunters shouting and one yelled above the rest: "Split up and search!" Kinou kept running, not paying attention to the fact that her chances of being caught were just made quite a bit larger.
She stopped, for she had come out of the alley and had run out into the middle of a street. A car drove by, speeding, and nearly hit her before she jumped back, falling over a trash can back into the alley. A couple of Rare Hunters passed by; glancing down the alley, they didn't see Kinou concealed in the shadows at their feet. They ran on, and she slowly sat up, taking care to stay behind the trashcan. A pungent smell reached her nostrils, and she gagged. The trashcan was overflowing with food scraps and unopened containers past their expiration date. She hugged her knees and rested her forehead against them, suddenly aware of how much her body hurt, and breathed deeply and quietly through her mouth. She could still hear people running, though none of them sounded near, and after a few minutes, all was quiet and she looked around the trash can to her left at the street cautiously. She couldn't see anyone, and was just about to sit back and breathe a sigh of relief, when something moved in the shadows across the street and she caught the sigh in her throat.
There was someone directly across the street from her, and they were simply... standing there, almost as if they were watching her. She thought it looked like a man, but she couldn't tell if he was a Rare Hunter, (he was hidden in shadow,) but just in case, she drew behind the garbage can again. She rested her head upon her knees again and closed her eyes, a million questions racing through her head all at once.
What now? I don't know this city at all, I don't know anyone who lives here, and I don't know how long it will be before the Rare Hunters give up their search. She began to think about the conversation she had overheard. They kept on saying "her power". If I have a power, I sure as hell don't know what it is. Maybe Marik was going to tell me before I stamped on his foot. She became angry with herself. He was just hugging you, big deal, why did you flip out? Now you may never find out what it is; Marik will probably just take over your mind and use it that way and he won't have to tell you at all. But wait, they were talking about him using it to get Yugi's Millennium Puzzle, and I don't want to see that happen or be responsible for it. I wonder when he stopped using Duel Monsters to try to get it?
Footsteps interrupted her thoughts; the Rare Hunters were coming back. Kinou stayed in her curled up position, not moving and listening. They weren't running anymore, and they sounded frustrated and angry.
"We'll have to wait until morning; night is too dark to be searching for one person in the middle of the city," Kantugo was saying.
"But by then she could have found someone to hide her, or even be on the other side of the city!" said Laigu angrily.
"Come on, Laigu, do you think that she would? She does not know this city; she will be lost and curled up in some alley, scared out of her wits!" Kantugo retaliated, and Laigu became silent. The rest were murmuring and looking disgruntled. They passed by her and continued back towards the house.
She chanced a glance after them and was about to relax, when she noticed that the person across the street was still there, and she still couldn't tell who it was. Before she could wonder anymore, she noticed that there was a person walking down her side of the street, and she pulled behind the trashcan again. The person didn't walk by, however: they stopped right next to her and she heard some beeps, like they were holding an electronic device, and she felt the person turn to look down the alley. Then they chuckled softly, saying, "I've got her," in a deep, low voice.
Kinou would have gotten up and run had she not been frozen with fear. The person stepped in front of her and said, "That's quite a hiding spot, Kinou. A little dirty for a girl, though, wouldn't you say?"
Kinou looked up and saw Seto Kaiba towering over her, his white overcoat billowing out behind him majestically; her heart melted.
Kaiba got down on one knee to see her better, though he still had to look down to talk to her. "I think you've had a rough night. Why don't you come with me now? I can assure you the guest suite in my mansion will be a lot more comfortable than whatever that fool Marik gave you."
Kinou found her voice at last. "How do you know where I've been? And how did you find me?" she asked breathlessly.
Kaiba laughed. "It's a very intricate plan, but I'll simplify it for you. I was the one who discovered you and planned to bring you here, and I created the portal that changed you into one of us. I then had a spy dressed as a Rare Hunter intersperse with the other Rare Hunters—"
"Who?"
"You may have already met him: Kantugo." he said calmly, and Kinou suddenly realised who Kantugo had reminded her of.
"Then he would help the others and Marik steal it from its vault—"
"Why?" Kinou blurted out.
"I was getting to that," said Kaiba, sounding impatient. "I let the Rare Hunters steal it because I knew that Marik had a way to bring you here, whereas I didn't, so I let him go through all of the trouble."
"Well, that was smart," said Kinou, impressed. "But that still doesn't explain how you found me when a team of Rare Hunters couldn't."
"That was the doing of Kantugo. He joined their ranks a few months ago when I first developed the portal, and has since then gained their trust. Unfortunately, you happened to escape, but Kantugo is the quickest thinker I know and he came up with an alternate plan to help me to you. He used his trust to lure the Rare Hunters away on a false trail, then to bring them back and make them give up until morning. Luckily, when you were being 'escorted' to your room, Kantugo bugged you by placing this on you," he reached behind her and pulled what looked like a small butterfly out of her hair. It was so inconspicuous, Kinou had not noticed it: it looked like it could have been a part of a hair tie. He held it in his long, slender hand or a few moments, before putting it back in her hair, saying "I think we'd better keep this on you for now."
Kinou sat for a moment, not saying anything. Kaiba tilted her chin up and looked into her face. "It looks like my portal worked without a glitch," he said, grinning.
She looked deep within his eyes, marveling at how blue and beautiful they were compared to what she had seen in pictures of him. "Can I ask you something?"
Kaiba looked surprised, but nodded.
She hesitated, wondering whether she should ask, at the risk of seeming foolish for not knowing. "What exactly is the power that everyone wants out of me?"
To her surprise, Kaiba laughed again. "You mean to tell me that Marik hasn't told you that yet?"
"No, he hasn't. All he's told me is that he can stop time in my world and he'll be able to keep me here for years without anyone noticing," said Kinou miserably.
"Well, then," said Kaiba, standing up. "I will tell you everything you need to know on the way back; I'll call for one of my helicopters. Hey," he said, pressing a button on his collar, which Kinou knew was a way for him to communicate with his company wherever he was. "Send me my chopper, and make it snappy."
He turned back to Kinou and held out his hand. "Why are you still sitting? My chopper will be here momentarily."
She took his hand eagerly and he helped her stand up, which made her feel even smaller: she barely stood taller than his shoulder. Suddenly, they heard a rumbling, as from a motor, and a bright light blinded them as a motorcycle drove up.
Kinou put a hand over her eyes to shield them from the light, but the man riding the motorcycle turned it off and the light went out. He took off his helmet and spoke to them. "Well, Kaiba, I see you've found what I was looking for," came Marik's voice. "I suggest you give her back to me."
"I think not, Marik," said Kaiba, his eyes narrowing. "For it was I who found her first; besides, you didn't even have the decency to tell her why she was brought here in the first place, you dog."
"I would have told her," said Marik, looking at Kinou, "but I felt that she needed to show a little more respect to me before I told her anything important."
"Show respect? To you?" sneered Kaiba. "What did you do, yell at him?" he asked turning to Kinou.
"Yes, but that's not what made him angry," said Kinou, glaring at Marik. "I stamped on his foot."
Kaiba laughed. "I think that's a pretty good hint that she should come with me, especially since she worked so hard to escape from your little kiddy hideaway," he said to Marik.
"She should come with me because I was the one who brought her here; I need her for more important things than tests, Kaiba!" said Marik, his voice rising.
"Well I'm sorry to disappoint you, but that's my chopper in the distance coming to bring me and Kinou back to my mansion, where she will receive more hospitality than you have given her so far."
"Erm," murmured Kinou, interrupting their argument. "I was wondering if I could have some sort of a say in this? I'm not like a piece of furniture with no brain to think for itself," she said defiantly.
Kaiba continued to look at Marik, a mocking smile on his face. "An excellent idea, Kinou. Who would you like to leave with?"
"I'd like to go with Seto, because he's actually going to tell me all that I need to know on the way back to his mansion, which, I might add, doesn't have weird Rare Hunters running all over the place," Kinou said, glaring at Marik.
"Good choice," said Kaiba, while Marik said nothing. He put his hand on Kinou's shoulder and threw a satisfied smile at Marik. "She's made her decision and we don't need you around anymore, so you can leave now," he said coolly. Marik looked murderous, but his face suddenly twisted and he bent over double, groaning loudly, clutching his head. At that moment, Kaiba's chopper stopped over them and Kinou and Kaiba turned to grab a ladder that had descended for them to climb. Kaiba went up first, but just as Kinou began to climb after him, Yami Marik straightened up and rushed forward, tugged her off the ladder and pulled her away from it.
"Seto!" Kinou shouted, reaching her hand out as he put her in front of him on his motorcycle and revved up the engines.
Kaiba had already felt the tug on the ladder and was yelling at the pilot to stay with the motorcycle and to keep the ladder out. Marik's motorcycle came to life and began speeding away from him. Kinou twisted around enough to see the helicopter flying after them, Kaiba still dangling on the ladder. He yelled something at the pilot and the helicopter began to gain on them. Kinou tried to distract Yami Marik from this by turning back around and yelling, "Why did you do that?"
"Because you are rightfully mine!" he snarled back in his now distorted voice.
"You're talking about me like I'm some sort of object! I am a human being, not some slave or lab monkey or—"
"If you had gone with Kaiba, you would have been like a lab monkey in his facilities!"
"No I—" she began, but she was cut short by Kaiba's shouting, which had suddenly become a lot closer. She twisted around again to see Kaiba feet from her, holding out his hand and yelling at her to reach for it. Yami Marik tried to swerve away from him, but Kinou practically stood up on the motorcycle to reach her arm out to Kaiba. Yami Marik continued to swerve and Kaiba was now yelling at her to jump. The motorcycle was going along at nearly 50 miles per hour, and Kinou shook her head and kept her arm high in the air. She still couldn't reach, so she straightened her back as much as she could, putting one foot on the seat. Kaiba and his helicopter closed in and Kinou's fingertips were inches away from Kaiba's—when Yami Marik gave an anguished yell and swerved the motorcycle again, making Kinou lose her balance.
She fell. Kaiba caught her arm and her feet skidded on the ground before he hoisted her up the ladder. Kinou looked into Kaiba's eyes, and fainted.
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