Ambitions from the Heart
Written by: TheDemonHuntress
Chapter 5: An Unexpected Invitation
"I see that you've got some pretty unreliable friends there," came a voice that chilled me to the bone, although I knew what to expect. I turned around anyway, and found myself facing the man that I admired, yet feared, watching a terrified Tea and Mai disappear in the distance.
"That card I found in my deck before the duel struck me as being very curious," Kaiba continued. "Do you know why?"
"No," I lied. Someone get me away from him!
He looked at my face, which was blushing, with growing interest. "Well then, I will tell you why. It was the Tenderness card, a card that is not in my deck.
"But what was more interesting than how it got in my deck was the note that was on it. I suppose you also don't know what that said?"
"No…" I whispered. Mai and Tea were not even on my mind right now. Whatever they had done would cost me.
Kaiba's smirk got bigger. "It said, 'Tenderness is for lovers!' And then it had an arrow pointing to you, Miss Lee."
I gulped. So Mai's plans were infallible after all… What the heck was I supposed to tell him?
"I… uh…" What I was trying to say was that I had nothing to do with the card. I didn't even know anything about this plan until it was too late! But Kaiba's icy demeanor frightened me. His blue eyes lay transfixed on me, and he did not seem very happy at the moment. Well, the guy actually never was.
"What you're trying to tell me," Kaiba said, "Is that you have no idea what I'm talking about. I find that very amusing…
"Look, I don't want you or your idiotic friends interfering with me again. So I'd suggest that you stay out of my way and tell your friends to stop being morons."
He threw the Tenderness card at me none too gently and was off again, packing up his DuelPort.
Mokuba, who had apparently overheard our conversation, walked over towards me. I knew that he was probably going to apologize for his brother's behavior, which he noticed at last to not be normal. But I was beyond comforting now. What Kaiba had just told me was that my friends were worthless. I was worthless.
"Hey…" Mokuba began to say, but stopped there when he truly saw how affected I was by Kaiba's cold remarks.
"Hi," I said back. I didn't make an effort to look up at him. There was nothing that the little kid could do to cheer me up. I hadn't even done anything wrong to Kaiba, and because of Tea and Mai's dumb plan, he was blaming this all on me!
"I'm sorry about what my brother said," he stated after a while. But it wasn't like Mokuba to say anything negative about his brother, whom he looked to for anything.
"Mokuba," I said as I let him sit next to me on the sidewalk, "Don't be sorry for whatever your brother does. It's his actions, not yours."
"Hmm…" he said with a bit of thought. "I guess I'll see you later then…"
He ran off after his brother, again lugging a large briefcase after him. After catching up with his brother, he began to talk to him quietly. But I didn't want sympathy from Mokuba, despite the fact that he was probably the only person that could change Kaiba.
I met up with Yugi, Joey, and Tristan after that extremely upsetting encounter, since I didn't know what would happen if I saw either Mai or Tea.
But I knew that I would meet up with one of them eventually. Just that I didn't know that they would be hiding from me.
And I finally did find them both at the water fountain. They looked like as if they were nervous… or was it scared? I couldn't tell when they hid their faces from me.
I sat down next to them. With my mixed emotions of sadness and anger, I didn't know what would happen if I began to talk first.
"I'm sorry…" Mai began in a tone that was hardly recognizable for someone like her. For once, she didn't sound quite so happy.
"So you heard?" I asked, trying to hide the quaver in my voice.
"Yes." Tea obviously did not approve of her and Mai's eavesdropping.
"Well, I hope that you're happy that Kaiba now thinks I'm an idiot." I couldn't direct my anger towards Mai, not while she looked so down.
Tea didn't reply. But I could read an unspoken feeling of regret from her and Mai.
I sighed, and tried to enlighten myself. "Guys, don't worry about it. I never did say that I liked him, right?"
Mai managed a smile. "No, you didn't."
"Then what are we all getting mad or sad over?" Even as I said those words, I knew that I was still upset over Kaiba.
Again no one responded. But I dragged both of my friends to settle down over some ice cream. A friendship ended over love is a very weak friendship indeed.
The next week passed by in a blur. Perhaps it was because I was overjoyed about how Mai acted even nicer to me than before. But she only remained that way once she knew that I was no longer upset at her.
I even managed to avoid anymore ugly encounters with Mr. CEO. I still met up with Mokuba quite often, though. But I did not ask him about how his brother felt; it would seem awkward to question him about that, even if he would answer my questions. Kaiba probably didn't even talk to him about that kind of stuff.
So it seemed that my life was returning to normal again, before I met up with Kaiba all of those times.
But I could see the restlessness in the gang when it came to dueling. The Duelist Corner obviously was not settling the desire of some duelists.
And then the solution to our problems came. It came in the form of mail- for Yugi, Joey, Mai, and I.
At first I was shocked to read the mail that contained news of a new dueling tournament. But my surprise turned to relief as I realized how bored the whole gang was. At least now we would be occupied.
What was mysterious about the invitation, though, was how it was anonymous. There was no return address, and the letter did not reveal who was behind the tournament. Of course, that brought up the question of its authenticity. Could Kaiba be hosing another tournament?
No, I said to myself. I remembered how he made an appearance in Domino City when he announced the beginning of the Battle City tournament. He was also probably still fuming about how he lost in his own tournament last time. He wouldn't be secretive about something like this.
"I bet that creep's still cryin' ova the last one!" Joey exclaimed as I suggested that Kaiba wasn't behind this tournament.
"So then who is?" I asked one of those questions that didn't expect to be answered.
"Well, I guess it's on an island…" Yugi began, "Since it's named Champion Island…"
"Eh, what're we gonna do?" Tristan asked. "Some of here didn't get an invitation!"
It was true as I looked over at him, Tea, and Serenity. They probably weren't invited because they weren't duelists…
"I suppose you guys could sneak in like you did at Duelist Kingdom," Mai suggested.
"Mai, that's too dangerous!" Tea protested. "We almost got caught last time!"
"Aw, what's an adventure without a little bit of fun?" Mai asked with a smile. "But if you don't want to get caught, then there might not be any other way…"
On the morning of our arrival, Tea, Tristan, and Serenity decided to take their chances by just following us. But as I stood on line to the boat, I could see that the guards were verifying the duelists by their invitations. Not a good sign.
Tea panicked as she, too, saw the guards. "Guys, I knew that this wouldn't work!" she cried. "They'll see that we don't have invitations!"
We moved ahead in the line, coming closer to our doom.
"Tea, don't be so loud!" Serenity pleaded. Already people were staring at us, not only because of our defiance to move ahead in the line, but also because of our loud complaining.
But we would reach the guards eventually. They checked Yugi's invitation, then Joey's, Mai's, and finally mine. But I was surprised when the guards took a good look at our friends without invitations and allowed them onto the ship.
As I stepped up the stairs leading into the hallway of the ship, I looked up ahead at my friends, who were in darkness. The entire hallway was pitch-black. I looked back at the guards, and although they were out in the daylight, their faces, too, were shrouded in darkness.
And a hearty thanks to the reviewers!
KatrinaKaiba: Thanks! I'm trying to take the relationship between the two slow since they're still getting to know one another... and Kaiba won the duel. If Joey had, then I'm sure he would've been rampaging about it somewhere in that chapter :P
Yun Fei: Yes, Belinda is an original character, I wanted to develop Kaiba's emotions as realistically as I could, knowing that he doesn't quite have interests in girls at first sight, so he being cold to Belinda at first is his way of being normal, go figure... As for the 'action' part that you're anticipating, that will come soon enough in chapters coming up once the gang realizes the danger they are in with the tournament.
Chapter 6 is coming up next, it's not really a full-length chapter, just a fun chapter while the gang is on board the ship, but it also reveals some of Belinda's feelings about the tourney approaching.