Lass: People are reading this, people are reviewing this! I'm on top of the
world!
Serenity: Cool down, Lass. It's not as if you're becoming a millionaire by writing fics about stuff you don't even own.
Mokuba: I checked the reviews. I suggest you'd thank MistressMoonDemon, Chibi-Kari, Sologirl, BlackIce29, Tinyflyer02 and Lady-Wicca666 for their fantastic reviews. I loved all of them, and so did Lass and Serenity.
Serenity: And about the disclaimer; if you are too stupid to know yet, Lass doesn't own Yu-Gi-Oh, ok?
Lass: On with the story.
Serenity woke up lying in her bed. [Kuri,] she cried as she saw the cute little Monster sitting besides her.
{{Serenity, you're up! Finally!}} He seemed very relieved, and as she watched the clock, Serenity could understand why. It was 11 pm!
{Seren!} DarkMG flew into the room, carrying some damp clothes. {I'm so glad you finally got up! Now, let me help you, while you explain what happened,} she said, while washing Serenity's wounds with the clothes.
Serenity was in great pain, but she knew it had to happen. She took her thoughts off it when she explained what had happened that day. [And then, he gave me a kick and left,] she finished her story.
{Jerk! I hope he'll never come back either,} DarkMG said hateful.
{{Yeah, I agree with that! He's really worth nothing,}} Kuri said, strangely harsh. Serenity didn't know how to handle this. She had never seen Kuri like this.
{Why won't you just go to the police? You've got all the proof you need, and if he's in jail, I'm sure one of your friends would take you in,} the female Duel Monster asked.
The bad thing of talking inside your mind is that thoughts that come and pass by can be heard too. The one Serenity accidentally let slip now shocked both of her friends.
[But what if he was right? What if they do hate me? What if...]
{Serenity!} DarkMG quickly interrupted. {You know he was lying. You know it! Don't deny it. You know they don't hate you! Now answer my question. Why don't you?}
[You don't have the faintest idea... I tried before, you know. Or better said my brother did. We were living at our fathers' and our mother was still alive.] This revelation hurt her, but she continued bravely. [He used to hit my brother and me when he was drunk. My brother moved out and my mother and I were left with that piece of scum. My mother didn't know anything about it. One time, my father went too far on me, and I turned to Joey for help. He called the police. The fact my mother didn't know anything didn't help; she couldn't testify. Father had always told us that if we told her, both she and we would be punished badly. My father talked himself out of it. He promised mother, Joey and me he would never do it again. It was all the alcohol, he kept repeating. It went well for a while, but one night, he came home. The look in his eyes told me it was wrong; it was. He started again, beating me up almost every night. I turned to my mother this time. She went to confront him and he...]
The words hung in the air, unspoken but clearly audible. [Murdered her...]
The silence was hanging in the air, pressing down on them. Quietly, Serenity started to sob. Both DarkMG and Kuri went over to her and hugged her. Serenity closed the mind link from her side, not willing the two Monsters to see the images that came up now. As time continued, Serenity cried herself to sleep, fleeing from this horrible thing called life.
The weekend went by slowly. Serenity stayed inside the whole time, working on her Monster Square. She tried to make it smaller, so that she would eventually be able to take it with her, if she needed it.
On Sunday afternoon, a victory cry sounded trough the apartment. [Guys, come over here!] Serenity called them. [Quick! I want you to see this!]
They both came into the room. {What's up, Seren?} DarkMG asked.
[This!] They saw Serenity holding up something exactly the form of a Duel Monster card. This was thicker than one, though. It was almost of the same thickness as twenty of them, looking somewhat like a wallet as Serenity opened it and it split into two parts, which were still holding on to each other. [You'll be right back,] she told them happily as she pulled their cards out of her Monster Square, immediately putting them back into the wallet-like thing.
Indeed, the two Monsters appeared in front of her again. {It feels... different,} DarkMG told her.
Serenity closed the thing and put it inside her pocket. [It should! If everything went as I wanted it to, you're more real as ever now. And I know a way to test it,] she said, looking at DarkMG now.
{What?} DarkMG asked a little unsure.
[We're going to look if you fit in my clothes,] Serenity answered happily, walking over to her wardrobe.
{{Ok,}} Kuri said, grinning. Serenity opened the door. Both of the Monsters were watching, one exited and the other doubtfully, when Serenity's head shot up.
[Hide!] she called as she opened the door widely. They ducked into the wardrobe just in time to avoid being seen by the person entering the room; Serenity's father.
But he didn't seem mad or angered at all now. He just seemed serious. "Serenity," he started. "I need to tell you something. At this business trip, I met someone who was pretty interested in working with me. I accepted his offer, but it does mean I will be away very much the next couple of weeks. You'll be at home alone a lot. I do want it to be clean if I return, no matter when that is, remember that. Now I'll be leaving. I just came by to tell you this and pick up some stuff."
His voice was harsh. "Yes father," Serenity answered.
Her father walked at the door, and Serenity was cheering inside. Then, he spun around swiftly, grabbing her cheek in his hand. She winced, because it hurt very much. "And don't you ever, ever dare tell anyone."
"N...no, father." He smirked and then left, leaving Serenity alone. She stumbled over to her bed, and sat on it. Her friends came out of the wardrobe, looking at her with worried faces.
[It's ok, guys. I think I'm going to have some very nice weeks,] she said, a certain light burning in her eyes which hadn't been there for a very long time.
The next few weeks flew by. Serenity's life finally went fine. She had just told Yami, the next time they met, she wasn't lying, and though he still didn't buy it, he let it pass as Serenity seemed to be doing just fine.
Kaiba was completely avoiding and ignoring her. They both hated it, but on the other side, they both liked it either. No strange thoughts or feelings, and not being reminded of each other that much either.
After one week, Serenity went to school with hardly any body paint on. There were no new bruises or scratches. Still, she had to hide the scars.
Her father was barely ever at home, most of the time working. She was relieved. She hadn't been beaten for a while now. The house was always clean if he came around, which wasn't often at all.
Serenity was happy now. At the moment, she was the innocent, carefree teen she should have been always, with no worries at all. Her grades were perfect, her friends were incredibly kind to her and she had no abusive father to worry about.
She hadn't noticed her friends were extra happy hen she was around. They had all agreed in doing that, all of them noticing Serenity's change. She just seemed so carefree, and neither one of them wanted to ruin that.
Unbeknownst to Serenity or anyone else, something seemed to be brewing...
"Good afternoon everybody!" Serenity screamed as she ran out of the school building. "Had a nice day everyone?"
They all smiled as they saw the happy girl running up to them. "Yes, and you look like you have too!" Yugi called back. "Hey Serenity, would you like to come to the Game shop with us, to hang around a little."
"I'd love it. Let's go and get there then," Serenity said, causing all of them to burst out in laughter. "What's up?" she asked them innocently.
"It's nothing, little sis, but you were so enthusiastic, it was just funny," Joey replied.
Just then, someone else came running up to them. "Hey there, wait for me!" As they turned around, they saw Mokuba catching up with them.
"Hi there, Mokuba. What's up?" Yugi asked the ebony-haired boy.
"Uhm, well..." Mokuba seemed to hesitate a little. "I'd like to ask you something. You see, Seto has this business meeting this afternoon, and of course I can't go with him, so I'd like to ask if I could... maybe... hang out with you guys this afternoon. Seto would come and pick me up as soon as he's ready."
They all started to laugh as Mokuba put on his puppy dog face. "Don't worry, Mokuba," Tea laughed. "You can come with us already. We were planning on hanging around in Yugi's grandfather's shop."
"Cool! Thank you all!"
"No thanks, Mokuba. You're our friend, remember?" Tristan pointed out.
They started walking to the game shop, and Mokuba ended up besides Serenity. "Hey Serenity! Long time not seen, huh?" he started. "So, how have you been doing lately?"
"I'm just fine, thank you, Mokuba. And how are you?"
"Fine too. Hey, have you heard about that game..." They talked all along the way, both getting along great with each other.
"Hey you guys. Did you two notice you almost walked past the shop?" Mai's voice interrupted their conversation.
"Oops... I guess we didn't notice," Serenity giggled slightly.
They all got inside, as they decided on what to do now. They agreed to watch a movie first, and then look around inside the shop a little.
Yugi's grandfather entered the room where they were watching the movie. It was just finished, so Yugi turned around. "What's up?" he asked.
"There's someone here to see Serenity," the old man answered. "Some boy who says she owes him a rematch."
"Oh, ok, thank you mr Motou," Serenity answered. "I'll be right there."
"What's this all about?" Joey asked his sister, but then remembered what had happened a few weeks ago. "Oh yeah, I remember. I do want to see you Duel, Seren."
"Fine by me," Serenity stated as she walked into the shop, followed by all of her friends.
"You don't mind if we have some company, do you?" she asked the challenger.
"No, that's fine by me. I just want to win this time. And according to the original rules this time, please."
"What? The only thing I change is that you can pick the card you win yourself, instead of just taking the rarest. If you'd win, you can always just pick my rarest. But if it doesn't fit into your deck, you can also pick another one you like better. What's so bad about that"
"Nothing, really. I don't know why I even bothered. Let's just start this, ok?"
They put the Duel Discs around their arms. "Ok, it's time to duel!"
"I'm sorry to say, but my Dark Magician Girl beats your Monster, which leaves you with 1000 life points."
"That's still 300 life points more than you."
Serenity now had Dark Magician Girl, Kuriboh and his old Koumori Dragon on the field, while the other Duellist had one Gemini Elf and his Tri-Horned Dragon lying. Serenity had two closed cards, but the other had one.
As usual, they ignored the ringing of the shop's doorbell, showing someone had entered. They had gathered quite a big audience now. The person who had just entered was paid no attention. 'Where is everybody, and where is my brother?'
Then he saw the great amount of people standing around... something. He walked over there and saw there was a Duel going on. Because he was so tall, he could easily see it. He gasped slightly when he saw who was Duelling; Wheeler's sister. Things didn't look good for her, and her opponent just attacked her with his Tri-Horned Dragon.
"This means your Koumori Dragon is out. And since it hasn't got enough attack, I destroyed all of your life points."
"I wouldn't cheer this early! I reveal two of my closed cards, both Reinforcements. This does mean my Koumori Dragon is out, but I'm not. I've got 350 life points left," Serenity said.
"You're not out this turn, but you will be next time. Now, it's your turn."
Things were really looking hopeless for Serenity. Still, she started to smirk. "You're going to wish you had never said those three words. I draw a card. Now, I'll play Just Desserts on you, and you have two Monsters, which means you'll lose 1000 life points; your exact amount of life points."
"Not so fast," he said, smirking. "I play Remove Trap, so now, your trap card isn't working! Now what are you going to do?"
His triumphant smirk was just answered by a slight smile of Serenity. "I'm going to beat you... You have just played your only closed card, which means I have none to fear now, as I play my last closed card. I'll play Stop Defence on your Gemini Elf, so it's in attack mode now."
The boy started to look as if he was in a very tight spot. He was. "If I attack your Gemini Elf with my Dark Magician Girl now, it's out, and so are you!"
Dark Magician Girl's 2000 attack points beat the 900 of Gemini Elf, which was also the boy's end.
"Yay," Joey cheered. "That's the sixth one in a row, Seren! I never knew you were this good."
A rosy blush accented Serenity's cheeks. "It's not that hard," she said.
"Now, which one of my cards do you want?" the boy asked.
Serenity looked as if she was thinking, which she was. "You don't seem to like your Feral Imp a lot, do you?"
"No, I hate the card. But I put every card I have in my deck, so it's in it too."
Serenity smiled at him. "Then I'll take it from you."
The boy sighed in relief, while some of the people standing by gasped and said things like: "It's a weak card," and "Why pick that card if you can get his Tri-Horned Dragon?"
Serenity didn't bother and picked the card from the boy's hand. Kaiba was pretty surprised as well. As the other people left the shop, he was thinking. From what he had seen of the boy's deck, he seemed to have pretty good cards, and he was not only surprised by the card she took. How had she ever managed to beat him in a Duel?
He got the answer when he walked over to his brother, who was talking to Serenity.
"Hey Seren, how did you manage to beat those guys? I mean, they were all pretty good."
Serenity smiled as she explained. "Those guys didn't seem to think their Monsters could feel any emotions. If you know they do, you only have to watch for a second before you see what a monster can and can't do. Also, you have to know your Deck pretty good."
"But Serenity, why did you pick his Feral Imp. It's almost his weakest card," Mokuba questioned.
"As I just told you, they have emotions. Feral Imp wasn't at all happy with him. I noticed, so I took Feral Imp. It's going to be happy to be with someone else now, and it will be thankful I took it away. Also, the losing duellist won't be the least angry at me; he didn't like the card anyways, so why bother if I took it away after a fair Duel?"
"Could you teach me how to Duel?"
"Mokuba, you have a big brother who is one of the best in the world! Why would you want me to..." Serenity had just noticed Kaiba listening in.
"I came to pick up Mokuba," he stated coldly.
"Big brother!" Mokuba started to hug him. "How was your afternoon?"
"Fine. Can we go now, I don't like being near these pieces of garbage," he said, referring to Yugi and his friends.
Mokuba, who stood close to Serenity, whispered quietly: "Sorry, I have no idea what's gotten into him. Usually, he isn't like this."
"It doesn't matter," Serenity whispered back. "Probably, something went wrong at the meeting or something."
In fact, it wasn't the meeting that annoyed him. He had avoided Serenity for a while now, but the fact his brother seemed to like her very much made him being unable to avoid her all the time. He hated talking to her. He always seemed to have the urge to let his guard down in her presence, and he never did that.
Angrily, he walked out of the shop, Mokuba following close behind, leaving a very confused, and even sad Serenity.
"Oh my..." Joey said. "It's already pretty late. I guess I'll go home now."
The others agreed, all greeting each other and telling each other they'd see each other there again next morning.
As Serenity walked home, or rather said, ran home, she was very happy. She had shown her brother she could Duel, and he even said she was good. She doubted that a little, taking it as a compliment to make her feel better.
At home, she started making dinner for herself. After having eaten, she went to her room to make some homework.
She was already busy for a while when she heard the door to the apartment open. She didn't know who it could be. The only one besides her who had a key was her father. But he shouldn't be home this early. This couldn't be good.
She flinched as she heard the door slam closed, and she knew this wasn't good. No, this wasn't good at all...
Lass: I hope you all liked this. Everybody please review!
Serenity: Cool down, Lass. It's not as if you're becoming a millionaire by writing fics about stuff you don't even own.
Mokuba: I checked the reviews. I suggest you'd thank MistressMoonDemon, Chibi-Kari, Sologirl, BlackIce29, Tinyflyer02 and Lady-Wicca666 for their fantastic reviews. I loved all of them, and so did Lass and Serenity.
Serenity: And about the disclaimer; if you are too stupid to know yet, Lass doesn't own Yu-Gi-Oh, ok?
Lass: On with the story.
Serenity woke up lying in her bed. [Kuri,] she cried as she saw the cute little Monster sitting besides her.
{{Serenity, you're up! Finally!}} He seemed very relieved, and as she watched the clock, Serenity could understand why. It was 11 pm!
{Seren!} DarkMG flew into the room, carrying some damp clothes. {I'm so glad you finally got up! Now, let me help you, while you explain what happened,} she said, while washing Serenity's wounds with the clothes.
Serenity was in great pain, but she knew it had to happen. She took her thoughts off it when she explained what had happened that day. [And then, he gave me a kick and left,] she finished her story.
{Jerk! I hope he'll never come back either,} DarkMG said hateful.
{{Yeah, I agree with that! He's really worth nothing,}} Kuri said, strangely harsh. Serenity didn't know how to handle this. She had never seen Kuri like this.
{Why won't you just go to the police? You've got all the proof you need, and if he's in jail, I'm sure one of your friends would take you in,} the female Duel Monster asked.
The bad thing of talking inside your mind is that thoughts that come and pass by can be heard too. The one Serenity accidentally let slip now shocked both of her friends.
[But what if he was right? What if they do hate me? What if...]
{Serenity!} DarkMG quickly interrupted. {You know he was lying. You know it! Don't deny it. You know they don't hate you! Now answer my question. Why don't you?}
[You don't have the faintest idea... I tried before, you know. Or better said my brother did. We were living at our fathers' and our mother was still alive.] This revelation hurt her, but she continued bravely. [He used to hit my brother and me when he was drunk. My brother moved out and my mother and I were left with that piece of scum. My mother didn't know anything about it. One time, my father went too far on me, and I turned to Joey for help. He called the police. The fact my mother didn't know anything didn't help; she couldn't testify. Father had always told us that if we told her, both she and we would be punished badly. My father talked himself out of it. He promised mother, Joey and me he would never do it again. It was all the alcohol, he kept repeating. It went well for a while, but one night, he came home. The look in his eyes told me it was wrong; it was. He started again, beating me up almost every night. I turned to my mother this time. She went to confront him and he...]
The words hung in the air, unspoken but clearly audible. [Murdered her...]
The silence was hanging in the air, pressing down on them. Quietly, Serenity started to sob. Both DarkMG and Kuri went over to her and hugged her. Serenity closed the mind link from her side, not willing the two Monsters to see the images that came up now. As time continued, Serenity cried herself to sleep, fleeing from this horrible thing called life.
The weekend went by slowly. Serenity stayed inside the whole time, working on her Monster Square. She tried to make it smaller, so that she would eventually be able to take it with her, if she needed it.
On Sunday afternoon, a victory cry sounded trough the apartment. [Guys, come over here!] Serenity called them. [Quick! I want you to see this!]
They both came into the room. {What's up, Seren?} DarkMG asked.
[This!] They saw Serenity holding up something exactly the form of a Duel Monster card. This was thicker than one, though. It was almost of the same thickness as twenty of them, looking somewhat like a wallet as Serenity opened it and it split into two parts, which were still holding on to each other. [You'll be right back,] she told them happily as she pulled their cards out of her Monster Square, immediately putting them back into the wallet-like thing.
Indeed, the two Monsters appeared in front of her again. {It feels... different,} DarkMG told her.
Serenity closed the thing and put it inside her pocket. [It should! If everything went as I wanted it to, you're more real as ever now. And I know a way to test it,] she said, looking at DarkMG now.
{What?} DarkMG asked a little unsure.
[We're going to look if you fit in my clothes,] Serenity answered happily, walking over to her wardrobe.
{{Ok,}} Kuri said, grinning. Serenity opened the door. Both of the Monsters were watching, one exited and the other doubtfully, when Serenity's head shot up.
[Hide!] she called as she opened the door widely. They ducked into the wardrobe just in time to avoid being seen by the person entering the room; Serenity's father.
But he didn't seem mad or angered at all now. He just seemed serious. "Serenity," he started. "I need to tell you something. At this business trip, I met someone who was pretty interested in working with me. I accepted his offer, but it does mean I will be away very much the next couple of weeks. You'll be at home alone a lot. I do want it to be clean if I return, no matter when that is, remember that. Now I'll be leaving. I just came by to tell you this and pick up some stuff."
His voice was harsh. "Yes father," Serenity answered.
Her father walked at the door, and Serenity was cheering inside. Then, he spun around swiftly, grabbing her cheek in his hand. She winced, because it hurt very much. "And don't you ever, ever dare tell anyone."
"N...no, father." He smirked and then left, leaving Serenity alone. She stumbled over to her bed, and sat on it. Her friends came out of the wardrobe, looking at her with worried faces.
[It's ok, guys. I think I'm going to have some very nice weeks,] she said, a certain light burning in her eyes which hadn't been there for a very long time.
The next few weeks flew by. Serenity's life finally went fine. She had just told Yami, the next time they met, she wasn't lying, and though he still didn't buy it, he let it pass as Serenity seemed to be doing just fine.
Kaiba was completely avoiding and ignoring her. They both hated it, but on the other side, they both liked it either. No strange thoughts or feelings, and not being reminded of each other that much either.
After one week, Serenity went to school with hardly any body paint on. There were no new bruises or scratches. Still, she had to hide the scars.
Her father was barely ever at home, most of the time working. She was relieved. She hadn't been beaten for a while now. The house was always clean if he came around, which wasn't often at all.
Serenity was happy now. At the moment, she was the innocent, carefree teen she should have been always, with no worries at all. Her grades were perfect, her friends were incredibly kind to her and she had no abusive father to worry about.
She hadn't noticed her friends were extra happy hen she was around. They had all agreed in doing that, all of them noticing Serenity's change. She just seemed so carefree, and neither one of them wanted to ruin that.
Unbeknownst to Serenity or anyone else, something seemed to be brewing...
"Good afternoon everybody!" Serenity screamed as she ran out of the school building. "Had a nice day everyone?"
They all smiled as they saw the happy girl running up to them. "Yes, and you look like you have too!" Yugi called back. "Hey Serenity, would you like to come to the Game shop with us, to hang around a little."
"I'd love it. Let's go and get there then," Serenity said, causing all of them to burst out in laughter. "What's up?" she asked them innocently.
"It's nothing, little sis, but you were so enthusiastic, it was just funny," Joey replied.
Just then, someone else came running up to them. "Hey there, wait for me!" As they turned around, they saw Mokuba catching up with them.
"Hi there, Mokuba. What's up?" Yugi asked the ebony-haired boy.
"Uhm, well..." Mokuba seemed to hesitate a little. "I'd like to ask you something. You see, Seto has this business meeting this afternoon, and of course I can't go with him, so I'd like to ask if I could... maybe... hang out with you guys this afternoon. Seto would come and pick me up as soon as he's ready."
They all started to laugh as Mokuba put on his puppy dog face. "Don't worry, Mokuba," Tea laughed. "You can come with us already. We were planning on hanging around in Yugi's grandfather's shop."
"Cool! Thank you all!"
"No thanks, Mokuba. You're our friend, remember?" Tristan pointed out.
They started walking to the game shop, and Mokuba ended up besides Serenity. "Hey Serenity! Long time not seen, huh?" he started. "So, how have you been doing lately?"
"I'm just fine, thank you, Mokuba. And how are you?"
"Fine too. Hey, have you heard about that game..." They talked all along the way, both getting along great with each other.
"Hey you guys. Did you two notice you almost walked past the shop?" Mai's voice interrupted their conversation.
"Oops... I guess we didn't notice," Serenity giggled slightly.
They all got inside, as they decided on what to do now. They agreed to watch a movie first, and then look around inside the shop a little.
Yugi's grandfather entered the room where they were watching the movie. It was just finished, so Yugi turned around. "What's up?" he asked.
"There's someone here to see Serenity," the old man answered. "Some boy who says she owes him a rematch."
"Oh, ok, thank you mr Motou," Serenity answered. "I'll be right there."
"What's this all about?" Joey asked his sister, but then remembered what had happened a few weeks ago. "Oh yeah, I remember. I do want to see you Duel, Seren."
"Fine by me," Serenity stated as she walked into the shop, followed by all of her friends.
"You don't mind if we have some company, do you?" she asked the challenger.
"No, that's fine by me. I just want to win this time. And according to the original rules this time, please."
"What? The only thing I change is that you can pick the card you win yourself, instead of just taking the rarest. If you'd win, you can always just pick my rarest. But if it doesn't fit into your deck, you can also pick another one you like better. What's so bad about that"
"Nothing, really. I don't know why I even bothered. Let's just start this, ok?"
They put the Duel Discs around their arms. "Ok, it's time to duel!"
"I'm sorry to say, but my Dark Magician Girl beats your Monster, which leaves you with 1000 life points."
"That's still 300 life points more than you."
Serenity now had Dark Magician Girl, Kuriboh and his old Koumori Dragon on the field, while the other Duellist had one Gemini Elf and his Tri-Horned Dragon lying. Serenity had two closed cards, but the other had one.
As usual, they ignored the ringing of the shop's doorbell, showing someone had entered. They had gathered quite a big audience now. The person who had just entered was paid no attention. 'Where is everybody, and where is my brother?'
Then he saw the great amount of people standing around... something. He walked over there and saw there was a Duel going on. Because he was so tall, he could easily see it. He gasped slightly when he saw who was Duelling; Wheeler's sister. Things didn't look good for her, and her opponent just attacked her with his Tri-Horned Dragon.
"This means your Koumori Dragon is out. And since it hasn't got enough attack, I destroyed all of your life points."
"I wouldn't cheer this early! I reveal two of my closed cards, both Reinforcements. This does mean my Koumori Dragon is out, but I'm not. I've got 350 life points left," Serenity said.
"You're not out this turn, but you will be next time. Now, it's your turn."
Things were really looking hopeless for Serenity. Still, she started to smirk. "You're going to wish you had never said those three words. I draw a card. Now, I'll play Just Desserts on you, and you have two Monsters, which means you'll lose 1000 life points; your exact amount of life points."
"Not so fast," he said, smirking. "I play Remove Trap, so now, your trap card isn't working! Now what are you going to do?"
His triumphant smirk was just answered by a slight smile of Serenity. "I'm going to beat you... You have just played your only closed card, which means I have none to fear now, as I play my last closed card. I'll play Stop Defence on your Gemini Elf, so it's in attack mode now."
The boy started to look as if he was in a very tight spot. He was. "If I attack your Gemini Elf with my Dark Magician Girl now, it's out, and so are you!"
Dark Magician Girl's 2000 attack points beat the 900 of Gemini Elf, which was also the boy's end.
"Yay," Joey cheered. "That's the sixth one in a row, Seren! I never knew you were this good."
A rosy blush accented Serenity's cheeks. "It's not that hard," she said.
"Now, which one of my cards do you want?" the boy asked.
Serenity looked as if she was thinking, which she was. "You don't seem to like your Feral Imp a lot, do you?"
"No, I hate the card. But I put every card I have in my deck, so it's in it too."
Serenity smiled at him. "Then I'll take it from you."
The boy sighed in relief, while some of the people standing by gasped and said things like: "It's a weak card," and "Why pick that card if you can get his Tri-Horned Dragon?"
Serenity didn't bother and picked the card from the boy's hand. Kaiba was pretty surprised as well. As the other people left the shop, he was thinking. From what he had seen of the boy's deck, he seemed to have pretty good cards, and he was not only surprised by the card she took. How had she ever managed to beat him in a Duel?
He got the answer when he walked over to his brother, who was talking to Serenity.
"Hey Seren, how did you manage to beat those guys? I mean, they were all pretty good."
Serenity smiled as she explained. "Those guys didn't seem to think their Monsters could feel any emotions. If you know they do, you only have to watch for a second before you see what a monster can and can't do. Also, you have to know your Deck pretty good."
"But Serenity, why did you pick his Feral Imp. It's almost his weakest card," Mokuba questioned.
"As I just told you, they have emotions. Feral Imp wasn't at all happy with him. I noticed, so I took Feral Imp. It's going to be happy to be with someone else now, and it will be thankful I took it away. Also, the losing duellist won't be the least angry at me; he didn't like the card anyways, so why bother if I took it away after a fair Duel?"
"Could you teach me how to Duel?"
"Mokuba, you have a big brother who is one of the best in the world! Why would you want me to..." Serenity had just noticed Kaiba listening in.
"I came to pick up Mokuba," he stated coldly.
"Big brother!" Mokuba started to hug him. "How was your afternoon?"
"Fine. Can we go now, I don't like being near these pieces of garbage," he said, referring to Yugi and his friends.
Mokuba, who stood close to Serenity, whispered quietly: "Sorry, I have no idea what's gotten into him. Usually, he isn't like this."
"It doesn't matter," Serenity whispered back. "Probably, something went wrong at the meeting or something."
In fact, it wasn't the meeting that annoyed him. He had avoided Serenity for a while now, but the fact his brother seemed to like her very much made him being unable to avoid her all the time. He hated talking to her. He always seemed to have the urge to let his guard down in her presence, and he never did that.
Angrily, he walked out of the shop, Mokuba following close behind, leaving a very confused, and even sad Serenity.
"Oh my..." Joey said. "It's already pretty late. I guess I'll go home now."
The others agreed, all greeting each other and telling each other they'd see each other there again next morning.
As Serenity walked home, or rather said, ran home, she was very happy. She had shown her brother she could Duel, and he even said she was good. She doubted that a little, taking it as a compliment to make her feel better.
At home, she started making dinner for herself. After having eaten, she went to her room to make some homework.
She was already busy for a while when she heard the door to the apartment open. She didn't know who it could be. The only one besides her who had a key was her father. But he shouldn't be home this early. This couldn't be good.
She flinched as she heard the door slam closed, and she knew this wasn't good. No, this wasn't good at all...
Lass: I hope you all liked this. Everybody please review!