Lass: Thank you for your many reviews, anyone! I always try to answer
questions of reviewers in my story. I hope I did a good job. Mokuba, who is
usually here too, has fallen ill and Serenity is nursing him, so... Oh yeah,
I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh, but the plot of this story is completely mine and I
have the right to call this laptop mine too, so please don't try to steal
it... Now, on with the story!
Serenity was shivering. 'What could've happened? He shouldn't be home yet!'
She heard hard footsteps coming upstairs. She easily recognized them as her father's, and she was desperately looking around, trying to find something to hide. 'Oh no!' her mind screamed.
BANG! Her door was slammed open, leaving Serenity sitting on her bed, frozen in fear. Indeed, in the opening of her door, she saw her father. She could smell the alcohol hanging around him, telling her he had been drinking.
Afraid, though curious, she asked him the question with a very thin voice. "W... what happened, father?"
His piercing eyes were looking into her frightened stare, bloodshot and clearly raging, fuming. "What happened?!" he screamed. "I got fired! That's what happened!"
"W... what are you going to do now?" Serenity asked, though frightened.
Instead of answering her question, he walked to her in two big steps. "No... Please, not again," she whimpered. "Please, don't start again. It went so well..." But her father didn't hear her anymore.
Madness seemed to have got a hold of him, and it wasn't planning on releasing anytime anymore. "It's just your fault! Everything is just your fault!" he yelled, while grabbing her arm. Her last bruises were just healed, and her skin was almost normal again now.
But it seemed like he had to catch up on things, when he threw her across the room, making her slam against the wall. "No... Not again... Please..." Serenity kept whimpering, though knowing it wouldn't help.
Once again thrown through the room, she came down next to the door. She immediately ran out, running through the living room. As she heard her father coming inside too, she got into the room which was the closest by; the bathroom. She pulled the door closed, but before she could lock it, it was flung open by her father.
He grabbed at her hair while she was screaming in pain. Putting his sweaty hand in front of her mouth and nose, he quieted her. "Don't you dare scream," he hissed in her ear. He then threw her across the bathroom, making her hit the mirror on the wall. It shattered in a thousand pieces. Serenity picked up a piece and, as her father attacked her again, she threw it to him. It hit his arm, getting her nowhere but getting her father even more pissed off.
He grabbed her wrist and threw her down, into the pieces of shattered glass. Tears were now streaming down her cheeks, merging with the fresh blood that was there. It had started again...
Every time he hit her, the pain became vaguer. Finally, everything went back as Serenity passed out, running once again for the cruelty of her father.
Kaiba felt restless as he and Mokuba came home, Mokuba babbling happily about the movie they had watched that afternoon. They just came from some restaurant where they had eaten dinner.
A maid came. "Master Mokuba, you have to go to bed. It's way past your bedtime, and you have school tomorrow."
"I'm coming, Maria. G'night, Seto!" he cried happily as he followed the maid upstairs.
He still felt... wrong. Something wasn't right. When he sat down behind his laptop to work, words wouldn't come to his mind. He slammed the keys of the machine. "What the hell is going on!?" he screamed, extremely pissed off.
All of his maids and servants knew not to enter his room now, unless they wanted to be fired. They heard the oldest Kaiba slamming his fist into the wall.
"Damn!" Slightly calmed now, Kaiba sat down, panting. 'What's this? I can't even get a word on my paper! What the heck is keeping me from work? I need to find out. But how?'
'Maybe,' he thought sarcastically, 'I should get some sleep. I haven't slept very well lately, and I can't work at the moment anyways. My head will be clearer tomorrow.'
And, as Kaiba went to bed, the restlessness faded until it was nothing more than just some ignoring feeling in the back of his head. At first, he had a nightmare, where he was standing in darkness, while hearing a frightened girl scream, but being unable to see anything or move. After a while, though, it changed into a more peaceful dream, where he was just a kid, playing with his little brother, unaware of the pain of the world...
The next morning, the air was clouded and grey, but when Kaiba woke up, he was surprisingly well-rested. 'I haven't slept this well for a long time. I should do this more often.' He even sounded surprised.
"Good morning, big brother!" Mokuba dashed into his room. "You slept?" Kaiba chuckled at this. "What? You haven't slept for a long time. At least, not in your bed."
"I've slept great, Mokuba," Kaiba said, deciding to forget about the first part of his dream. It was about that strange girl that was screaming for help, and him being unable to fulfil her request. He had gotten frustrated, desperate. He had no idea, though, there was some strange, blond girl flowing outside his mansion, who was now landing on the ground. It was DarkMG...
{At least he knows how we feel if we're inside our cards, or the closet, or just away, now, Kuri. I'll go to his office this afternoon to talk to him. Or whatever...}
They had locked off this talk from Serenity's mind. They were freed by Serenity now. Well, practically. Their cards were inside the strange thing Serenity used to call the Monstriary (A/N: A combination of Monster and diary, what it looked like). They had indeed tried to get DarkMG into Serenity's clothes. It worked, and it didn't look that bad either. They had used some of the body paint of Serenity to cover up DarkMG's unnaturally red cheeks and she was now looking just like a normal girl. She had walked on the street a lot lately. There was only one problem to her so-called 'humanity'. She still couldn't talk, except for inside her mind, with Serenity and Kuri.
Unbeknownst to Serenity, DarkMG and Kuri had already known the guy would eventually come back and continue his beatings. They had tried looking for a solution, and finally found one.
Serenity had never been able to block them from coming into her mind and she didn't ever want it anyway, so they sometimes sneaked in. They had noticed some strange thoughts about some guy, who she secretly seemed to have some crush for. Just for fun, they had gone here because of that about a week ago. They thought he might make Serenity happier if her father returned. What they found surprised them both.
Just the fact they couldn't talk didn't mean they could not sneak into someone's mind. They were, though, unable to leave real words there like they could with Serenity. That was probably because the bond they shared was so strong. At the beginning, talking had been hard, but they had quickly become better. Now, it was some of like just talking. Better, to be honest. They could also send pictures to each other.
When they had gotten into this guy Kaiba's mind, they found out he seemed to like Serenity too, even if it was just a little. But, more importantly, they had also found some very shocking memories of his past. They had followed his whole life story, from the moment his mother died by giving birth to Mokuba, then his father dying out of grief, the orphanage and then Gozaburo Kaiba. They had been shocked to discover he had been trough almost the same as Serenity. His stepfather hit him if he didn't study enough. When the jerk took it out on Mokuba, they had discovered, Kaiba got rid of him once and for all. They realized Seto Kaiba would probably understand it, being trough the same.
When they noticed yesterday, while they were away, Serenity's state of mind; shocked, they quickly found out what was happening and went here. DarkMG, though trying to be as 'human' as she could, had now used her magic to get Kaiba as far as to get to sleep. She had then managed to enter this memory of hers into his dream. It had been hard. Getting him to sleep had already been hard, knowing he almost never slept and she wasn't used to do something with his mind, and entering his dream to get this in had been even harder. Without Kuri, she wouldn't have managed to do it, but luckily, the little Monster appeared to have more power then she had eventually thought. After that, she had used some of her powers to get the happy memories back into his dreaming state.
{{Yes, we did a nice job on this. And, he remembers the dream,}} Kuri cheerily answered.
Suddenly, he heard a shriek inside his mind. {Are you mad?!}
{{DarkMG, what's going on? What's happening?}} Kuri asked, shocked.
{She went to school! Serenity went to school! She has turned completely mad! She can barely walk; she almost bled to death yesterday evening! And now she's going to school!} She had blocked this tirade from Serenity's mind, but nevertheless, a tired voice answered.
[I know you are mad, DarkMG, and I know you have just told Kuri in a probably very angry, screaming way, but I need to. If I don't go to school, just the day after my father came home, they'll find out.]
{Why don't you let them? They'd help you out. I bet one...}
[No,] Serenity interrupted. [I'm too much of a burden for them anyway.]
{What the... What do you mean, Seren?} DarkMG was very alarmed now.
[I've never done anything useful to them. They all save people in their adventures, win Duels for their friends and are always nice and kind. I'm nothing but a burden. I always get into trouble, needing people to save me, hanging around them and making them worried by making a fool of myself and messing everything up. This is just justified punishment, and I won't ask help at this, bothering everyone.]
{Serenity! Serenity?} DarkMG was unable to reach the girl. {Kuri, she managed to lock off her mind completely! What will we do now?}
{{Watch it!}} Kuri yelled, but not in time.
"Hey! What are you doing there, girl? Don't you know this is a restricted area? How did you manage to get in anyway?" a voice behind DarkMG asked her. As she swiftly turned around, she saw two boys standing there. One tall brunette who was looking at her with piercing eyes and one younger one, almost hidden behind the back of the older one, with ebony hair and big, questioning eyes.
{Kuri, it is Kaiba and Mokuba! What do I have to do now?} she asked desperately.
"What? Cat got your tongue? I asked you a question."
DarkMG had already prepared for the talk she had wanted to do this afternoon, so she grabbed her chalkboard. I'm sorry, I can't talk, she scribbled down quickly.
"Fine, then write your answer on that chalkboard, and hurry it up. I don't wish to be late at school," he said, not bothering to apologize about his rude remarks.
I'd really wish I could talk at moments like this. I'd really like to have some nice discussion with you about your manners. She could write very quickly, thanks to her magic. As she wiped the words away after she had shown them to Kaiba, he pulled up an eyebrow questioning. But there's no time for this pretty talk. I was here to talk to you. I planned on doing that in the afternoon, but I just noticed I'm in a real hurry.
"Do you have anything to do today?" Kaiba asked.
No, I don't. But... Then, Kaiba interrupted.
"Just stop writing, would you. I'll come back this afternoon to talk to you about this thing. I need to go to school now, and you'd better be happy I'll talk to you. I'd like to know how you came in at least. My security is the best. Maria!"
The maid came walking to them. "What's the matter, Master Kaiba? Oh, who's this girl?" she asked, looking at DarkMG curiously.
"Look after her today. She can't talk. I'll be back this afternoon to talk to her." The maid nodded at the order of her Master. She took DarkMG at her arm.
"Come in, I'll just show you around."
DarkMG was still very worried. She could vaguely sense Serenity was very weak, but she had locked off her mind, making it unable for DarkMG to talk to her. {Kuri, can you talk to her?}
{{She completely locked off her mind, to both of us. There's nothing we can do about it. I hate to have to say that, though,}} Kuri sounded as if he was about to start crying. He had reasons enough for it now. Their mind link didn't only make it possible for them to support her mentally, by talking to her encouraging, but it also made it possible to lend their own strength to her. Both couldn't be done now, what made Serenity very weak. 'But,' they both thought at the same time, 'she seemed pretty determined today. So she might just be able to make it.'
Kaiba was looking as Maria walked away with the strange girl, stepping into his limousine, next to his little brother. He found her really interesting, but not as in love or something. As he had walked out of the house with Mokuba he saw her standing there, tense and seemingly somewhere else. She seemed more like something that didn't exist. When he had called for her, she proved to be real by turning around. But still something inhuman-like was over her, and it did not go away. And then she had wanted to talk to him about something urgently, it became even more tempting to stay and talk. But he really needed to go to school. He would talk to her this afternoon, and find out what was going on...
Serenity knew very well DarkMG and Kuri were hiding something from her and, even though they did not know, she had felt them going trough her head. But now, she locked them out, immediately feeling her power withdraw. But she really meant what she had said to them just moments ago. She would do this, put on her good old cheery mask she hadn't worn for weeks now.
She had very well known this wouldn't stay as perfect as this, and she had made some sort of study of her happy behaviour. Therefore, her mask was now better than ever, and only someone who was looking very closely and very well would be able to see what she was really feeling like. And because of the past few weeks, that kind of people weren't watching closely enough anymore.
Walking to school with her friends happily, Serenity still felt like a complete outcast. She shrugged it off as she was talking, or better call it whispering, to Mai. "Come on Mai, I know Joey likes you. I'm his little sister, I should know."
"But what if he refuses? What if he turns me down?"
"Mai, please... I know he likes you a lot. He probably even loves you. I bet he wouldn't turn you down. Haven't you ever noticed the way he looks at you? No..." she whispered forcefully when she saw Mai was about to interrupt. "I'm not ready talking yet. Even if, and that's a big if, Mai, very big, he refuses to go with you, it'd be his fault for turning you down, and it won't be just missing a date with a fantastic girl like you, Mai. I'd hunt him for the rest of his life, telling him all about how great you are, and how much of a great chance he missed when he refused to go out on a date with you. Now go and ask him, before we are at school."
"Oh..." Mai said, still a little unsure. "But he's still talking to Yugi, so..." Serenity grinned at the behaviour of her friend. She gave Mai a sly smile before turning to Joey and Yugi.
"Hey, Yugi, can I talk to you for a moment? Mai can talk to Joey so he won't be bored."
Yugi came walking to them, but Mai was still standing. Serenity gave her a push in Joey's direction. "Go for it, Harpy! You rule," she said while blinking at Mai. The blond girl was unable to crawl back now, so she gave Serenity a face and started walking to Joey.
"Seren, what's going on?" Yugi asked innocently.
"It's going to happen..." Serenity said while looking at Joey and Mai.
"What? Oh..." He fell quiet all of a sudden. "Do you think he will agree?"
"Agree? Agree? He'll be dancing with joy! I know my brother and..."
Suddenly they were interrupted by a cry. When they looked at where it was coming from, they smiled. Joey was dancing around Mai, yelling "of course I will, of course I will" all the time. Mai had a huge smile on her face, and the rest was standing by, also smiling and telling each other they 'had already known this was going to happen someday'.
"Well, you know your brother indeed," Yugi said, smiling. "I don't think anything can ruin his day now."
His words were soon put to test, because, as they were walking to the front of the school, a big limousine pulled up behind them, almost driving Joey off his feet. Everyone was looking in fear of what was going to happen now.
As Kaiba stepped out of it, everyone gasped in shock at what happened now. "Good morning, Kaiba. Isn't this a wonderful day?" Joey called before running into the school, going to tell all of his classmates about his date with Mai.
Kaiba was looking as if he was just hit by lightning. 'The mutt said good morning to me?' He now looked at all of the mutt's friends. They seemed shocked, but their expressions turned into happy ones very soon. "What's this all about?" he asked, wishing an explanation of Wheeler's strange behaviour. Before he got an answer, Mai ran into the school after her, which Kaiba didn't know, boyfriend.
Yugi giggled as he explained it to Kaiba, the rest being all busy shaking the hand of Wheeler's sister. "Serenity got Mai to ask Joey on a date," he told Kaiba, who soon got it. Joey and Mai were completely crazy about each other, everyone could see, but they were both too shy to ask the other for a date. It had finally happened now.
'Drop'
Some raindrop dared to fall out of the sky, predicting much more were to fall out. The ones who were still standing outside ran in now, going to their classes for another boring day of work.
'Seto Kaiba, CEO of Kaiba corp., richest teen in Japan, most wanted single, sitting in some stupid math class boring his ass of while he could've been working on a new Duel Disc or inventing something completely new or could've been winning a Duel now; yep, that would be me,' Kaiba thought, bored. He knew anything about maths anyway, so sitting here was completely boring him out of his mind. They still had two classes after this one. 'Shit, this happened last night, too,' he thought, while becoming drowsy.
'Well, maybe a little sleep wouldn't hurt,' he thought, knowing he didn't have a choice anyway. Then, he entered the dream world, drowning the monotone voice of the teacher away.
It was completely black, all around him. He couldn't do anything, just listening. Then, the voices came.
"You should be at home in time! I told you so! If you don't, I'll have to punish you, dirty little bitch!"
Another voice came, the same he had heard last night. "No father, please! I was away with..." She got interrupted when a slap sounded trough... Wherever he was.
"I don't need your stupid excuses! I don't need any of them!" More slaps sounded, while the girl was pleading her father to stop. Because of his history, Kaiba knew the sound of some belt hitting flesh.
"No, father, no! Somebody please help! No!" The screaming got louder, and Kaiba wanted to help desperately, but he couldn't get out of this space. Then, it stopped. The sound of some door slamming close was the only thing to be heard.
Kaiba shot up. 'What was that?'
"Hey, Kaiba, are you awake again?" Yugi whispered from besides him. When Kaiba woke up a little bit more, he heard the teacher going on about some stupid stuff, while the rest of the class was just messing around a bit. They had this part a thousand times already.
"I guess I am," Kaiba grunted. He was still thinking about these dreams. He had one of them last night and now again. 'What was that about? Why do I have these dreams?' It weren't memories he knew. There was a girl in it, and he was no girl. But she did sound kind of familiar. He couldn't get it right, though.
A knock on the classroom door made him a little more alert. The principal entered and walked over to their teacher's desk. "Everyone, please listen," he said. Everyone broke off their conversations as they turned to look at him. "I have some very special news. Due to an emergency gathering of the teachers, you are free now!" Everyone cheered at him, jumping from their seats and starting to pack their stuff. The teacher and the principal walked out of the classroom.
Even Kaiba was happy. Now, he could talk to the mysterious girl and find out some things about her and her 'important message'. He strode out of the school to his limo, which was, of course, waiting for him outside. He was glad it had stopped raining, though, if you watched the clouds, you could tell it wouldn't be for long. He stepped into the great car. "Kaiba mansion, and hurry," he commended, sitting back into the comfortable seats.
Kaiba was not the only one who was glad it had stopped raining. Serenity didn't want to be out in the rain, so she told the others, who were just relaxing and taking it slow, she had gotten a surprising amount of homework to do, and that she had to head home. Truth was there was hardly any homework to do.
She had barely managed to keep it up today. She was really depending on the strength of DarkMG and Kuri, for whom she still had her mind blocked. She didn't want to bother them any more.
Really tired she arrived at home, just when it started raining again. She stumbled inside, dropping her bag and falling down on the couch. Then, she heard it. Her father's footsteps coming...
Lass: Ay... This isn't going to be pretty. Well, review and I'll post the next chapter as soon as possible. Bye!
Serenity was shivering. 'What could've happened? He shouldn't be home yet!'
She heard hard footsteps coming upstairs. She easily recognized them as her father's, and she was desperately looking around, trying to find something to hide. 'Oh no!' her mind screamed.
BANG! Her door was slammed open, leaving Serenity sitting on her bed, frozen in fear. Indeed, in the opening of her door, she saw her father. She could smell the alcohol hanging around him, telling her he had been drinking.
Afraid, though curious, she asked him the question with a very thin voice. "W... what happened, father?"
His piercing eyes were looking into her frightened stare, bloodshot and clearly raging, fuming. "What happened?!" he screamed. "I got fired! That's what happened!"
"W... what are you going to do now?" Serenity asked, though frightened.
Instead of answering her question, he walked to her in two big steps. "No... Please, not again," she whimpered. "Please, don't start again. It went so well..." But her father didn't hear her anymore.
Madness seemed to have got a hold of him, and it wasn't planning on releasing anytime anymore. "It's just your fault! Everything is just your fault!" he yelled, while grabbing her arm. Her last bruises were just healed, and her skin was almost normal again now.
But it seemed like he had to catch up on things, when he threw her across the room, making her slam against the wall. "No... Not again... Please..." Serenity kept whimpering, though knowing it wouldn't help.
Once again thrown through the room, she came down next to the door. She immediately ran out, running through the living room. As she heard her father coming inside too, she got into the room which was the closest by; the bathroom. She pulled the door closed, but before she could lock it, it was flung open by her father.
He grabbed at her hair while she was screaming in pain. Putting his sweaty hand in front of her mouth and nose, he quieted her. "Don't you dare scream," he hissed in her ear. He then threw her across the bathroom, making her hit the mirror on the wall. It shattered in a thousand pieces. Serenity picked up a piece and, as her father attacked her again, she threw it to him. It hit his arm, getting her nowhere but getting her father even more pissed off.
He grabbed her wrist and threw her down, into the pieces of shattered glass. Tears were now streaming down her cheeks, merging with the fresh blood that was there. It had started again...
Every time he hit her, the pain became vaguer. Finally, everything went back as Serenity passed out, running once again for the cruelty of her father.
Kaiba felt restless as he and Mokuba came home, Mokuba babbling happily about the movie they had watched that afternoon. They just came from some restaurant where they had eaten dinner.
A maid came. "Master Mokuba, you have to go to bed. It's way past your bedtime, and you have school tomorrow."
"I'm coming, Maria. G'night, Seto!" he cried happily as he followed the maid upstairs.
He still felt... wrong. Something wasn't right. When he sat down behind his laptop to work, words wouldn't come to his mind. He slammed the keys of the machine. "What the hell is going on!?" he screamed, extremely pissed off.
All of his maids and servants knew not to enter his room now, unless they wanted to be fired. They heard the oldest Kaiba slamming his fist into the wall.
"Damn!" Slightly calmed now, Kaiba sat down, panting. 'What's this? I can't even get a word on my paper! What the heck is keeping me from work? I need to find out. But how?'
'Maybe,' he thought sarcastically, 'I should get some sleep. I haven't slept very well lately, and I can't work at the moment anyways. My head will be clearer tomorrow.'
And, as Kaiba went to bed, the restlessness faded until it was nothing more than just some ignoring feeling in the back of his head. At first, he had a nightmare, where he was standing in darkness, while hearing a frightened girl scream, but being unable to see anything or move. After a while, though, it changed into a more peaceful dream, where he was just a kid, playing with his little brother, unaware of the pain of the world...
The next morning, the air was clouded and grey, but when Kaiba woke up, he was surprisingly well-rested. 'I haven't slept this well for a long time. I should do this more often.' He even sounded surprised.
"Good morning, big brother!" Mokuba dashed into his room. "You slept?" Kaiba chuckled at this. "What? You haven't slept for a long time. At least, not in your bed."
"I've slept great, Mokuba," Kaiba said, deciding to forget about the first part of his dream. It was about that strange girl that was screaming for help, and him being unable to fulfil her request. He had gotten frustrated, desperate. He had no idea, though, there was some strange, blond girl flowing outside his mansion, who was now landing on the ground. It was DarkMG...
{At least he knows how we feel if we're inside our cards, or the closet, or just away, now, Kuri. I'll go to his office this afternoon to talk to him. Or whatever...}
They had locked off this talk from Serenity's mind. They were freed by Serenity now. Well, practically. Their cards were inside the strange thing Serenity used to call the Monstriary (A/N: A combination of Monster and diary, what it looked like). They had indeed tried to get DarkMG into Serenity's clothes. It worked, and it didn't look that bad either. They had used some of the body paint of Serenity to cover up DarkMG's unnaturally red cheeks and she was now looking just like a normal girl. She had walked on the street a lot lately. There was only one problem to her so-called 'humanity'. She still couldn't talk, except for inside her mind, with Serenity and Kuri.
Unbeknownst to Serenity, DarkMG and Kuri had already known the guy would eventually come back and continue his beatings. They had tried looking for a solution, and finally found one.
Serenity had never been able to block them from coming into her mind and she didn't ever want it anyway, so they sometimes sneaked in. They had noticed some strange thoughts about some guy, who she secretly seemed to have some crush for. Just for fun, they had gone here because of that about a week ago. They thought he might make Serenity happier if her father returned. What they found surprised them both.
Just the fact they couldn't talk didn't mean they could not sneak into someone's mind. They were, though, unable to leave real words there like they could with Serenity. That was probably because the bond they shared was so strong. At the beginning, talking had been hard, but they had quickly become better. Now, it was some of like just talking. Better, to be honest. They could also send pictures to each other.
When they had gotten into this guy Kaiba's mind, they found out he seemed to like Serenity too, even if it was just a little. But, more importantly, they had also found some very shocking memories of his past. They had followed his whole life story, from the moment his mother died by giving birth to Mokuba, then his father dying out of grief, the orphanage and then Gozaburo Kaiba. They had been shocked to discover he had been trough almost the same as Serenity. His stepfather hit him if he didn't study enough. When the jerk took it out on Mokuba, they had discovered, Kaiba got rid of him once and for all. They realized Seto Kaiba would probably understand it, being trough the same.
When they noticed yesterday, while they were away, Serenity's state of mind; shocked, they quickly found out what was happening and went here. DarkMG, though trying to be as 'human' as she could, had now used her magic to get Kaiba as far as to get to sleep. She had then managed to enter this memory of hers into his dream. It had been hard. Getting him to sleep had already been hard, knowing he almost never slept and she wasn't used to do something with his mind, and entering his dream to get this in had been even harder. Without Kuri, she wouldn't have managed to do it, but luckily, the little Monster appeared to have more power then she had eventually thought. After that, she had used some of her powers to get the happy memories back into his dreaming state.
{{Yes, we did a nice job on this. And, he remembers the dream,}} Kuri cheerily answered.
Suddenly, he heard a shriek inside his mind. {Are you mad?!}
{{DarkMG, what's going on? What's happening?}} Kuri asked, shocked.
{She went to school! Serenity went to school! She has turned completely mad! She can barely walk; she almost bled to death yesterday evening! And now she's going to school!} She had blocked this tirade from Serenity's mind, but nevertheless, a tired voice answered.
[I know you are mad, DarkMG, and I know you have just told Kuri in a probably very angry, screaming way, but I need to. If I don't go to school, just the day after my father came home, they'll find out.]
{Why don't you let them? They'd help you out. I bet one...}
[No,] Serenity interrupted. [I'm too much of a burden for them anyway.]
{What the... What do you mean, Seren?} DarkMG was very alarmed now.
[I've never done anything useful to them. They all save people in their adventures, win Duels for their friends and are always nice and kind. I'm nothing but a burden. I always get into trouble, needing people to save me, hanging around them and making them worried by making a fool of myself and messing everything up. This is just justified punishment, and I won't ask help at this, bothering everyone.]
{Serenity! Serenity?} DarkMG was unable to reach the girl. {Kuri, she managed to lock off her mind completely! What will we do now?}
{{Watch it!}} Kuri yelled, but not in time.
"Hey! What are you doing there, girl? Don't you know this is a restricted area? How did you manage to get in anyway?" a voice behind DarkMG asked her. As she swiftly turned around, she saw two boys standing there. One tall brunette who was looking at her with piercing eyes and one younger one, almost hidden behind the back of the older one, with ebony hair and big, questioning eyes.
{Kuri, it is Kaiba and Mokuba! What do I have to do now?} she asked desperately.
"What? Cat got your tongue? I asked you a question."
DarkMG had already prepared for the talk she had wanted to do this afternoon, so she grabbed her chalkboard. I'm sorry, I can't talk, she scribbled down quickly.
"Fine, then write your answer on that chalkboard, and hurry it up. I don't wish to be late at school," he said, not bothering to apologize about his rude remarks.
I'd really wish I could talk at moments like this. I'd really like to have some nice discussion with you about your manners. She could write very quickly, thanks to her magic. As she wiped the words away after she had shown them to Kaiba, he pulled up an eyebrow questioning. But there's no time for this pretty talk. I was here to talk to you. I planned on doing that in the afternoon, but I just noticed I'm in a real hurry.
"Do you have anything to do today?" Kaiba asked.
No, I don't. But... Then, Kaiba interrupted.
"Just stop writing, would you. I'll come back this afternoon to talk to you about this thing. I need to go to school now, and you'd better be happy I'll talk to you. I'd like to know how you came in at least. My security is the best. Maria!"
The maid came walking to them. "What's the matter, Master Kaiba? Oh, who's this girl?" she asked, looking at DarkMG curiously.
"Look after her today. She can't talk. I'll be back this afternoon to talk to her." The maid nodded at the order of her Master. She took DarkMG at her arm.
"Come in, I'll just show you around."
DarkMG was still very worried. She could vaguely sense Serenity was very weak, but she had locked off her mind, making it unable for DarkMG to talk to her. {Kuri, can you talk to her?}
{{She completely locked off her mind, to both of us. There's nothing we can do about it. I hate to have to say that, though,}} Kuri sounded as if he was about to start crying. He had reasons enough for it now. Their mind link didn't only make it possible for them to support her mentally, by talking to her encouraging, but it also made it possible to lend their own strength to her. Both couldn't be done now, what made Serenity very weak. 'But,' they both thought at the same time, 'she seemed pretty determined today. So she might just be able to make it.'
Kaiba was looking as Maria walked away with the strange girl, stepping into his limousine, next to his little brother. He found her really interesting, but not as in love or something. As he had walked out of the house with Mokuba he saw her standing there, tense and seemingly somewhere else. She seemed more like something that didn't exist. When he had called for her, she proved to be real by turning around. But still something inhuman-like was over her, and it did not go away. And then she had wanted to talk to him about something urgently, it became even more tempting to stay and talk. But he really needed to go to school. He would talk to her this afternoon, and find out what was going on...
Serenity knew very well DarkMG and Kuri were hiding something from her and, even though they did not know, she had felt them going trough her head. But now, she locked them out, immediately feeling her power withdraw. But she really meant what she had said to them just moments ago. She would do this, put on her good old cheery mask she hadn't worn for weeks now.
She had very well known this wouldn't stay as perfect as this, and she had made some sort of study of her happy behaviour. Therefore, her mask was now better than ever, and only someone who was looking very closely and very well would be able to see what she was really feeling like. And because of the past few weeks, that kind of people weren't watching closely enough anymore.
Walking to school with her friends happily, Serenity still felt like a complete outcast. She shrugged it off as she was talking, or better call it whispering, to Mai. "Come on Mai, I know Joey likes you. I'm his little sister, I should know."
"But what if he refuses? What if he turns me down?"
"Mai, please... I know he likes you a lot. He probably even loves you. I bet he wouldn't turn you down. Haven't you ever noticed the way he looks at you? No..." she whispered forcefully when she saw Mai was about to interrupt. "I'm not ready talking yet. Even if, and that's a big if, Mai, very big, he refuses to go with you, it'd be his fault for turning you down, and it won't be just missing a date with a fantastic girl like you, Mai. I'd hunt him for the rest of his life, telling him all about how great you are, and how much of a great chance he missed when he refused to go out on a date with you. Now go and ask him, before we are at school."
"Oh..." Mai said, still a little unsure. "But he's still talking to Yugi, so..." Serenity grinned at the behaviour of her friend. She gave Mai a sly smile before turning to Joey and Yugi.
"Hey, Yugi, can I talk to you for a moment? Mai can talk to Joey so he won't be bored."
Yugi came walking to them, but Mai was still standing. Serenity gave her a push in Joey's direction. "Go for it, Harpy! You rule," she said while blinking at Mai. The blond girl was unable to crawl back now, so she gave Serenity a face and started walking to Joey.
"Seren, what's going on?" Yugi asked innocently.
"It's going to happen..." Serenity said while looking at Joey and Mai.
"What? Oh..." He fell quiet all of a sudden. "Do you think he will agree?"
"Agree? Agree? He'll be dancing with joy! I know my brother and..."
Suddenly they were interrupted by a cry. When they looked at where it was coming from, they smiled. Joey was dancing around Mai, yelling "of course I will, of course I will" all the time. Mai had a huge smile on her face, and the rest was standing by, also smiling and telling each other they 'had already known this was going to happen someday'.
"Well, you know your brother indeed," Yugi said, smiling. "I don't think anything can ruin his day now."
His words were soon put to test, because, as they were walking to the front of the school, a big limousine pulled up behind them, almost driving Joey off his feet. Everyone was looking in fear of what was going to happen now.
As Kaiba stepped out of it, everyone gasped in shock at what happened now. "Good morning, Kaiba. Isn't this a wonderful day?" Joey called before running into the school, going to tell all of his classmates about his date with Mai.
Kaiba was looking as if he was just hit by lightning. 'The mutt said good morning to me?' He now looked at all of the mutt's friends. They seemed shocked, but their expressions turned into happy ones very soon. "What's this all about?" he asked, wishing an explanation of Wheeler's strange behaviour. Before he got an answer, Mai ran into the school after her, which Kaiba didn't know, boyfriend.
Yugi giggled as he explained it to Kaiba, the rest being all busy shaking the hand of Wheeler's sister. "Serenity got Mai to ask Joey on a date," he told Kaiba, who soon got it. Joey and Mai were completely crazy about each other, everyone could see, but they were both too shy to ask the other for a date. It had finally happened now.
'Drop'
Some raindrop dared to fall out of the sky, predicting much more were to fall out. The ones who were still standing outside ran in now, going to their classes for another boring day of work.
'Seto Kaiba, CEO of Kaiba corp., richest teen in Japan, most wanted single, sitting in some stupid math class boring his ass of while he could've been working on a new Duel Disc or inventing something completely new or could've been winning a Duel now; yep, that would be me,' Kaiba thought, bored. He knew anything about maths anyway, so sitting here was completely boring him out of his mind. They still had two classes after this one. 'Shit, this happened last night, too,' he thought, while becoming drowsy.
'Well, maybe a little sleep wouldn't hurt,' he thought, knowing he didn't have a choice anyway. Then, he entered the dream world, drowning the monotone voice of the teacher away.
It was completely black, all around him. He couldn't do anything, just listening. Then, the voices came.
"You should be at home in time! I told you so! If you don't, I'll have to punish you, dirty little bitch!"
Another voice came, the same he had heard last night. "No father, please! I was away with..." She got interrupted when a slap sounded trough... Wherever he was.
"I don't need your stupid excuses! I don't need any of them!" More slaps sounded, while the girl was pleading her father to stop. Because of his history, Kaiba knew the sound of some belt hitting flesh.
"No, father, no! Somebody please help! No!" The screaming got louder, and Kaiba wanted to help desperately, but he couldn't get out of this space. Then, it stopped. The sound of some door slamming close was the only thing to be heard.
Kaiba shot up. 'What was that?'
"Hey, Kaiba, are you awake again?" Yugi whispered from besides him. When Kaiba woke up a little bit more, he heard the teacher going on about some stupid stuff, while the rest of the class was just messing around a bit. They had this part a thousand times already.
"I guess I am," Kaiba grunted. He was still thinking about these dreams. He had one of them last night and now again. 'What was that about? Why do I have these dreams?' It weren't memories he knew. There was a girl in it, and he was no girl. But she did sound kind of familiar. He couldn't get it right, though.
A knock on the classroom door made him a little more alert. The principal entered and walked over to their teacher's desk. "Everyone, please listen," he said. Everyone broke off their conversations as they turned to look at him. "I have some very special news. Due to an emergency gathering of the teachers, you are free now!" Everyone cheered at him, jumping from their seats and starting to pack their stuff. The teacher and the principal walked out of the classroom.
Even Kaiba was happy. Now, he could talk to the mysterious girl and find out some things about her and her 'important message'. He strode out of the school to his limo, which was, of course, waiting for him outside. He was glad it had stopped raining, though, if you watched the clouds, you could tell it wouldn't be for long. He stepped into the great car. "Kaiba mansion, and hurry," he commended, sitting back into the comfortable seats.
Kaiba was not the only one who was glad it had stopped raining. Serenity didn't want to be out in the rain, so she told the others, who were just relaxing and taking it slow, she had gotten a surprising amount of homework to do, and that she had to head home. Truth was there was hardly any homework to do.
She had barely managed to keep it up today. She was really depending on the strength of DarkMG and Kuri, for whom she still had her mind blocked. She didn't want to bother them any more.
Really tired she arrived at home, just when it started raining again. She stumbled inside, dropping her bag and falling down on the couch. Then, she heard it. Her father's footsteps coming...
Lass: Ay... This isn't going to be pretty. Well, review and I'll post the next chapter as soon as possible. Bye!