Yes, I am aware that my Draco/Ginny fic is nowhere near finishing. People need to stop telling me that. Or is it the voices?

DISCLAIMER: If I owned YuGiOh, I would rename it SeToOh or maybe KaiBaOh. "Your move! Your move! Your move! Your move! Your MOVE! bum bum bum bumbumbum bum bum Kai... Bah... OH!!!"

My brother gets really mad when I sing that over the real theme...

I looked up the word "broken" in a thesaurus. It can also be said as "out of order" or" unusable", "shattered" or "ruined", "defeated" or "crushed".

So, perhaps, using "broken" makes me seem steeped in self-pity. I don't really pity myself, though. How can I?

Things are so much better, now. But I know that I've been broken. Is that self-pity speaking?

No. It's fact. It's happened. Why else would I feel so... old

And I am old. Real old.

Anzu blinked down at the blue notebook resting on her knees. What was this? Well, it certainly wasn't what she'd expected.

And it couldn't be Kaiba's.

Not only didn't it sound like Kaiba, it just couldn't be Kaiba. Broken? Could anyone get close enough to break him before it froze? This wasn't what she had meant to pick up. She should just close it and take it back.

She kept reading.

When did I grow so distorted? When did I forget? When did I loose myself?

And who was I after all?

If I can only remember... Maybe....

"Big brother! Big brother, wake up!"

Mokuba shook his Seto a little harder this time.

"Come on, we'll be late!" Once again, the oldest Kaiba had worked too late. Finding Seto curled up on his made bed, fully clothed, in the morning wasn't so out of the ordinary.

"Workaholic." Mokuba muttered, rolling his eyes. "Get up, Seto!"

A combination of his anxious cries and the screeching alarm clock did eventually force the young CEO out of bed. For someone so smart, Seto still hadn't figured out what a reasonable bedtime could do for a person. In Mokuba's opinion, it would save everyone a lot of trouble.

It would also keep Seto from complaining about the work he wanted to get done before school every morning. As if anyone who stayed up until three- o'clock in the morning could build a hard drive from scratch before EIGHT- o'clock. For goodness sake, Mokuba's brother was smarter than Einstein!

But then, Einstein was the one who had to paint his door bright red to find his house.

On the other side of town, Anzu was having a hard time waking up as well. Probably because she was so worried. She couldn't seem to close her eyes all night.

What would Kaiba say when he found out that she had his book? Or more importantly, what would he DO? Her bet was on ritual sacrifice to Blue Eyes but she supposed that a good, old-fashioned shooting would serve his purpose as well.

In any case, she'd made up her mind. She wasn't giving it back until she had read it. She wanted to know what made Kaiba tick. Maybe she hadn't before, but, now, she had to know.

She just hoped he would answer his own questions. Who was he really?

My first memory is of my mother. I was four, she was on the phone and I wanted an orange slice. Instead of waiting for her to finish, I decided to cut the orange myself. Selecting, or course, the sharpest knife in the drawer, I set to work. The first cut I made went straight through and sliced into my palm.

I didn't tell her I'd cut myself. I didn't want her to know. Instead, I stuck my hand under my shirt and went to hide in my room. Of course, it only prolonged the inevitable. In the end, I bled all over the white carpet and my father had a fit.

But my mother was a kind person. She bandaged my hand, sat me on the couch, and told me she still loved me, she didn't care about the carpet.

She didn't punish me for it, but even now I'm careful with very sharp knives. And the funny thing is...

I don't eat oranges anymore.


"I hate Gym." Jounouchi announced. "Why do we bother? Will this help me in my future? NO!"

"Well, actually, Jou" Tea looked up from her stretches. "Physical training is shown to significantly increase stamina, reflexes, and overall health."

"Yeah, sure. But..." Jou pulled on the front of his Gym uniform. "Do these things have to be so scratchy?"

A deep voice interrupted his rampage.

"You know, mutt, if you wore it right side out it would be a little less uncomfortable."

As Jou flushed and attempted fix his shirt, Kaiba's eyes swept over them. Slower that usual this time, he appeared to be looking for something.

His eyes locked on Anzu's and she tried very hard not to sweat. Finally, he looked away and back at Jou, who was apparently ready to defend himself. She barely listened to their fighting today.

'He knows.'

"Now, the Onin no Ran began in... what year?" The teacher surveyed the class. "Mutou?"

Yuugi looked up from his doodling.

"Uhhh... 1467."

"Right." The teacher nodded in approval. "And what year did it end? How about... Jounouchi?"

"1567?" Jou hazarded a guess.

"Does anybody know? Anybody?" Kaiba, who sat to her right, looked up from his book, giving her a pointed look. "It is also called the Ten Years War. Doesn't anyone want to guess?" She glanced at Kaiba. "Anyone besides Kaiba. Anyone at all."

Chirp, chirp.

"Kaiba, what year did the Onin no Ran end?" She looked bored with this. He always knew the answer anyway.

"1478." He glanced back and Anzu felt like he was looking straight at her.

Wait. He WAS looking straight at her. Averting her eyes, she decided that the Onin War was suddenly very interesting. Maybe she should reread the chapter.

'Stop looking at me, Kaiba.'

He did, but as he turned his head back to the board, he gave a little nod to himself.

'Oh, he SO knows.'

"So, Anzu." Honda leaned over her desk. "Do you work today?"

"Mmhmm." She didn't move.

"Well, want to do something afterwards?" Jou asked the top of her head.

"Mm mmm. Busy."

"Ooookay. Whatever." The group made its way out.

"Call me when you're free Anzu!" Yuugi waved goodbye.

Anzu gathered her stuff slowly. It shouldn't be to hard to avoid Kaiba. Just keep an eye out, alternate between work and home, and he would eventually forget about the book or, at least, not figure out she had it.

Still expanding on this idea, she made her way out of the now empty classroom. Abruptly, she realized how futile it really was. Because, when she went to open the door, she realized that the very person she was planning on alluding was standing right in front of her. His six foot form took up the entire doorway and, as she gasped in surprise, he only raised an eyebrow.

"Have a seat, Mazaki. Let's talk."

Yeah! Another chapter finished, ALREADY! I rock. Oh yeah!

Thanks so much for the reviews! Response makes my muse scream, "WRITE YOU BAD-BOY OBSESSED FREAK!" which I actually like. Odd.

Anyway. Tell me what you think.

Come on.

You KNOW you wanna.