My eighth chapter arrives!! I know, I know, but don't get too excited-!!! Seriously, how did you like the last chapter? It wasn't too boring was it? I hoped it wouldn't be, but you never know what everyone else thinks. I really thank the people who review for encouraging me to continue. I needed it!!!

Disclaimer: No...Yu-gi-oh is not mine....but....maybe if I placed a picture of Kazuki Takahashi on my wall people would THINK it was me and.....

Chapter 8: The Girl

After Lock gave me his old cane, he told me to go home and that he would come and get me the next day. I refuse to admit that I was looking forward to the next day now, but I think you can already guess that.

So it was that Mokuba and I left his gloomy home and set out to the tournament grounds. Tapping my way along with Lock's cane felt different then it had been with my own little stick. The cane made a different sound when it hit the ground, more powerful and commanding, I suppose, and it gave me inner strength. Needless to say it felt better toting a large wooden cane than a pathetic plastic stick.

Somehow it had been a very long time that I was in Lock's home. There were not as many people around and only a few dueling, (who, by the way, Mokuba told me dueled with my duel-disk console even though it was not my tournament. Had Lock done that on purpose or was he just using the most readily available—and not to mention high-tech—means of dueling?). The night air felt cooler and damper, like it was late evening or early night.

I wished I could watch all the duels and see the strengths and weaknesses of each player. I liked doing that and did it every chance I got...before I was blind, I mean. I remembered my tournament and how, during the finals, I saw every duel on the blimp and on the top of my tower. I knew I would miss that immensely, no matter what Lock said or did.

We were just about to leave. Really, I mean we—Mokuba and I—were heading past the Domino clock tower, straight in the direction of my mansion. I was already thinking of what I would do when I got home, (run my company or sit and think for a long period of time, both of which lacked the zeal I was looking for on that particular night, but that was my life, so). Mokuba was asking me about dinner, if he should stop and get something on our way back, but I was only half-listening like always.

And then she showed up.

It was a strike of lightening to us. We hadn't noticed her presence in the slightest and I wouldn't even know who she was if I had sensed her there. But she walked up to us like it was the most natural thing in the world and said, "Hi, how are you guys doing?"

I recognized her voice as the one from before that I had not known. Why did it have to be her—that particular girl—when I didn't even know her name?

Thankfully, Mokuba picked up the slack and said, "Oh, hi Serenity! What's up?"

"Nothing...just wanted to say hi." That was the weirdest thing I had ever heard a human-being say in my entire life—and keep in mind I'm counting all my visits with Lock and my whole childhood here. But, her name was Serenity. That was different. I never really heard of someone who had a noun for a name, (except for Lock...I guess...). I remembered her now as Wheeler's little sister. He had belted her name out multiple times when he dueled in the finals against some of the toughest duelists there. She had cried a lot, too, and I remembered thinking of her as a weakling. There was no evidence at that time to make me change my assumption.

"What do you want?" I asked bluntly. Why was she wasting my time? If it really was just to say "hi" I had to break the conversation—as young and dull as it was.

"Actually, I wanted to talk to you, Kaiba."

"Why?"

"Because...I just need to talk to you."

"Alone?" Mokuba asked, a little sheepishly, I thought. But who wouldn't be afraid to get left out?

"Ummm....if that's ok with you, Mokuba..."

"Why should it be ok with him? Please leave." I was not about to let her kick my brother aside so she could talk to me about nothing, if indeed that's what she wanted to do.

But slowly and to my utmost displeasure Mokuba said, "No Seto. You should talk to her. I'll go get something to eat and I'll meet you back here at 7:00. You'll know because the clock will chime. Have fun Seto!" and he was off. Just like that. Gone. I was alone with her. Really, Mokuba was very trusting of this almost-stranger.

But I could handle her. I turned to her direction. "What is it?" the sooner this was over the better, for me.

"Well...I don't really know where to begin...but...well, first, do you know who I am?"

"Is that a rhetorical question?"

"No."

"Then I should say that I recognize your voice from my tournament and you're Wheeler's little sister...but I don't really know you."

"Ok. Well I used to be blind like you." Whoa, where did that come from? Just throw that out there, why don't you? "When I was little, my diabetes....it blinded me"—I had heard of that happening, but I never knew anyone who had it—"and I needed surgery. So Joey entered the duelist kingdom tournament to try and win the money prize to pay for it, because my family did not have the money for that, you know. He told me he won, but I found put later that he got second place and Yugi gave him the money that he really won...but yeah, you don't care about that...anyway...I just wanted to say that...well...I just wanted to let you know that..."

"What?"

"That...I'm here for you if you need me." Way to put to the awkwardness on me. But seriously, I don't know if she thought she was just being nice or really nice—humanitarian-like—but either way she had gone a little too far for me. She had made me feel inferior and a little helpless again, like I had in the beginning, and I could not go back to that.

So, I came out with what I thought was reasonable. "Look, I don't need your help or your understanding. And the last thing I need is your pity. So, if you would be so kind, take your compassion somewhere else—like maybe to someone who cares."

She was silent then. But she didn't leave. After about five minutes she said, "So...what you're saying to me is 'Don't waste your kindnesses'? Ok. Maybe next time I won't. But you have to know something: People all around you are trying to reach you and you continue to fight them. You're not hurting anyone but yourself. If you could only see that, maybe you would be a nicer person to hang around." Without another word she left.

What in all the hells was that about? She told me that I was hurting myself because I had no one to hang around and maybe I'd be a nicer person if I realized it? That made no sense at all. Maybe the sooner she realized that she was making no sense she would be a better person to talk to. But whatever. Her matters didn't concern me and in truth I cared so little about her and her life that she had actually bored me.

Mokuba came back at 7:00, just like he said he would and the clock tower boomed out its nauseating music to let the whole world know. He asked me if I had a nice time. I answered him honestly, "No." I guess he didn't like that because we walked home in silence, (a sort of punishment for me because I needed to hear his voice to live).

It had been a frightfully long day. I just wanted sleep.

It was to no avail a peaceful sleep. Like always, I dreamt that he was calling me and I couldn't go to him and then he became angered and demanded I come to him right that instant. Next, he was supposed to spit out Lock's old words about my soul. But he didn't. Now he presented me with Serenity's words but they were slightly different:

"Seto! I demand that you come here right this instant!"

"I CAN'T!!!"

His voice changed into Serenity's, (sort of freakishly, as a matter of fact). "You're a horrible person, Seto! Everyone's trying to help you and what do you do? You spit in their faces and act all mean again! I hate you!"

And then I woke up, very shaken. But, I felt like I didn't have a right to be. Serenity had given me a childish, unreasonable insult. What did I care if she thought I was a big "meanie" and she hated me? Why did that hurt me?

By the time I had finished sorting my thoughts, I was so confused I needed sleep again. I refused to allow this, though. I did not need to be asleep to get insulted, it seemed, so why even try?

I got up and reached for my gnarly cane. Was it next day, yet? I couldn't tell—there was no clock in the house I could read. I decided to sit and work on some Kaiba Corp. things to clear my head of the current problems.

To hell with it all. If Serenity Wheeler had a problem with me, she could alert the media. I had better things to do then listen to a little girl whine about her life and tell me I was a horrible person. I mean, if I wanted someone to do that, why not just go outside and ask for everyone's opinion of me lately?