To be a Dragon

S. Hawk: Chapter two is ready.

Ichigo Neko: I can't believe that you're writing a non-humorous story.

Y. Hawk: It could have been a dark story so be happy for small favors.

Black Kitty: Meow! (S. Hawk owns nothing… that includes me)­­­­


Reviewers: Only one person reviewed so I guess this is for her. I'm glad you like this story Emy. I am always glad for any reviews even flames at some time.


Chapter 2: brother

I can't help but resent comic book lady. Until I met her, I never realize how far Mokuba and I have drifted apart. He has his own friends and we haven't talked in a long time. After reading comic book lady's poem, I changed by spending some extra time with Mokuba. It was a great change according to Mokuba. He loves me so dearly and my alienation of him has hurt him deeply. I wasn't planning on doing anything that would hurt him but it was the way I had been raised. Gozaburo has conditioned me to be a cold-hearted CEO of his company and I went along with it.

I was 10 years old when I was adopted by this man. I remember being so excited and happy that Mokuba and I will have a family. I couldn't wait to see how the rich live. Unfortunately, I learnt that real life falls short of expectations every time. Gozaburo Kaiba was a cruel man. The day he brought us to his mansion was the day that he separated us for several years. Gozaburo locked me up in a room so high with books that it almost touches the fifteen feet high ceiling. This was merely my daily reading assignment. Each day, the pile is replaced with different books. The cruelty of this man goes further than just the books. He had me on a leash… literally. It was used to restrain me from outside distractions while my professors drilled into me their horrific lessons. While other children were outside playing or in their beds sleeping, I was forced to study for 23 ½ hours daily. I was given half an hour sleeping time so my body could have some rest. However, truly successful businessmen don't need such weaknesses such as sleep or emotion. He railed the latter into me repeated. Even to this day, my body is still scarred from all beatings I had by his evil hands.

The absolute worse part was what he did to me doing our "bonding time". He needed to give the illusion that he spends quality time with my brother and me so he tell everyone that he has a daily bonding time with me. What that entitles is me being chained and whipped while he tries and gain some release. The funny thing is that people wondered why I had such a problem sitting like it wasn't obvious. I took this from him for five years until he decided that he wanted some bonding time with Mokuba.

Unbeknownst to Gozaburo, Mokuba has found ways out of his room and paid me visits regularly during those five years. The only reason I maintain the amount of human I did was because of Mokuba. I wasn't about to let Gozaburo take away Mokuba's innocence like he did mine. In the heated argument that occurred, Gozaburo tripped on his office chair and fell out his 52nd story window… or so people believed.

The truth is that I shoved him during our argument and that caused him to trip on his chair. He didn't fall out the window at that point. He merely knocked himself unconscious against the glass window. Remembering all the things he done to me, I opened the window and I let gravity do what gravity does. This truth will be with me until I die. It will be buried with me and no one will ever know. Such is my fate if I continue down the road that I am now traveling.

I didn't care about my welfare as long as Mokuba was all right. Now, comic book girl gave me the worst gift imaginable: hope for a better life. I was doing so well up until this point. All this flowed through my mind as she sat down at her usual table at the tea house. I should have gone over and yelled at her for what she made me realize. That would have stopped the future events from happening. It is the regret that we all have: if we know then what we know now, would we still make the same choices we did? At the time, I decided to drop the subject and return to my blissful silence. She didn't bother me since she has another book to read. This silence lasted until about 6:00.

At that time, some rowdy guy decided to flirt with comic book girl... loudly. This made me very angry, not because of him hitting on comic book girl, but because he is ruining my silence. Comic book girl looked around for help as the guy harasses her. I couldn't stand it any longer so I did something I believe was foolish. I went over to comic book girl and dragged her back to my table. The guy was about to say something to me but my death glare intimidated him into leaving.

"Girl, you realize how lucky you are that I was here to help you?" She sheepishly blushed and nodded. I could tell that I was embarrassing her so I returned to my laptop and continued to work. She sat down in a chair at my table and began to read her book again. "You never told me what you thought of the poems."

I froze in mid-typing. Did she just talk to me again? I decided that it wouldn't hurt to answer her. "I thought poetry was usually crap but your poems were decent. I wouldn't mind reading some more if you have any." She smiled and told me that she will bring some with her next time.

The next day

Business is hell. I spent the morning reworking the designs on my newest hologram projectors. How can those stupid people screw up so badly like they did? It must be because of that Mexican…what was his name? Pedro? That might be it. That guy is so useless! Stupid affirmative-action, equal-opportunity…. If I had it my way, I would only hire the most qualified applicants based on their performance, not their ethnicity. This is such an insult to my workforce. I have to hire less qualified people because some racist "WASPs" had to be so bluntly stupid. I would hire a three-legged, bearded woman to be my engineer if she was qualified. Chances are that the media would hear about it, assume I was only doing it for the publicity, and label me a "media whore" for hiring her. They so readily assume the worst intentions in people.

That is how my morning went, fixing some Mexican mistakes since he doesn't believe in science. He is very religious and he convinced himself that since science wasn't written in the Bible, it is wrong. (1) Someone really must fix the education system around here if guys like him become engineers. My only salvation was that it was getting closer to 3:00.

I finally made it out of that horrid place and back at the comic book shop. She arrived shortly and sat down at my table. I was about to tell her get away from my table when she placed a poem in front of me.


(poem)

Eternal falls as a drop of water in

My mind as I ponder what makes

You so unhappy in life.

Darkness comforts your warmness and

Evils of humanity fool the eyes of

Spirituality when other people's

Evil desires harm the

Robust heart of my beloved friend.

Violence portrays itself on my mind

Even though such actions

Solves nothing in the end.

Harmony and friendship is all I have to offer

As the material bindings of this world

Pretends to be comforting and squeezes the

Priceless life out of you fragile body.

I see that you are strong yet my hands are

Nearby and ready to help

Evolve you to the being you truly are even though my

Small hands can't compare to the

Superficial offerings of the wicked.


I can't believe she understood that! Money doesn't bring happiness…finally someone understands. Everyone always assume having my wealth must be great even though at the end of the day, I go home to a big, empty mansion. All the size of my house does is made me feel more alone than I thought was possible.

I told her I enjoyed the poem and we spent the rest of our time sitting next to each other, in our own separate world. Her world was in her book and mine was in my laptop. The time passed by without me noticing until comic book lady got up, offered a soft goodbye, and left. I forgot that she was even there. She didn't bother me and I didn't bother her so we had no problems. Ten minutes later, I left to go home.

The Day After

I really should have fired Pedro that day. He convinced the media that he could create a better duel disk than mine. He said that the only reason he hasn't yet is because he doesn't want to make me look bad. What the hell is wrong with the media? When I say something, it can't be good and when a retarded Mexican speaks, it has to be true since he is a minority. My hate list is going longer the more I stay here in this world. I should just become a hermit and live by myself in my mansion without any human contact. Well, I was close to that already.

Since my firing him would have been taken as me being evil, I ignore him. I can't believe that I didn't fire him. It might have changed things. Would his firing made the future better or worse than it already is? The unsolved questions in life are always the ones that come to you in the end.

I couldn't believe that I survived until 3 but I did. It was fall when I sat down at my table in the comic book shop. I went to work immediately until she walked up next to me. I couldn't understand why she was standing next to me when there were plenty of empty tables around. I was so close to telling her to go away. Instead of telling her off, I said one word, "Sit!"

That one word changed around relationship. At that point, I was no longer just some guy and she was no longer just some girl that happens to be around the same area at the same time. We now are two people who will meet at the same table at the same time. It was our slow yet very doomed steps towards our friendship and possibly, our self-destruction.

How does one know such simple acts could change that one's destiny? They don't so I wouldn't worry about it. Luckily at the time, she had another poem to let me read.


(poem)

Great friends they are to nii-san but stranger
Envisions me when I look at them.
Each one is special but
Kindness doesn't equal friendship.

Growing inside of me is frustration of having to
Run to them when they call as if my
Own self-worth is that of a puppy.
Unhappiness is around me as I am forced to be around these
People who are not my friends yet won't let me be free.


DAMN! This is one reason that I don't have any friends. They just get too clingy. The only people who came closer to being my friends were Yugi and his gang. I have no idea what happened to them after high school. I think Yugi is still in Japan running his grandpa's game shop. That mutt Jou is living with that hussy Mai somewhere in America. I think it was somewhere near the mutt's sister. The friendship girl is in New York studying dance and the rest were not important to remember. The only reason I know about friendship girl is that she somehow found out about my instant messenger screen name and is stalking me. I think it was Mokuba who told her but I can't prove it.

I told her that I rather not comment on this poem and she understood. We understand each other. Could this be a good thing…or a bad thing? Like I said, it's far to early to tell.

A/N


1. I'm not making fun of any religious group. I just felt like saying to a certain Mexican who told me that science was wrong because it wasn't written in the Bible that he should probably find a different major than engineering. I mean, come on! Do I really need to explain myself here? Can anyone besides me see the irony of this situation?

S. Hawk: Chapter 2 is done.

Ichigo Neko: Wow, that was some foreshadowing. I feel kind of depressed.

Hawkeye: Message for S. Hawk! Safety word 5: Elric!

Joey: What?

Chaos: Don't worry about that; it's a secret code from the military.

Black Kitty: Meow. (Please R&R.)