The High Priest's Secret Tomb


Disclaimer: I do not own 'Yu-Gi-Oh!' Kazuki Takahashi, Warner Brothers, 4Kids Entertainment, and etc. does.

Chapter: Snowstorm, Seek Shelter


On the bus...

'Just great, it really is my luck. Who would have thought, out of the whole class I would end up with these three losers?' Kaiba inwardly fumed. 'Two weeks! What am I going to do?'

'You will follow me,' the same voice whispered.

'Who...?' Kaiba wondered, but he received no answer, and so he proceeded to glare outside his window. 'I'm already going crazy and it's only been the first hour on the bus!'

Kaiba was quiet for a minute when he mused, 'I still think it would have been a lot better if I had been teamed up with some other group. Even being in Yugi's group would have been much better!'

The teen looked at his watch, recalling that they had four more hours to go before reaching their destination.

"You know Kaiba, you could try and make this easier. I mean come on, you don't want us to bother you and we don't want you to bother us. So how's about we all stop with the bickering for two weeks and we'll get through this alive?" Tristan persuaded.

"Give it up Tristan, Kaiba is as stubborn as a mule. I've already suggested the same idea to him three times!" Duke cried.

Kaiba found the site outside much more interesting than hearing the monkeys talking though.

Four hours passed and Kaiba could now see the lodge in the distance. The snow was coming down gently, but he had checked the weather forecast before leaving only to find out that it was going to worsen later on in the day. Kaiba cringed, the snoring of his three roommates' had gotten on his last nerve.

'Perfect!' he thought as a plan formulated in his head.

Just as the bus made a small turn to the left, Kaiba turned in his seat, his legs up close to his chest. Then with all his strength, thrust his legs towards Duke's side and kicked him out of the seat and into the next one. The seat was currently occupied by the other two annoying ones and so Duke went crashing into them. The sudden crash woke Tristan, but Joey slipped onto the floor before he was awakened. Facing forward again, Kaiba would use that small turn as his excuse if asked for an explanation.

"What happened?" Ms. Dian asked, startled. The woman mentally noted that Kaiba was barely waking up at the crash's noise.

"Ow," Duke groaned in pain. He had hit the other side of the bus's wall, which would now leave a nasty bruise on his left cheek for a day or two. Getting up off the other two, Duke sent a deadly glare in Kaiba's direction. "I felt someone kick me," he informed.

Ms. Dian glanced at Kaiba and shook her head. "Mr. Kaiba just got up, he was asleep when I asked what had happened." She then turned to the three on her right side and said, "It was probably the turn we took, the air does seem to be getting harsher."

Joey, Tristan, and Duke didn't believe this for one-second though. Shifting their gaze back to Kaiba, they were miffed to see him smirking and wagging his index finger in warning. "Look at him, it was his fault!"

Their teacher turned her head...there was Kaiba, acting like the innocent person he was...not. Ms. Dian glared at the other three. "I do not appreciate liars, it was an accident caused by the bus, now please re-seat yourselves," she ordered.

Kaiba was at it once again, mouthing, 'You three are in trouble and I'm not,' behind her back.

"Look!" the trio shouted once more, but Kaiba was again feigning innocence, and another glare was directed at them.

"Sit," Ms. Dian repeated herself for the last time and the three finally complied just 5 minutes before exiting.


Outside the bus...

Kaiba walked towards the lodge, his satchel and backpack in hand. "That was a rotten trick Kaiba," came an angry voice behind him.

He turned to come face to face with three animals he had come to loath to quite an extent. "What do you mean, Devlin?" Kaiba asked casually.

"You were the one who kicked him and pushed him towards us!" Joey barked in his face.

"Mutt, a piece of advice, take a breath mint." Kaiba smirked at Joey's angry red face.

"Look at what you've done, now he's going to blow a gasket!" Tristan bellowed, but the taller boy's response to this was to resume walking to the lodge.


Not too faraway...

"Oh no, what do you suppose happened over there, Yugi?" Bakura asked, but received no reply in return. "Yugi?" He turned around to see his friend crouched on the ground, gingerly poking the snow.

"This...this is snow? Where is the game?" Yami demanded, causing Bakura to sweat-drop in the background.

Someone then threw a snowball in Yami's direction. "Sorry, Yugi!" called the student who had thrown it.

Yami's eyes widened as he gasped, "This snow is evil! I must banish it to the Shadow Realm!"

"Huh? No, no, no, no, Yami! Yugi and I will explain the games to you, j-just call Yugi back!" Bakura exclaimed, laughing nervously.

The Pharaoh looked skeptically at the white powder then said, "If you're sure..." The other nodded vigorously.

A slight change soon indicated that Yugi was back. "Sorry about that, he got kind of excited and came out, and well..." Yugi trailed off in embarrassment.

"As long as nobody is sent to the Shadow Realm," stated his friend. "Do you think Kaiba and the other three will survive two weeks in the same room?" the boy asked again.

"I bet you ten bucks that they won't," Tea chimed in, now standing beside the two.

"Tea!" Yugi and Bakura shouted in admonishment.

"What?" Tea defended.

Yugi nodded. "I agree too."

"Me three."


"Get back here, Kaiba!" Joey called, lunging towards the brunette. Kaiba was already inside the lodge's refuge though and merely slammed the door shut in Joey's face. Inside, the walls shook and a dull thud was heard crashing and falling to the ground outside.

"Pathetic," Kaiba scoffed as he walked to the lounge where the room numbers for each group were being given.

"Group number, young man?" queried a tall man with a black mustache, a few gray hairs visible among his black hair.

"Group number nine," Seto informed, trying to place recognition on the man.

"Let's see, classroom number and teacher?"

Kaiba frowned, deep in thought as he steadied his gaze on the man. The man repeated his question and startled the boy out of his reverie. "Huh? Oh, um, room number 256, Ms. Dian," he said.

"Ah, here we are, your room is number 158. On the second floor, just up the stairs to your right when you exit the lounge. Go down four doors to your right afterwards, got that?" asked the man with a smile. His eyes clearly held some knowledge that Kaiba didn't know of, much to the boy's annoyance.

With a nod, Kaiba took the piece of paper being handed to him, and then stormed out of the lounge to the indicated stairs on his right. He knew the guy, but from where? He hated not knowing things, especially things that other people knew about him that he didn't.

Relaxing a bit in the empty hall, Kaiba noted there were three hallways. One to his left, the other in front of him, and the last one to his right. Which way was it again? He hadn't paid any attention to the elder man as he was too busy trying to place a name on him. It was on the second floor, so it couldn't be the hall in front of him, it led to a staircase up to the third floor.

"Down four doors to your right," Kaiba recalled the man's directions and set off to his right. "I bet Wheeler's idiotic behavior is contagious," he muttered, opening the door to his two week room. 'Hmmm, not bad,' he thought to himself.

There were four beds across from him, a night stand to the right of each bed. One bathroom to the far wall left of him, a t.v. to the corner on his right with a table semi in front of it.

Seto walked to the other side of the room and took the bed to the far left of him. It was closest to the bathroom and closest to the balcony, which was a few feet away from the head of his bed. There was a sort of small looking counter blocking his view outside when he sat up. After Kaiba unpacked his clothes into the drawers he set his small briefcase on the bed, one he had to hide from Ms. Dian. "Ha! Being the teacher's pet does come with its own rewards," he said, which in a way was true.

Because his teachers trusted and expected him to do the right thing all the time, Kaiba never got into trouble. He could tease and bully his classmates all he wanted when the teacher wasn't looking, and in the end, if they told on him, they were the ones who got punished. It's, as they say, always the quiet ones that you should watch out for.

"No one is going to tell me I can't bring my electronics with me," Kaiba whispered to himself as he took his cell phone out and dialed a number.


"That jerk's going to pay," Joey muttered as he and his two roommates trudged up the stairs to their room.

Opening door 158 the trio found Kaiba sitting on his bed, talking to someone on the phone. "Remember to behave..., alright see you in two weeks. If I make it out alive," he said and hung up.

Tristan strode to Kaiba's side in a matter of seconds and pointed a shaking finger at his bed. "Caught red handed, huh? What do you have to say to this, Kaiba?" Seto sat on his bed, arms crossed as he raised an eyebrow in question. Tristan huffed and continued, "I thought Ms. Dian said no electronics allowed!" He knew they had Kaiba right where they wanted him, well, maybe not entirely. Kaiba still had their teacher's trust on his side, as he had proven on the bus earlier that day.

Kaiba shrugged, it didn't matter because he had a backup plan already. "You won't tell," he stated with confidence.

At this, the other three smirked evilly, daring him to come up with an excuse. "Oh? Care to tell us why we won't?" they inquired.

"One, I have to take care of Mokuba," Kaiba replied. Joey quickly got teary eyed at the response, always being a sucker for brotherly concern. "...and two, I'll forget about even considering your proposition on the bus if you tell."

This immediately caught everyone's attention. "What? Really, you're considering it?" they asked hopefully.

Kaiba gave them an indecisive sigh, "I don't know. I mean if you're all going to tell on me then there's no reason as to why I should..."

"But if we don't rat on you, you'll agree, right?"

The CEO mulled over this for a while, then he finally said, "Fine."

"Deal!" the trio shouted together once more, happy to see some cooperation from Kaiba at long last.

"Now that that's settled then, let's go celebrate with some food!" Joey cheered and exited the room.

"Hey! We still need to unpack our things!" Duke shouted down the hall, but Joey was too engrossed at the thought of food to hear.

"Hm, we'll unpack later. Let's go before Joey eats everything in the cafeteria," Tristan said, running after his friend. With a defeated shrug, Duke too trailed after the blonde.

Kaiba stood from his bed and grabbed a fresh pair of clothes then headed for the bathroom for a shower.


In another room...

Outside, the winds were picking up speed and the snow was coming down heavier than before. The storm made it look as if it were night when in fact it was only ten o' clock in the morning. "Now we're stuck inside," Tea complained.

"Weird, I mean the snow was so light before," Melissa added as she continued reading her book. The other two girls in the group were squealing their throats dry as they looked through a magazine.

"Oh cute! I like this dress, but the other one looks fluffier!" Lanette shouted in excitement.

"No, this one does," Amie protested.

"Or maybe this one, oh wait...!" they both shouted together.

Tea inched out from the room until she was out in the hall. Walking down to the cafeteria she bumped into all the guys along the way.

"Guys! Man, am I glad to see you all!" Tea cried in joy. The girl had honestly gotten too used to being one of the 'guys'.

"Hey Tea, how are you and your roommates getting along?" Yugi asked.

"You don't want to know," the girl muttered.

The boys laughed. "Come on Tea, it can't be that bad!" Bakura stated.

Tea gave them a look, they obviously didn't know the horrors of 'girl talk'. "To put it simply, just imagine Mai's obsession with clothes and times it by twenty."

The five boys sweat-dropped, quickly wanting to change the subject. "Well, you'll be glad to know that we weren't planning on talking about clothes today," Tristan commented mockingly.

"Yeah, the subject today is on how Kaiba is actually cooperating with us," Duke informed.

Yugi, Tea, and Bakura sighed, "I lost ten bucks." Their other three friends gave them questioning looks. "Nothing!" they hastily added.


In the cafeteria...

The cafeteria was filled with the scent of bread and tomato sauce, the main dish being spaghetti that day. Tables were filled with bustling friends here and there as they gossiped about random things. In the far back of the room sat Yugi and his squad, speaking in low voices among the loud chatter around them.

"Well, looks like you guys are going to have peace and quiet after all," Bakura said, his voice sounding a bit disappointed. He and the other two had been hoping for a bit of entertainment these coming two weeks.

Duke rolled his eyes, mumbling, "Yeah, only after I got this really bad bruise on my right arm and face."

"What happened?" Yugi asked, worry washing over the disappointment.

Duke shrugged. "Someone kicked me and the only person that was sitting to my right in the bus was Kaiba. Then I crashed into these two here."

Tea was furious, thinking it wasn't fair that Kaiba was bullying her friends. "Why didn't you tell the teacher?" she demanded.

With a short laugh, Tristan answered, "We did, but let's just say Kaiba should really consider being an actor. See, when we told her, he fooled her with one of those innocent faces, which I frankly thought didn't work on people anymore."

Joey nodded knowingly. "Then we, the victims here, got scolded for lying!" he shouted.

"Hmmm, he's good," the girl agreed.

"Joey has that big bruise on his face too," the raven headed teen indicated Joey's nose.

"Can't you show Ms. Dian the bruises then?" Bakura interrupted.

"True," Tristan mused, "...but the door was the one who gave Joey the big smack and Duke, well...Ms. Dian already thinks it was an accident."

"And besides," his best friend continued, "...we got him to leave us alone for the remaining two weeks. That's all that counts in my books. For now we'll just sit back and re-, hey!" The blonde snapped back to attention, turning to Tristan with a sour expression. "Why'd you get out of this mess without a scratch?"

Tristan sweat-dropped. "Gee, thanks a lot pal, you wanted me to get hurt?"

"No! All I'm saying's that it isn't fair!"

"Oh yeah? I'll show you fair!" The taller teen then grabbed Joey by the neck, seemingly choking him in a friendly manner. The two friends continued bickering, the others not even trying to separate them.

They knew better by now and so just ate their lunch in a sort of peace.


6 hours later...

Kaiba was having the time of his life, being left alone and all. His eyes scanned through a document when he looked up towards the curtained balcony. The storm was getting worse by the minute, as he had expected.

'Curiosity killed the cat,' his rational side warned tediously.

'Blah, blah, blah,' argued the irrational side.

Now then, which side usually always wins? If you guessed irrational, then you guessed right.

Poking his head from around the counter in front of the head of his bed, Kaiba stared at the two balcony doors. Someone's shadow had been constantly walking back and forth on the balcony for the past hour or so. Kaiba had at first ignored it, reasoning it just being his active imagination. His roommates hadn't been back, except once to unpack, so it couldn't be any of the three.

It had stopped a few minutes ago, but now he couldn't help check. Standing up, Kaiba walked up to the doors and struggled pushing them open because of the wind outside. Succeeding after a moment, Kaiba's sight was greeted by a mass of white snow. A huge tree was located a mere five feet away from the balcony.

'See, nothing happened,' Kaiba's irrational side shouted triumphantly. Looking about the bottom premises though... 'Then what is that?' his rational side stated. He blinked.

This was why Kaiba never listened to the first little voice in his head. Its advice reminded him of something Wheeler might say, which wasn't a good thing in itself.

'The hike will be perfect...he'll find it...'

Seto squinted his eyes from the snow and shouted over the railing, "Hey you, by the tree! What on earth are you doing?"

There was a silhouette standing by the tree, just staring up at him. Its long cape, at least that's what it looked like to the boy, swished along with the wind. Kaiba could barely tell if it was a man or a woman. It had long hair, but its figure looked a bit bulky.

Kaiba frowned and stepped back into the warm room, closing the doors and securely locking them tightly. He was creeped out to say the very least. Turning back to his bed he saw a flash of gold burst from underneath his backpack.

'It's that dumb rod,' he thought and grabbed the golden Item, intently staring at the eye. He had brought it onlyto avoidYugi's lectures on how he's supposed to take care of it at all times. For now, he would humor the delusional boy.


At the tour...

"And this is the 4th floor balcony in the lodge, we don't allow anyone up here. You may say it's like an attic for some special antiquities, so please stay clear of this area. Now, if you'll follow me," the tour guide walked on down the hall.

"Hey guys, did you notice if Kaiba brought the Millennium Rod with him?" Yugi whispered to his friends.

Joey shrugged and said, "No, bet you he didn't, he doesn't believe in this stuff. Though he did bring himself a phone, a laptop, and who knows what else."

The spiky haired teen blinked. "What? I thought Ms. Dian said those things weren't allowed?"

"Yeah, but he said he needed to keep in contact with his brother. You know, just in case there was an emergency," Joey sniffed.

Yugi and the others sweat-dropped.

"And this hall is off-limits at all times, got that? Some say that it's haunted, so for you pranksters, I'd be careful if I were you." Everyone froze. The tour guide only smiled as she motioned down the stairs, saying, "Now let's go, they're serving cocoa tonight."

"Hmmm, they make pretty good hot chocolate drinks here," Duke complimented.

With a nod, Tristan opened the door to their room for the third time that day. Stepping inside the three were surprised to see Kaiba wasn't on his bed, glued to his laptop's screen. Instead he was standing by the balcony doors, clutching a certain golden Rod tightly. The CEO was peeking through a partially open crack of the curtain to the outside.

Each boy raised an eyebrow at this strange behavior.

"Um...isn't spying a bit immature, Kaiba?" Joey asked, but was quickly elbowed on each side. "Right, forgot!" he groaned, clutching his stomach in pain.

Kaiba's steady gaze was then broken. "Huh?" he looked towards the three, who were nervously grinning. Shifting his gaze back outside the figure was long gone now. "Where did it go?" Kaiba opened the doors and searched around.

Nothing turned up so he gave it up and reentered the room once more. Locking the doors he turned his attention back to the three at the doorway. "What are you three staring at?"

"What were you doing...and I thought you didn't believe in the hocus-pocus mumbo-jumbo?" Duke pointed at the glimmering Rod in the teen's hands.

"Why don't you geeks ever mind your own business? No, I don't believe in your little occult stuff so just give it a rest already." The taller brunette sat on his bed with an air of nonchalance.

Joey jumped back a few feet, still wary of the Rod his rival held. "Yeah right. Then why'd you bring that Rod with you?" Joey pointed out. His inquiry was answered when Kaiba snapped the safety sheath off the secret dagger. "Hehe, good enough," he laughed.

"Well, I'm taking a bath," Tristan yawned, breaking the tense silence after a while.

After an hour or so they were each sleepily sitting in bed, watching the television. Choosing what bed who would be sleeping in took the remaining energy out of them.

Who would have thought that a five hour ride on the bus would have taken so much out of them? They weren't even doing anything to tire themselves out, on the contrary, they were sleeping! Waking up at six o' clock in the morning wasn't something they did often, except maybe Kaiba.

As Seto's wristwatch suddenly blinked ten o' clock, he shut his laptop off. He needed to be up early in the morning after all. The other three were already snoring Z's away, a bit too loudly for Kaiba's comfort, who tiredly turned the t.v. off.

'How exactly am I supposed to get any sleep with this racket?' he thought for a moment. Minutes passed as he finally grabbed the Rod, inspired by a thought. 'If Marik was able to possess people in the first place, what's to say it won't work on snoring problems?'

Kaiba didn't really know how to go about this though. Did he just point the thing at them or what? Maybe if he knocked them over the head...

But he tried the mostlogical thing first, concentrating.

After a minute or two of waiting, he was surprised and grateful to see that it had indeed worked. 'What do you know, the geeks were right all along, there is such a thing as magic. Not that I'll ever admit that to them though.'

'Well done, you are a natural, this should be easy then,' a voice echoed in his head, sounding much younger.

"Not again," Kaiba growled, harshly slamming the light switch off and going to bed.

And there was the silhouette again. 'If you will not accept then I have no choice, but to make you. They will die, I will make sure that they finish.'


A constant beeping was heard as a pair of brown eyes drowsily opened to see what it was that awoke him.

"Yugi," he whispered to no avail and stood to go turn it off himself.

But once he was near enough to turn the thing off, Yugi turned to the other side, taking with him the annoying beeping watch. Going around the bed the boy stumbled over Yugi's backpack and accidentally dropped something along the way. Not looking at what it was, he picked it up and would have put it quickly in the sack, if he hadn't frozen that is.

A bright golden light flashed and slowly subsided.

The pale boy's eyes snapped open, less round and all innocence deprived from their brown hue.

Yami Bakura smirked and stared at his hands, which he was delighted to see were now solid instead of transparent. 'Finally, I am once again freed! Eh? Hmmm, what is that insistent noise?' thought the evil spirit of the Millennium Ring.

The constant beeping was grating on his nerves, the noise was ruining his triumphant and dramatic return to the living. 'Ah, the Pharaoh's vessel...hmmm, but where is that noi-.'

"Mmmm, wha-, oh Bakura? What are you doing all the way over here?" Yugi incoherently mumbled, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

"Huh?" the albino boy looked at his hands. 'What happened? I dropped...something of Yugi's and then...dozed off for a minute there... Must be hungry,' Bakura reasoned.

Just then Bakura's stomach grumbled, blushing he said, "Hungry, hehe, um, actually your watch woke me up and since you looked like you were out cold I was going to turn it off. Sorry I dozed off there, I do that when I'm hungry."

Yugi laughed quietly as to not wake the other two roommates. "No problem." He shut the watch off. "Sorry about that though. Come on let's go and eat some food," the short boy suggested.

His friend nodded his agreement and the two headed out the door.


Another watch went off, this one was shut off on the second beep though. Yet instead of brown eyes opening they were blue eyes. Getting up he quickly gathered his clothes and torpidly walked to the bathroom for a shower.

'Need coffee afterwards,' Kaiba noted as he fiddled with the shower knobs, he made sure to lock the door.


"All right class! I assume you're all ready and excited about the hike?" Ms. Dian cheered as she looked upon her class.

"Yeah!" almost all of the class cheered.

"Alright, these here are your instructors, Mr. and Mrs. Haiahashi," their teacher introduced two of her long time friends. A woman with dark red hair and a man with dark brown hair. Both looked kind and patient as they smiled. "They will be going around giving you each two booklets, which you must read. We can't start hiking if you don't know the names to your tools now can we? Now remember to ask us for help if you're stuck somewhere." Ms. Dian nodded to a student raising her hand. "Yes, Ms. Lina?"

"I was wondering," the girl started, "how long do these lessons take before the actual hike?"

Mrs. Haiahashi answered, "It usually takes up to three days, but if you're all fast learners it should only take two days."

"Any more questions? No? Good, begin then."

Everybody sighed. "Studying on vacation? Now that just isn't right," someone complained.

"Yeah, I agree."

"Yugi, what is this hiking you are all talking about?" Yami curiously asked, popping up beside his counterpart. He looked at the place around him with a slight scowl.

'In the snow we like to go climbing those ice mountains over there, see?' Yugi indicated to the icy mountains in the far distance.

"Those...won't you fall?"

'Yeah, but that's what the equipment is for, so you can stay securely on the mountain. It'll be my first time, but I have a feeling this will be fun.'

Yami nodded, "What about those snow wars? Are you not afraid you'll die?"

Yugi gave him a blank look. 'Huh?'

"The wars, remember?" Yami nagged in exasperation.

The short boy face faulted. 'No! You just throw snow at each other, you don't die!' Yugi stated, flipping his booklet to the next page.

"Ah, hmmm, in that case I would like to see these snow wars," the spirit nodded, his views on snow taking a turn for the better.

'Maybe after the hike they'll have some activities ready,' Yugi said.


'Wars...that should be fun,' Yami Bakura mused. He was once again in control and was staring at the snow in disgust. 'What is this...this...thing? It's so white, so good, everything must be shrouded in shadows! Not in this thing called snow!' he mentally fumed. 'It seems I have more work to do than expected.'

"Watch out Bakura!" warned one of his classmates too late.

"What?" Poof, Yami Bakura was hit by a snowball and his reaction was just as similar as Yami's, if not worse. "How dare this snow attack me! It has no right to attack the King of the Shadows!" The student who accidentally hit Yami Bakura ran away, frightened at the usually nice boy's reaction. "I shall send you to the Shadow Re-," the spirit's ranting was stopped as more snow fell onto him from on top of the tree he was standing under.

He looked like an innocent snowman...with evil glaring eyes that is.


Kaiba long ago finished reading his booklets and was now taking his own tour around the lodge. Going up to the 4th floor he looked down two halls opposite of each other. 'Which to choose...?' he wondered.

Deciding on the left side, Kaiba walked slowly, taking as long as he wanted. He came to a stop and opened the door in front of him. Only to be greeted by...himself. "Ah!" Kaiba shut the door with a yelp, then sighed. 'Sheesh! What else did you expect? I think I've been around Yugi and his convention for far too long,' he inwardly scoffed. Deciding that going to his right would be better he found yet another door. Opening it slightly ajar, Kaiba found an attic like room with a huge balcony across from him.

"Much better." He stepped inside and took brief glances at the different antiques, mentally noting that they were all of rare quality and priceless. Making his way towards the balcony, he viewed over the back and right side of the premises below. Kaiba could see Yugi still reading his booklets by some tree, while on the other side of the premises he caught a glimpse of Bakura throwing the snow...into some black portal?

"Too many balconies in this lodge," Kaiba muttered.

Exiting, he continued down the hall, coming to an intersection he found a hall with a sign saying, 'Do not pass', but he passed. It was much darker in this hall than the others.

"They really need to take these lamps and fix them."

An extra pair of footsteps were heard walking behind him, but when he turned Seto saw no one, he was the only person up there. To be quite frank, Kaiba was getting annoyed, haunted halls and talking enigmas in his head were getting on his last nerve. So he turned back to leave, saying, "This trip is getting more stressful than relaxing."

The brunette paused at a clattering from behind him. "Now what?" Looking around he found the Millennium Rod. "I should just throw that piece of junk away over the mountain. Hmmm..., maybe that's what I'll do," he smirked, picking it up and tossing it from hand to hand.


Two days later...

"Come on everyone, we just need to climb this hill to get to the top," Mr. Haiahashi cheered.

"Mr. Haiahashi, can't we take those skiing carrier things to go up?" a student whined.

"But then what's the sport in the climbing if we don't do it this way?"

"I'm tired!"

Ms. Dian smiled, "Consider this a warm-up before the real exercise."

Some groaned, muttering that this was a torture vacation not a relaxing vacation. The backpacks were heavy with equipment, they woke up at 6:00 a.m., of course they had a lot to eat for energy, but still. And the snow was not helping, it seemed to get deeper the more they traveled up, just to spite them.

"Are we there yet?" Joey asked for the tenth time that hour.

"For the last time Joseph, no!" shouted his teacher.

A moment of silence...

"How about now?" Joey tried his luck again.

"No!" yelled all his classmates.

'Yami, I couldn't find the Ring. Do you think that Bakura could have it?' Yugi questioned while trying to pay attention as he climbed steep ice rocks.

"I don't know...he has been acting strangely for the last two days," Yami stated.

'Wait... Two days ago, when my watch started beeping..., I found Bakura next to my bed. That's where I left the Ring, in my backpack!' Yugi had tripped, forgetting all about paying attention to what he was doing.

"Oh no, he must have accidentally found it." The spirit turned to stare at the albino headed boy, who was now helping Yugi stand at the moment.

Bakura laughed and said, "Come on, I'll help you climb while you talk to Yami." He held his friend steady and pushed him ahead of himself.

With a grateful nod, the short boy blanked out again. 'Hmmm, I don't know, Yami. He seems to be like his regular self...'

The Pharaoh shook his head though. "That's what we thought last time, remember? Looks can be very deceiving, you of all people should know that by now."

'But,' Yugi tried to defend, but gave up in the end. He knew Yami was right, no matter how much he wanted to believe it wasn't true. 'Well, when we were in the cafeteria he did say he dropped something from my backpack, though he didn't see what it was. Then the others came...oh, and he dozed off too.'

"Yes, the evil spirit is back... What are we going to do now?"

'We'll just have to wait I guess,' Yugi groaned.


2 hours later...

"We...made...it," Tea huffed.

"Ye...ah!" Joey said proudly.

"Wasn't that fun everyone?" Mr. Haiahashi asked.

"Wo-oho-o!" someone replied sarcastically.

The three adults sweat-dropped. All, but one, students were on the ground panting. Kaiba was a few feet from the rest of the group, looking bored. Something gold shimmered on his belt behind him. They were semi halfway at the top now, yet had a long way to go still.

"Let's rest for a bit and then we'll get going," Mrs. Haiahashi told the class, much to their relief. Ten or twenty minutes passed by before their small break was over and they continued walking, climbing a few more hills of ice.

Kaiba smiled, this was the perfect height to throw the Rod away on. Now all he needed to do was find a cliff to drop it over.

"Okay kids, it'd be best if you'd get into teams of four with your roommates." Everyone shuffled around as they looked for their teams. "The snow is getting a little deep, not too heavy, so just hold hands," Mrs. Haiahashi ordered.

Joey and his friends locked hands, Kaiba being the only one who had a problem with this. "Kaiba, come on! Grab my hand!" Joey complained.

Kaiba turned his head to the side and scoffed, "Yeah right."

Tristan then butted in. "We don't have time for this man, here then, hold one of our hands if not Joey's." But Kaiba, as stubborn as he is, stood his ground and crossed his arms to make his point clear. "Come on!"

"No."

They sighed, not understanding how anyone could call him mature. He was acting like a five year old with a bad case of the tantrums. "Fine, suit yourself. See if we care when you get lost," Joey replied and the trio stalked off, leaving Kaiba to walk behind them.


Half an hour later...

"The storm is getting a little gusty, maybe we should go back," Ms. Dian chattered, the cold was getting to everyone.

"Yeah, let's huddle the kids up then."

A second later the female instructor started shouting orders. "Alright everyone, don't worry, we've been in worse storms than this before. Now the first rule is, stay together. Don't separate for one-second."

Her long red hair was being tossed all over the place as she had to raise her voice a bit louder to be heard over the howling wind. Some students, mainly being girls, were crying and sobbing. "Second rule!" continued her husband, "Keep heading in that direction, north! You all have compasses just in case you get lost! You won't if we stay together!"

Ms. Dian then added a few words of advice and encouragement. "Be careful using the equipment when going down the hills! Unfortunately we can't avoid them! Stay calm, crying won't help, and remember you'll be safe and warm once you're back at the lodge!"

And so the everyone started towards the opposite direction, freezing cold, scared, and tired. Yami Bakura chose this moment to takeover, suddenly letting go of the student holding his hand.

"Huh? What are you doing, Bakura?" Jimmy asked in confusion. He abruptly regretted saying anything at all as he cowered away at the maniacal glint in his roommate's eyes.

"Mind your own business boy, and a word of advice? One word of this to Yugi and you'll be sorry," Yami Bakura hissed quietly so only Jimmy could hear him.

The boy only nodded and continued walking in silence, looking back to see Bakura was heading opposite of them.

"Hey, Jimmy? Where's Bakura?" Yugi questioned after noticing that his friend was no longer behind them.

Hesitating for a fraction of a second, Jimmy soon blurted, "He went that way! He...um, seemed pretty mad so I left h-him alone, sorry."

The spiky haired boy's worries were now proven true, the other Bakura was back. "It's alright, I'll go look for him," he said, connecting the boy's hand with their other roommate's hand. Jake turned to see what the commotion was about at this action.

"What are you doing, Yugi? The teacher said not to separate!" Jake exclaimed.

The teen zipped his mouth shut with his thumb and index finger. "Not a word to Ms. Dian, okay? I'll be back as soon as possible!" With that said and done, Yugi stalked after Yami Bakura.


Kaiba was struggling, but he was getting by on his own. Everything was going smoothly...that is until the Rod slipped off his belt somewhere along the way. He walked on for five minutes without noticing this, but when he did...

The teen was soon on his hands and knees, frantically searching and digging through the snow for his lost Item. True he wanted to get rid of the thing, but he wanted to do it himself. Kaiba crawled along the ground muttering, "Rod thinks it can get away from me, huh? Well, too bad, because it's not escaping its fate that easily!" Moments later Kaiba spotted a golden glimmer among the hazy white.

Roughly stuffing the Rod in his backpack, Kaiba stood up and turned around, but no one was there. "Great going, now you're lost," he scolded. The boy wasn't entirely sure which way he had come from, seeing as he took many turns around the place. In truth he could be facing any direction at this point.

Seto then recalled that no one had given him a compass, as they were all out by then. Some instructor had told him to stay close to someone who did have one though, namely a friend or a roommate. That, of course, was impossible, for Kaiba had no friends and there was no way on earth that he was asking one of the geeks for help. He would rather die.

Yelling out didn't do any good either, the wind just drowned him out. "I'm lost in the middle of a storm, peachy," Kaiba laughed. In the end the boy ended up walking in the direction he guessed was north.


Tea was in the back of her line when she caught sight of a figure leaving his group. "Hey, hold on girls!" Her roommates stopped and turned to face her, a bit apprehensive. "I saw Yugi going the wrong way and so I'm just going to get him back! Don't worry, I'll be back soon!" Tea quickly added at the girls' stricken faces.

"If you're sure!" Amie said, reluctantly letting go of her hand.

With a curt nod, Tea turned to leave in the last direction she saw Yugi. "Yugi," she called, "...where are you?"

"Tea?" the boy's voice echoed distantly.

There, a few feet away, she saw him and ran towards the teen. "What are you doing? The lodge is that way!" she informed.

"The evil Bakura is back and he went this way!"

Tea seemed shocked at first, but her expression changed to that of understanding. Bakura had been a little hostile and aloof towards them for the past two days. She nodded and added, "I'll help then!" Yugi smiled, slightly worried she might get hurt, but nonetheless relieved with her helping hand, and they continued walking south.


Duke on the other hand was walking when he looked over his shoulder, checking to see how Kaiba was doing so far. But when no trace of the teen was found, Duke worriedly shouted, "Hey guys?"

"What?" Joey asked, preoccupied with not tripping over mounts of snow.

"Did you see if he bypassed us?" Duke questioned, his black ponytail blowing in front of his eyes.

"What? No, he hasn't, why though?" Tristan asked.

"Kaiba's not behind us anymore, that's why!" he replied.

"I knew it! Dumb moneybags, we told him to stay close, but does he ever listen? No!" Joey said crossly.

"Come on, we should tell one of the teachers!" Tristan stated, getting ready to go to either Ms. Dian or an instructor up ahead.

"Hold on! If we tell them he's missing we'll get into trouble! So we should go look for him!" Duke informed them.

"But...!" Joey complained and stomped his foot on the ground. He then growled, "Fine, let's go back and look for him! But I promise, if he's actually in front of us and we're over here looking for him, I'll pummel him!"

With this little speech said, the trio grudgingly backtracked for their roommate as well.


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Copyright (C) 2004 by Rune-Sorceress. All rights reserved.