The High Priest's Secret Tomb


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

Chapter: Spirits And Amber Eyes


That night...

Someone blinked awake, looking at the clock on the opposite wall.

Kaiba silently noted it was 1:45 a.m. Rolling onto his right arm he winced and gingerly touched his left shoulder.

He continued moving uncomfortably, listening to the ticking of the clock. For the past night he had been having horrid nightmares that he was surprised he hadn't awoken yelling and startling the others.

Sometimes he just wondered why he hadn't gone crazy since that night...

Right now he didn't want to sleep, he would just relive that event again. But unfortunately, he drifted off to sleep against his will anyway. Only for a few mere minutes that is, as he was soon startled by the sound of yelling.

Kaiba had half the nerve to shout out as well, looking frantically around the place, thinking they were back. Yet having been disciplined to control himself, he restrained from letting anything slip. Instead he concentrated on his annoying roommates. "What are you chickens yelling about now?"

The trio were hiding under their covers, Tristan being the only one to poke a bit of his head out. "D-didn't you s-see that?" he whispered.

"See what?"

Duke pointed to the doorway which was slightly ajar. "There w-was something or someone in h-here."

Kaiba sighed, these were the people the fate of the world depended upon? They were the ones who saved the world from evil duel monsters and maniacs? Kaiba could only think of one perfect word to describe them: pathetic.

"You're all just seeing things, go back to sleep and stop yelling."

Laying back down, he stayed there for a while until he couldn't take it anymore. "Hasn't anyone ever told you that it's rude to stare at people?" he asked, turning once more to face them.

They were too scared to answer. "I'm warning you three, if this is one of your little jokes..." Kaiba trailed off warningly. They shook their heads vigorously.

Yes, he was positive now that they were most definitely not what you would call heroic material. So now Kaiba ended up doing what needed to be done to help these...nuisances.

"Did any of you catch a glimpse of whatever it was?" he asked, grabbing an emergency flashlight from under his bed.

"It looked like a person, but I don't know, it...didn't at the same time," Duke ended lamely. "You're not going to go are you? Remember they said not to go out after sleeping hours?"

Kaiba didn't answer, just simply stood and walked out the room. "W-wait for us!" the three whispered loudly, also grabbing flashlights along the way.

"Don't make any noise," Seto warned grumpily before Joey dropped his flashlight, a loud thud closely following. Tristan sweat-dropped while Kaiba sent him his infamous glare.

"Oops, hehe, sorry about that." Joey sheepishly scratched his head.

"Butterfingers," Duke muttered.

And the four continued on their journey towards the pitch black staircase, a lone shadow waiting at the bottom. But by the time they reached the bottom step, all they merely caught sight of was a wisp of white hair around the hall's left corner.

Duke frowned. "Um...why would Bakura be taking a midnight stroll in the halls?"

"Hungry?" Tristan supplied.

Joey pondered for a moment as his stomach grumbled. "Maybe he is, could we grab a snack or two along the way too?" he asked hopefully.

Kaiba was too busy to have paid much attention to him. "Later, let's go," he said distractedly.

The blonde silently cheered, but automatically stopped when they came to the stairs which led to the 4th floor of the lodge. "Eeehhh, the kitchen isn't up there! Why is he going up there? The tour guide said it was haunted!" Joey exclaimed, tears pouring down in waterfalls.

"Shhh!" his friends clamped his mouth, his wailing was rising and they knew he was doing it on purpose just to avoid going up there. So Kaiba took the distraction to his advantage and continued on his own.


Duke groaned. "Okay, where's Kaiba?" he asked his friends.

"What do you mean? He's ri-, never mind. Why does he keep doing that?" Tristan whispered angrily.

"Come on, maybe he went up to chase whoever it was in our room," Joey stated. His friends snickered at his courage. Joey was of course oblivious to their laughing, he was just trying to keep his cool.

He wasn't afraid of ghosts, he's faced worse things than this!

There were two halls, two choices. Which way would they go now?

"So then, which way will it be?" asked the blonde.

"Our right," Duke replied confidently. Unfortunately they were headed in the opposite direction of which Kaiba had taken.

"Do you really think it's haunted up here?" Joey whimpered, almost whining like a dog.

"Joe, grow a backbone will you?" his companions sighed.

"What? I was just asking," he defended heatedly, and to show that he wasn't afraid went ahead of them, leading the way down numerous halls.

His companions laughed on, but soonstopped when they discovered that they were back to where they had started.

All three sweat-dropped in embarrassment. "Just great, first the tomb and now the lodge? We're losing it."


The CEO yawned, squinting his eyes in the dark. He had long ago seized to stop his search for the mysterious figure. Having lost the enigma somewhere around the third hall on the fourth floor and all.

"Where are those dorks, anyway? It's bad enough that I get into trouble because of them to begin with." He turned his head to see if anyone was behind him, but this distracted him from seeing the adult in front of him.

Tapping her foot on the ground, arms crossed over her chest, Nurse Clare cleared her throat to make herself noticed.

"Huh? Oh," Kaiba didn't look all too worried, "...it's only you. By the by, you wouldn't happen to have seen my geeky roommates, would you?"

The woman's piercing gaze indicated a no. "May I ask what you're doing out of bed after curfew hours?" she questioned.

"Ghost hunting," Kaiba replied bluntly before turning serious. "How's that girl doing anyway?"

This sudden curiosity took the nurse by surprise. "Um, she's fine, she'll probably have a bit of the cold for a while. Now," she pointed at the boy, "I want you to gather up your Ghost Buster friends, go back to bed, and go to sleep."

How dare she! His friends? Who in their right mind would befriend those weirdos?

With a huff, Kaiba turned to leave. "One, they aren't my friends and two, it's rude to point at people." And with that said, hestomped his way down to the first floor, where he had last left the trio.


Tristan had to hold Joey at bay because the moment he heard one creaky step the blonde had freaked out.

Coming up the stairs was Kaiba, but Duke didn't know that, and so was getting ready to throw a vase at the person he thought they were chasing.

"Those are priceless vases, you know?" their constantly missing roommate informed.

"Wha-, Kaiba?"

He rolled his eyes. "The nurse said no more Ghost Buster business, so let's go already."

The trio blinked, Joey laughing dumbly at his cowardice. "Oh..., wait a minute. Where did you go and why were you talking to Nurse Clare?" Joey questioned.

Kaiba walked to the second floor before answering, "She was patrolling the halls."

"Did you find the person we were chasing?" Tristan asked.

Kaiba gave them a silent response.

Upon enetering their room, the trio zoomed into their respective beds. Joey complaining out of the blue. "We didn't stop for snacks!"

Someone was going to die right now.

"Will you geeks just shut your traps and go to sleep, already? You'll get food tomorrow morning, so just wait for...four more hours, sheesh! Is it so much to ask for a bit of rest and quiet?" Kaiba growled, glowering at them with a murderous glint in his eyes.

The trio looked wide eyed at the fuming brunette, deciding it better to just stay quiet and go to sleep.

Seto gave them one last glare before tossing his flashlight back in its place and dropping himself onto his bed. Finally getting to rest...

...before the dreams started up again.


Having finished his breakfast and coffee, Kaiba just sat there, staring idly at the still raging snowstorm from the window beside him. "I wonder when it's going to stop, it's getting on my nerves."

He had been wanting to call his brother for over a day now, to see how he was doing, but the storm was always blocking his signal. Mindlessly tapping his fork against his plate, Kaiba thought back to the day before. "Hmmm, maybe I can go and see how that girl is doing? Hmph! Right, and have her yapping about whatnot none stop? I don't think so," he scorned.

But once curiosity got a hold of its victim there was no stopping its deadly course. "A small visit won't kill me, but it just might bore me to death." So making his decision, he put his dish away in the back of the cafeteria's kitchen and headed for the nurse's office, a single backpack in hand.


Clare closed a door behind her when she noticed Seto approaching her. "Ah, Mr. Kaiba. The girl is doing fine, if you want to talk to her, go right ahead. She just woke up not too long ago," the nurse informed, walking past him.

Knocking twice on the door he heard a faint, "Come in," and in doing so found the girl sitting in bed. This girl didn't look older than himself, so he automatically assumed she went to his school.

The girl's scowl deepened to some extent, she could already tell she wasn't going to like the guy. True she didn't even know him, she had just met him no less than a second or two ago, but it wasn't like he was going to be any different from the rest of them.

Either way, she would try to be as nice and polite as possible. But even if she did try, that didn't guarantee that she would pull through with it.

Kaiba raised an eyebrow in question, quickly coming to the conclusion that the raven headed girl woke up on the wrong side of the bed today, or maybe it was just the cold taking its toll on her?

"You must be the one who found me, right?" she asked briskly, almost sounding business like.

"That's right," Kaiba mumbled,not one for small talk, unless it were a snide remark directed to a certain group of people he loathed, but seeing as there was nothing else to do at the moment but that, he would try. Really try.

Unfortunately there was nothing he wanted to speak of and so the room stood deafly quiet.

"Don't talk much?" the girl asked, breaking the silence.

"No," he answered simply.

Both crossed their arms over their chests at the same time. Now that was what he called awkward, and that was somethinghe never experienced but on a few occasions, very few.

Again, it was quiet and uncomfortable as she continued glaring him up and down. He was guessing this was the taste of his own medicine.

The girl huffed in annoyance. That was when Kaiba remembered he still clutched her backpack in his right hand and so tossed it at the foot of her bed. He was back to his somewhat composed self once more.

"I found it next to you," he stated.

"Oh, um, thanks," she mumbled moodily.

Honestly, what was this girl's problem? Kaiba found himself thinking in irritation. It wasn't that he was annoyed that she wasn't hanging all over him like all the other...bimbos, for lack of a better word. On the contrary, he was grateful beyond belief that she wasn't, but she reminded him too much of...well, himself, for lack of a better example.

She glanced at Kaiba one more time before shifting her gaze to some other part of the room. "So, where exactly did you find me? I only remember a forest, but the nurse said there weren't any in this area," she said.

Kaiba's right eye was twitching, something that never happened unless he was beyond exasperated. Even the mutt had never reached that level. "Then the crazy lady obviously doesn't know what she's talking about, now does she? You'd have to blinder than a bat to miss that humongous forest,"he muttered.

The stranger yet to announce her name managed to crack a small smile. "Hm, well thanks. Anyway, you don't look like anyone from Shang High, I'm guessing you're from a different school then?" she questioned, a little less formal than before.

"I'm from Domino High," Kaiba answered.

The girl merely nodded, falling dead silent yet again. Her black hair covered a portion of her eyes and porcelain face, making her seem like some evil enigmatic being. Kaiba shook the eerie thought away, he definitely needed to stop letting the geeks' babble get to him. His mind was being tainted with such ridiculous nonsense!

"What's your name?" Kaiba found himself asking out of the blue, just to get that creepy thought out of his head.

"...Yelan Kumiko...and you?"

Kaiba was still eyeing the girl suspiciously, something about her appearance wasn't right. Seto Kaiba was rarely unnerved without good reasons. Where was that Rod when he felt like he needed it the most, anyway?

"Seto Kaiba," he answered with reluctance. Both kept steady gazes on each other.

Yet Kaiba was again beat at his own game and so strove to think of something to shift her attention away from him. "So how did you get lost?"

Yelan's gaze, as he had hoped, strayed away from him. "I was on a hike with my class, I got separated and wandered around into the forest. I didn't have a compass to find my way back so..." she trailed off, he already knew the rest.

"Surprise, surprise." Kaiba rolled his eyes.

She was about to ask what that was supposed to mean, but noticed that he was still standing by the door's entrance instead. She politely gestured to a seat on her right. "Aren't you tired of standing there, you can sit down you know?"

The brunette reclined her kind offer though. "Thanks, but I'm fine just right here."

Yelan gave him a funny look, as if trying to sum him up. "Hey Kaiba, there's a spider hanging behind you," she warned, literally making him go rigid like a statue.

Slowly turning to face the would be ten feet giant spider, he only found one that was barely even half an inch. 'What did you expect?' he scolded himself, glaring at the evil thing.

"Going to burn it to death by glaring at it?" she snickered, not expecting any reply.

"Exactly," he stated, causing her to sweat-drop.

"Come on, you're kidding, right? You're actually afraid of that small thing?" Yelan quipped tediously.

"They just pretend to be small and helpless," Kaiba said, facing her again as the spider scurried away.

"How long were you out in the snow anyway? I think you might have a fever, you're delusional."

"Hm, think what you may, but I won't be fooled," he persisted.

Yelan merely raised an eyebrow in amusement, maybe he wasn't as bad as she had made him out to be.Just slightly...looney. "Chocolate?" she offered, her smile widening a bit more.

"Huh?" Kaiba looked at the piece of chocolate in distaste.

"What? I didn't poison it, if that's what you're thinking, and it's not half bad, considering it's nurse food," she said.

"Very funny, but I'm just not a candy person," he countered.

"Suit yourself, pal."

Kaiba was back to his serious demeanor, staring at her intently. This didn't go unnoticed or unignored by the peeved Yelan though. "What? Think I'm a spider too or something, do you?" she snapped.

Slightly taken aback by her sudden change in mood, Kaiba said, "Hardly, just thought you looked like someone I knew. But...nevermind."

Maybe it was that time of the month for her...he persisted in trying to figure her mood swings out. He was usually so good at this!

Blowing her hair away from her eyes, Kaiba took automatic notice that Yelan had bright amber eyes. They looked almost unnaturally yellow.

"Maybe we met before?" Yelan supplied boredly.

Kaiba was as usual frowning. "Maybe."

"That forest...did you get a good look at it?"

"Huh? Hm, yeah, but why do you care?" he asked, finally realizing why he loathed talking. He never had anything interesting to say.

Yelan shrugged. "No reason, you just looked like you needed help in picking a topic to talk about."

"I don't need help on topics. I have a list full of things I can rant on about for ages."

The boy then thought fast, what were things he could rant about? Well, there were those fairy-tales as told by the geeks. Or there was always the geeks to rant about, yes, that would be perfect.

He would be doing a charitable deed, not only for his sake, but for her's and the world's too.

"Have you ever heard of the geek convention?" he asked. Hopefully she hadn't

A look of insult and fury seemed to cross the girl's face, but she managed to give him a no without exploding. She, often being referred to as a geek, could only sympathize with whoever he was going to insult.

Kaiba though, being the ever perceptive person he was, noticed her sudden change in mood, again. He had half the nerve to strangle her on the spot, but let it slide and decided that he was the one who needed to watch what he said around the her.

Why though? He never cared if he directly or indirectly insulted anyone, ever. Why should he start caring now? Seto inwardly fumed over and over, but he always come to the same answer...

Because he had had an automatic liking towards her since he first found her in the forest.

Yelan was like a replica of him, speaking in attitude terms.

But then again...

"Look," the boy sighed, massaging his temple, "...I'm being as nice as I can be. What is your problem? What's with the attitude problem?" his voice was laced with weariness.

This took her by some surprise. The tip of her tongue was ready with an instinctive retort, but she managed to bite it back. What was so hard about answering that simple question?

The fact that she wasn't entirely sure why she was even angry to begin with either.

"Sorry, just been moody lately, that's all," she opted for apologizing.

He waved in a gesture of dismissal, he was one to talk. Maybe he should learn to take his own advice. Either way, Kaiba inwardly smiled at his luck. "Do you know who Yugi Mutou is...?" he started.

Let the brainwashing commence...

Little did either know that they would be spending day in and day out just talking about anything with each other for the remaining of the 'vacation'.


"You know what I find weird, but great?" Joey hummed good-naturedly, raising his eyebrows up and down. The others stared at him imploringly, something was off beat about him. "That Kaiba seems to disappear from morning 'till night. Which is more than great, he's keeping his end of his bargain, after all!" he sing-songed.

Bakura looked mildly suspicious. "I see him go into the nurse's office very often these days."

"Oh? That is odd, think he's sick or something?" Duke idly wondered, not really concerned. He was just as happy as Joey with the current peace.

Tristan shrugged, saying, "He looked fine to me just yesterday, although he didn't come back until a few minutes after curfew."

Yugi thought it odd of Kaiba being late for something, even if it was just for a small rule.

'Do you think it has anything to do with his Rod?' Yugi's voice filtered into the dark astral plane.

Yami soon joined him after a moment's silence. "No...if there were a spirit in that Item, the high priest would have already come out and spoken to us. Don't you think so? After all, he isn't evil," Yami muttered.

'Umm, I...guess. Unless it's not the high priest's spirit in there.'

"Hmmm, maybe...or maybe Kaiba just needs to take care of his wounds?" the Pharaoh supplied.

His counterpart still fretted about the Rod, but tried convincing himself that Yami had the benefit of the doubt. 'It does make sense,' he sighed. 'I just hope it has nothing to do with evil tombs and magic for now...'

Yami nodded his head in understanding. "Don't worry, I haven't sensed anything as of yet... Ah! Yugi, watch out!"

"What? Ah!" Yugi's shout was muffled by the thrown pillow in his face.

Tea now held a new pillow in a fencing stance as she challenged, "Ha! Bet I can beat you boys on a five on one battle."

The others looked at each other, knowing it was suicide that they accept her challenge. Joey being the unfortunate one to know that Tea packs a punch when she's on the offense. "You're on!" they accepted their demise confidently anyway.

Tea wasn't one take fighting lightly, even if it was a mere pillow fight.


That night...

Having had the daylight beat out of them, Kaiba's roommates were now sleeping like three men on their deathbeds. They were lucky they had escaped with their lives.

It was now 1:45 a.m. and again Kaiba could not fall asleep. He felt uneasy and restless, like he had to do something other than rest, even though he felt physically and mentally exhausted.

So now, staring into the nothingness of the dark, his thoughts drifted off to random events throughout his life, including past ones. Unfortunately, his hard concentration was broken by one of Joey's many sudden outbursts, "My food!" before the boy fell dead silent. Or as dead silent as his snores could get.

Kaiba sat up in a miff and glared at the blonde through the thick darkness. He might as well go insane from insomnia because with Wheeler around, he most definitely wasn't going to get any rest for the remaining week.

After a passing moment, the brunette felt that odd hazy sensation again. He felt his body weight lighten before returning to his normal state. But this time...he was no longer in control of his body.

The only difference this time being the fact that he was not slipping into unconsciousness. This time he was the sole witness of his actions.

In disbelief, the brunette saw as he got out of bed and retrieved the Rod from under his pillow, then left the room and down the hall to his right.

'Hey!' Kaiba shouted. 'You dorks, get your lazy butts up and help! ...Useless baboons,' hegrunted as the trio disappeared out of his line of sight. 'I knew this...thing was evil!' he continued to shout, sending the directing Ring a murderous glare.

His body walked across four doors, past the staircase, and brought him down four more doors.

'What, am I supposed to sneak into someone else's room now?' Kaiba thought, unlocking the door with his Rod's dagger.

The boy prowled inside, careful not to make a sound as he advanced on an out cold Yugi. Kaiba felt his grip tighten on the golden metal and his mouth move on its own accord, raising the already unsheathed dagger over his rival's head.

"Good-bye foolish Pharaoh," someone whispered.

'What?' Kaiba shouted. 'I hate him, but I'm not going to go and kill the poor loser!' With that, he regained control of himself. "Finally!" he clamped his mouth, thankfully no one stirred awake.

'Take it...' a voice that sounded oddly familiar coaxed. The shadows surrounding him seemed to be pulling his hands towards the Pharaoh's Item.

He was losing it.

A long sigh escaped him as he closed the room's door behind him, and all would have gone relatively well if he hadn't noticed he was stepping on a card. "Hey, what's this doing on the floor?" Kaiba pondered, picking it up while backtracking to his room.

The Just Desserts card wasn't a rare card, but it most definitely wasn't a useless one either. Why let such a good card go to waste?

Glowering eyes suddenly snapped open, viewing Kaiba's face from a low angle.

"Hm, this young man should have considered aiding me in my quest, unfortunately for him, he used that talent of his on the wrong person!" the spirit growled.

His scowl deepened as he slunk away, back into the shadows where he belonged...for now. "What goes around, comes around," the albino's smirk returned again. "It is only a matter of time before he receives his just desserts."

And then he completely disintegrated into the dark with a malicious laugh.


A few days later...

The snowstorm had finally resided to a light drift, yet the sky was still a slight shade of gray, making the lodge's halls seem cold and empty. Every student being outside and all.

Only two figures remained inside, slowly walking to the main entrance on the first floor.

"So Kaiba, when is your class leaving back home?" Yelan asked her companion.

"We were supposed to have left two days ago, but the bus ride was postponed until tomorrow."

She smirked. "Why the long face?" she questioned, making him cross his arms.

"Now I'll be stuck with all...these geeks by myself..." he hacked.

Patting his back, Yelan scolded, "One, I warned you that you'd get sick and two, whoever this group is that you keep bashing so harshly can't be that bad."

Kaiba scoffed, "Says the girl who's never met these tyrants." Both stepped outside into the fresh open air.

And then, who better to come down the stairs of the lodge than the one and only, mutt?

Whistling a song to himself, the blonde ridicule of his school cheerily made his way over to the cafeteria. Abruptly stopping only as he caught sight of his rival and...a girl?

'Hmmm? Moneybags, hehe, and a girl! Time for some spying,' he thought gleefully.

Tiptoeing over to the main entrance, Joey poked his head through the slightly ajar door, trying to listen in on the duo's conversation.

Sadly, the two walked away quite some distance, therefore leaving him unable to hear them.

Inwardly laughing at the scoop he was going to tell his friends, Joey opened the door and decided to greet this girl.

Maybe she was in need of dire help from Kaiba's evil clutches!

"Hey Kaiba!" the mutt made his way towards them.

Yelan looked startled, but a look of annoyance merely graced Kaiba's face. Nonetheless, he continued talking, trying in vain to ignore the boy. The girl leaned in close to Seto and muttered, "Is he the one that was choking on his food yesterday?"

The boynodded. "How did you ever guess? ...He's Wheeler, aka, the mutt of the geeks I mentioned before."

Joey waved erratically, a big grin plastered onto his face. He crossed the small distance to them and asked, "Hey Kaiba, who's your girlfriend?"

The brunette ignored him still. "See what I mean? You just feel like strangling the poor loud mouth." Kaiba didn't even bother lowering his voice.

Nodding in agreement, Yelan gave Joey a brief glare. "Looks like a troublemaker to me," she whispered, now seeingher companion'sdislike for the boy.

At the audible insult, Joey's chest puffed out in indignation as he added, "Thought you didn't associate with geeks though."

Obviously this girl wasn't in dire need of saving after all.

Kaiba sent an 'I told you so' glance at the girl as he roughly shoved the blonde back inside the lodge, a loud crash following after his departure. "Ignore the brainless one."

Yelan huffed as Mrs. Haiahashi rode up beside them. "Hello there kids, ready to go Ms. Kumiko?" the female instructor asked, holding a helmet out to her.

She was going to bethe one driving the student back to her school's lodge.

Yelan nodded in consent, and the engine was started once more as she took her seat behind the older woman. "Wear something green tomorrow," she smiled before the motor bike took off.

It was then, whenYelan had disappeared into the distance, that Seto noticed something shiny lying on the ground.

Meanwhile, "Ow..., that's it! That's one too many bruises in such a small amount of time!" Joey groaned from inside the lodge.


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