The High Priest's Secret Tomb
Disclaimer: I do not own 'Yu-Gi-Oh!' Kazuki Takahashi, Warner Brothers, 4Kids Entertainment, and etc. does.
Chapter: Nocturne
Early in the morning...
Tea yawned. "You three alright?" she asked tiredly. It was six in the morning and everyone, with the exception of Kaiba, was moody and tired.
"What does it look like?" the trio shot back annoyedly. She only rolled her eyes, thinking that they were overreacting about the matter.
Tristan held the ice bag closer to his right arm, tears streaming down his face as he did so. "Did he have to be so harsh?" he asked.
Kaiba meanwhile, was happily whistling away as he passed the group of friends by. Not taking any mind to the glares he received from the trio, he casually stepped onto the school bus. "Jerk," Joey muttered, "...and after we had made a deal with him too!"
Everyone walked onto the school bus, seating themselves as quietly as possible.
"You get to sit next to him!" the raven headed teen told Tristan.
"No way! You sat next to him last time!"
"So? That's because you had to restrain Joey from going berserk!"
Kaiba's roommates were arguing on who wasn't going to sit next to him this time. He grew irritated by the second, not because he was insulted that neither wanted to sit next to him, but by the fact that his peace and quiet was being rudely disrupted. Rising from her seat in the front, Ms. Dian asked, "Is something wrong?"
"I'd like to sit by myself in the back for the rest of the ride," Seto stated bluntly, his teacher shrugged and gave her nod of consent, she wasn't in the mood for arguing today.
Duke sighed with relief and sat down in the now empty seat. "Thank goodness, ouch!" he winced, putting the ice bag closer to his arm.
"Hmph!" the blonde scoffed. "At least you two didn't get pinched on both arms!"
Yugi turned in his seat and said, "You guys weren't wearing green, you should have known that Kaiba would have found a way to hurt you without getting into trouble, again."
"But you guys weren't wearing anything green either," Tristan pointed out. "What gives?"
At this Tea, who was in the seat in front of Yugi and Bakura, mockingly said, "Because we girls have the special privilege of not getting pinched by a boy on this day."
"Unless we're friends..." Joey added in an undertone, one which the girl could hear perfectly.
"Hm, yeah, but that's if I don't beat you up first," she countered and her friends all laughed nervously.
At the back of the bus, Kaiba had settled down and was avidly examining the strange item the girl, whom he considered somewhat a friend, had dropped.
The small black pendant with red tresses.
With an air of boredom, he looked out his window and watched the snow drift by somewhat hostilely. He felt more tired than he ever did in his entire life. "What a vacation," he sighed, but quickly shook his head. "But they never did say this was a vacation to begin with anyway."
Dozing off, he idly recalled the nightmare that he had been having for the past few days, but he was too tired and needed rest to even fret about it. With a yawn, he leaned back in the seat and lightly kicked the backpack at his feet.
Something black and shiny rolled out...
"Huh? Oh, I almost forgot about my prize," Kaiba mumbled and picked the orb up. "What did he mean by I would need it though?"
Ding-ding...
"Grandpa, I'm home!" Yugi greeted his grandfather in the living room.
"Ah, Yugi! I missed all of you little rascals! It's been too quiet and lonely without you kids around."
The others laughed. "We missed you too, gramps! Hey, can you believe we had to bunk with crabby pants?" Joey right away started with his ranting again.
Tea huffed. "Don't mind him Mr. Mutou, these three just got the pinching of their lives," she waved dismissively.
Yugi's grandpa sweat-dropped. "It's too bad that you all left so soon. Or you would have been warned beforehand." Mr. Mutou handed his grandson the piece of paper that Ishizu had sent. "It arrived about a week ago so I didn't think you would mind if I opened the package," the aging man responded.
Yugi took the letter and hurriedly scanned through it. "...No way! It's from Ishizu and she...gave the Millennium Scale to you, grandpa?" He stared at his grandfather, who smiled excitedly, and showed all six the golden Scale.
This slightly unnerved them. Why would an old man, who's back could barely support him making any quick movement, receive a Millennium Item?
"What else does it say, Yugi?" Bakura asked, taking a seat on a sofa nearby, the others following suit.
"Um...that she won't be able to keep in contact until November, at the earliest. She also says the Eye is missing..."
"WHAT? Tell us you're joking!" everyone but Duke shouted as tears streamed down their faces at the thought of having to retrieve the Eye again.
"...but it says here that Pegasus doesn't have it. She gave us a warning about...spiders too! And, hehe, to wear something green and avoid Kaiba by all means possible today."
The pinched trio glared daggers at the letter. "Now we get a warning!" they yelled furiously.
"What happened?" Mr. Mutou asked curiously.
But before they could launch into a ranting rage, Bakura stopped them. "Let's start from the beginning first," he suggested good-naturedly.
Yugi's grandpa then smiled slyly. "I have another surprise for you, Yugi," he said, taking out what looked like three Duel Monsters cards from his pocket...
Finally arriving at his mansion...
Seto Kaiba just wanted to see how his brother was and then go to sleep. "Ugh! It seems as though I weigh like a thousand pounds of lead." Dragging himself towards the door and nearly tripping over his own feet, he was about to turn the knob when the door blasted open. "Ah!" Mokuba latched himself onto his brother in a bear hug.
"You're finally home, good you remembered to put something green on today too!" Mokuba cheered and pulled his brother inside.
"How was your day?" Kaiba began the regular routine of exchanges, a bit dizzy from the fast movement.
"It was boring, you know, without having someone to bug," he grinned as his older brother glared at him. Mokuba had already been informed of the incident on the Snow Mountain Resort and wanted to bombard Seto with multiple questions. One of them was whether he got any snapshots of the tomb. But he knew his brother was probably exhausted and instead asked, "How was your day?"
"Actually, I had my share of fun. Pinching three out of six of the geeks."
Mokuba sighed, wondering if his brother would ever get along with his friends. Halfway through ascending the stairs, Kaiba fell into a coughing fit. "Caught the cold?" Mokuba queried, but his sibling shook his head.
Not heeding his brother's lie, Mokuba pushed him towards his room saying, "You should rest in the meantime, I'll call you when dinner is ready, okay?"
Kaiba rolled his eyes. "Did you finish your homework?"
"No..., but does almost count?"
"No."
"Alright, I'll go finish it, but get some rest," he said and with that the younger sibling ran down the hall to his room.
Entering his own, Kaiba walked to his bed and collapsed, the dark claiming all his senses.
Monday morning...
Opening his eyes, Kaiba gave a loud cough and groaned at the pain he felt in his throat every time he did. Someone then barged in. "Seto, we're going to be late! What are you doing still in bed?"
Sitting up, the elder made to get up, but his aching muscles forced him to lay back down. "Not...going to school," the brunette grumbled, bringing the cover over his head. Walking up to his brother, Mokuba tugged the cover away and touched his forehead.
"Good idea, you have a fever. Hm, but the maids and butlers have the day off today... I'll stay home then?" The raven headed boy looked hopeful.
Kaiba shook his head though. "Nice try, now hurry up before you're late."
"Who's going to take care of you then?"
"I'm capable of doing things you know? I'm not crippled anymore, but even then I still took care of myself. Now, hurry up and go downstairs to the limo," Kaiba ordered.
Mokuba reluctantly nodded. "Bye Seto," and ran out of the room.
Trying to go back to sleep for an hour or so was a hard task for the ill boy. Instead he opted to stand up and headed to his bathroom, thinking there was maybe medicine in there.
But when he stepped into the bathroom he was startled by the mirror to his left side. Kaiba could practically feel the shard digging into his left shoulder's skin again. He shook the horrid sensation away, and went in search of his medicine, but found nothing of the like.
That was when he heard it, something or someone was downstairs.
The shuffling of a door being opened and shutting closed rang throughout the mansion. For a while the teen stayed quiet and still, then he moved to his bedroom and dialed a number on his cell phone. "Mokuba better have gone to school," he mumbled.
"Hello?" his brother whispered from the other end.
"Mokuba?"
"Hey Seto, something wrong?" his brother asked in worry. Kaiba was quiet for a moment, too quiet for his brother's comfort. "You still there, Seto?"
"Where are you?" Kaiba queried as he grabbed his Rod, quietly opening his bedroom's door.
"In school, why? You know I'm not supposed to be on the phone at school."
"Right, sorry about that. It's nothing, nevermind, good luck on your history test."
"Thanks, see you after school then," Mokuba said and hung up. The annoying beeping deadline then rang through Kaiba's ear.
Kaiba let a small sigh out, a migraine was coming on, and he cautiously made his way down the hall.
Coming to a stop on the top of the second floor staircase, he scanned the bottom floor. 'The security systems should have alerted me before the intruder even broke in through the premises,' the boy reasoned as his eyes narrowed.
A vase dropped to the ground on one of the top floors at that precise moment.
Making his way up instead, Kaiba looked around a corner on the third floor and spotted someone's shadow walking up a small staircase that lead to the fourth floor.
Kaiba hesitated for a moment as he remembered, 'That floor has all of Gozaburo's things, why didn't I ever get rid of it all?' The boy anxiously stepped forward, but then turned back around, and yet again decided to go forward.
What was there to be afraid of?
That man was as good as dead, now.
Catching sight of a wisp of white hair round a corner, he quietly followed. The feeling of being watched again slightly stiffened his light steps, but he ignored it as best as possible.
As Kaiba came to a halt, he unsheathed the dagger the Rod hid and swung open the only door in that hall.
It was a study, cases full of books covered almost every inch of the walls and stacks of random books piled up into small heaps. "Never did bother to clean this room," Kaiba gave a short huff.
Looking over and around the stacks of books scattered everywhere, he found no one. His fists tightened as he thought back to the lodge with the ghost hunt they had late one night, it was always strands of white hair he last saw.
Who could it be?
Turning around, Kaiba gave one last look over his shoulder before leaving, but it was then that he noticed that there was no door in front of him.
Looking all around himself, Kaiba saw that there were no walls, and no floor or ceiling for that matter. It was all pitch black. Just books that looked as if they were levitating along side with him.
This seemed eerily familiar to him and his eyes narrowed in remembrance. "That realm that Akunadin took me to," he whispered.
"Close enough," a voice echoed from out of nowhere.
Seto blinked. "That sounded like...me? Who's there? And please be so kind as to actually answer me for once!" he demanded.
Someone tapped him on his shoulder and quickly looking behind him, Kaiba restrained from attacking. The boy glared at the figure and asked, "Another mirror image, right?"
His almost mirror like counterpart shook his head, crossing his arms as he spoke, "No, I am you. I thought you were smarter than that."
Seto couldn't believe it, this guy actually had the nerve to come into his house and try to imitate him? The last time that happened he couldn't do anything about it, for he was far from Duelist Kingdom Island to do so. But then another thought came into mind.
"Let me take a wild guess," Kaiba began, "...you're one of those weird, evil, possessing spirits that those losers are always talking about, no?"
The other him seemed to have ignored this remark as he corrected, "Yes and no. I am a spirit, but not an evil, possessing one."
Kaiba tapped a foot in impatience as he glowered at the spirit. "Surely this is one of either Yugi's or Ishtar's little mind games. Maybe if I just close my eyes you'll go away," his voice was dripping with malice. Of course the teen knew better than that by now. "Get out of my house now!" Kaiba ordered.
His other only gave him a shake of his head. "We must first come to terms if you wish me to leave this place," the spirit informed.
The CEO looked ready to kill, sure the man was slightly taller by an inch or two and he looked much stronger than him, but that never stopped Kaiba before and it most certainly wouldn't now.
The spirit was adorned in his usual clothes which consisted of blue and golden robes, a blue headset with a golden snake which sat on his head, and a white cape.
"I'm not coming to any terms with you, whoever you are."
The other sighed. "I only ask one thing of you and in return I shall repay you."
Seto grew more impatient the longer he stayed in this 'Shadow Realm' as the geek squad called it. "Go...on," he coughed.
"Well," the other began, "...I will be needing your assistance in a ritual I wish to perform. Your reward shall be in the teachings of the Old Arts."
Kaiba only looked mildly interested though. "Old Arts? What on earth is that supposed to be? Because if it's lessons on history..." the boy warned menacingly.
"It is magic, as you call it."
Now Kaiba looked skeptical, not to mention exasperated, there really was no way to enlighten the young man's mood. "You're that priest I saw with that Blue Eyes girl. Set, Seth, Seto? I really couldn't catch much from where I was standing," he stated tediously, although he seemed a bit more curious on the matter as he remembered the Blue Eyes girl and what she had told him when he met her.
Again, the spirit corrected him, "It is high priest Seto, but to avoid confusion, just call me Seto and I will call you Kaiba. It is quite an insult being called after an evil God, after all."
"You're that person always talking in my head, aren't you?" Kaiba accused, his glare returning full force. Seto nodded nonchalantly. "So when we're done, you'll leave me alone," he stated.
It wasn't a matter of debating a yes or a no.
"Of course," Seto replied.
Contemplating it over, Kaiba found much to be gained from this proposition. 'Except that will mean more work for me to do,' he thought grudgingly. And after much consideration he replied, "It depends on what I have to do."
Seto was expecting this and so walked over to a stack of books. The spirit skimmed a hand down to the middle of the pile and pulled a book out. "You will be studying from this one book and then we shall test how you do on the summonings in the end," Seto informed.
The teen glanced at the book which the spirit was holding out and read: "Millennium Spell Book." Looking at the Millennium Rod still gripped in his right hand, he hesitated a little longer before shrugging. "It's worth my peace of mind," Kaiba agreed, accepting the book.
With a swift wave of his hand, Seto transported both of themselves out of the Shadow Realm. "I will return in a few days time so we may begin," he informed and disappeared with a slight bow as a thank you.
Yawning, Kaiba walked out of the room and down to his bedroom at a very sluggish pace. He glared at the book in his hands with all his might, willing it to set on fire. He would have put up more of an argument, really he would have, but he knew better by now.
The High Priest, known as Seto, would have just kept insisting, like the rest of the Egyptian people he had encountered in such little time.
So, for the sake of saving time and getting it done with already, he would go along with this little charade.
Two weeks later...
"Hey, Yug? Has gramps heard of this cool new shop that's in Domino for the month?" Joey asked the boy walking next to him. Yugi shook his head. "Is he going to throw a fit when he does," the blonde laughed.
The group of friends entered their first class as everyone thought back to when Duke first came to Domino City.
"Look guys, Kaiba finally came to school," Tristan pointed to a desk in the far back corner of the room, closest to the window.
Yugi fidgeted in growing worry, he could see something different about the boy, besides the fact that his hair was unusually unruly today.
Could this be what he had been dreading since the moment he had handed him the Rod? Motioning for the others to follow his lead, they walked up to Kaiba's desk. "Hey there Kaiba! Why haven't you been to school for so long?" the cheerful boy asked.
Kaiba gave them a dull glance and simply answered, "Sick..." before turning to look out the window once more.
But that was too vague of an answer for the group and so Tea further probed. "Sick for two whole weeks? That's only when you have the flu or something," she gave him a skeptical look.
Bakura nodded. "You look as if you've just traveled through the Shadow Realm and back," he commented, only meaning it as a joke. Having been there at least twice the boy would know what he was talking about.
Kaiba snorted. "I had the cold, now if you don't mind." He tried swatting them away by swinging out a book he had been reading a while ago.
But this was one of those open opportunities Joey just loved to take advantage of. "What's wrong moneybags? Can't handle a small cold?" At this the brunette immediately gave him a warning glare.
The rest of the group sighed, "Here we go again." But...the retort never came as Kaiba decided to ignore Joey and just went back to looking out the window. "Huh?" they blinked in surprise.
Kaiba then added, "Be happy that you haven't gotten on my nerves as much lately mutt, or you'd find yourself in a worse heap of trouble than usual."
This as usual had a big effect on the blonde, as did any and every insult, be it a little one or a big one. He tried in vain to claw his way towards the brunette, but was dragged to the other side of the class, where their seats were located at, by his friends.
"Well, we're glad you're feeling better, Kaiba!" Yugi smiled from across the room, but Kaiba didn't seem to have heard.
Yami had been overhearing the small conversation and was a bit unsettled. "What do you think he means?" the spirit asked, appearing next to Yugi.
The teen shrugged. 'Hm, I don't know, he sounded like his regular self to me.'
Yami frowned, he could have promised that, for the slightest second, Kaiba had glared directly at him just then. "I still have that lingering feeling something bad is going to happen..." he stated warily.
His vessel only shrugged it off as he said, 'Kaiba is just being...well, Kaiba.'
Yami waited a few moments before residing back into the Puzzle, contemplating something he had remembered. The group finally seated themselves as the rest of the class piled in. "Yugi, I have something important to talk to you about. We'll talk back at the shop, alright?" Yami's voice echoed from the Puzzle.
Yugi looked baffled, but nodded anyway. 'Sure, first thing when my friends leave,' he replied.
And that ended their talk as Ms. Dian started class. "Mr. Kaiba, note please..."
Late that night in the Game Shop...
Yugi hopped onto his bed and waited for the Spirit of the Puzzle to come out. Then appearing beside his bedside stand, Yugi noticed that Yami had a much more serious expression on than usual.
"So, what was it you wanted to talk about?" Yugi immediately started off.
The spirit pondered on how to put the words just right for a while. "Well, I never did have much time to tell you about my past. What with all the duel preparations and everything, correct?" he said.
Yugi nodded.
"You already know the basics, I was Pharaoh, Kaiba was one of six priests as well as Ishizu, Shadi, and so on?"
"Yeah, your point being...?"
The spirit sighed. "Remember the duel on Alcatraz Tower with Kaiba was supposed to be the exact way it was 5, 000 years ago?" He received another nod from his counterpart. "Well, it didn't go exactly as 5, 000 years ago."
Yugi looked disbelievingly at Yami and shakily asked, "What? You mean we were supposed to lose in that duel?"
Yami nodded. "When I faced him in my memories, he defeated my Dark Magician with his Blue Eyes and he would have killed me off, but it seemed as if though he were being possessed," he stated.
"So..., that means we still have yet to have the real battle with Kaiba?"
"Yes, and I'm afraid we lose, Yugi," the spirit informed, now deeply worried.
"But, you said Kaiba was being possessed, w-what set him free from the spell?" Yugi queried desperately.
Yami was at a loss for words there.
A minute or two passed by as the two tried to find some kind of flaw in this new predicament of theirs. In the end though, it proved to be futile.
"We should finish this talk with the others tomorrow," Yami suggested, his counterpart silently agreed.
Yugi fell into an uneasy sleep that night. Neither knew when Kaiba would snap and activate his full powers. This what he had been dreading all along then.
At the Kaiba residence...
Kaiba quietly flipped through an old book in the middle of the night.
"The mirrors are a small reflection of the Shadow Realm...and you can never rid of the shadows."
The boy tapped his chin and continued on to the next passage.
"The mirrors are a small reflection of the Shadow Realm...and you can never rid of the shadows."
He tried to concentrate, but those words rolled through his mind to end. They were distracting him from his work.
Still trying to ignore the irritation of this phrase, the brunette continued studying for another three good hours.
When Kaiba had first looked through the pages of the old book he had not been surprised to see that he could indeed read the ancient text at all.
As for Seto, he had come back a few days after their first encounter. The spirit still would not tell him of his plans though, he would only comment on the fact that it was a real shame that his reincarnation didn't even know what a tarot card was.
So they were starting from the beginning, much to the spirit's impatience.
Kaiba was constantly being drilled on the different types of magics there were, that the spirit knew of, and of all the names of the tarot cards. It was only the first two weeks of his studies and the boy was already exasperated. But Kaiba endured the lessons only because he wanted to know more about who this Kisara girl was.
Finishing the last of his reading for that day, Kaiba put the book under his bed and left to his home office to finish a few last modifications on his latest project. But as he exited the room someone was keeping a close watch on him.
Disappearing back into the dark, the albino gave one last glare at the Kaiba manor, vowing to return with a vengeance.
A few miles away from Domino City...
A serene looking house sat in the distance, the garden around the house full of pink and blue flowers.
The flowers were really the only things that gave the place a flare of life, balancing out the sad air that the willow tree in the backyard seemed to radiate. The oddest part about the scene was not how the house or its premises looked like though. It was the fact that there was even a garden at all, and to top it all off that it looked as if it were well taken care of.
It really was a wonder why the flowers did not die already to anyone who passed by. Because it was supposedly said that no one had lived there for more than over six years.
A dead feeling seemed to hang over the house, even the weeping willow seemed sadder than usual.
The interior of the house was moldy as dust lay on every touchable surface. Furniture sat in every room, so surely someone must be living there.
Forever untouched...or so someone thought the house would stay that way, yet nothing is ever left hidden.
Something dark lay sealed within the houses boundary, but even then it did not mean that it would stay sealed. Its power had grown over the past six years and it was ready to expand into the houses outer boundaries.
Shadows danced around the houses every corner, almost as if waiting for the right moment to strike. The dark leered its forever watching eyes out for any sign of prey that might be wondering about the place.
It had to eat sometime...
In a room the silver framed mirror, that plagued someone's mind to no end every night, sat against a wall. Looking harmless and like the most beautiful thing ever created, as usual.
A picture, consisting of a family of four, was taped securely onto the mirror's edge...
The moonlight that filtered into the room from the outside of the balcony door's curtains bounced off a certain relaxing glow, yet a sense of discomfort and burdening somehow reverberated all around.
"The mirrors are a small reflection of the Shadow Realm...and you can never rid of the shadows."
The smell of something dead reeked in the air...
To Be Continued... Silent Shadows
Thank You To:
Setosbluedragon- (To begin, big thanks for reviewing! Glad you found it somewhat enjoying.)
FeelaG101- (Thanks for taking the time to review and sorry about accidentally erasing your review. I had no idea I would do that if I deleted the story. I had been fiddling around with the site, you know, to get the hang of how it worked, hehe.)
yamiseto'sgrl- (My favorite reviewer! Many thanks for reading all the chapters to this. As for the girl, you'll see who she is if you plan on sticking around for the fourth part of my series. Now that is a long way from here. Anyway, hope to hear from you in the sequel.)
DarkDaisyKillr- (Hmmm, I'm not sure what you meant by that, but I'm taking it as a compliment. Thanks for reviewing.)
someone- (Happy to hear you liked it, hope you drop a remark again.)
ShadowFire2- (Great advice, never would have thought I'd change my mind about the paragraphing. But as the days passed by and I looked at my work, I was even having a hard time telling who was saying what. I bet it's much clearer now. Thank you!)
Darkness- (You're right, it is. Sorry about the confusion though, but that just means you know how the squad felt. Review again!)
mariko- (You guessed right on one of the voices, by now you know the other was Akunadin. Again, pleased to hear good comments!)
Voldermort's Daughter- (Thanks and come by for the next story if you can or want.)
Setoglomper- (You're too kind. -starry eyed mode- But not to worry, there will be a sequel, plus the story will be continued on for quite some time. It'll definitely seem like forever. I'm guessing maybe a six series story, maybe even seven. Review again!)
Seto-sama Kaiba- (Very touched by your words. Hm, the advice you gave me was true, so I fixed it up. I already have two reviews stating this, so there's obviously a problem in the dialogue department. Thank you for reviewing and hope to hear from you in the sequel.)
Broken Arrow- (I hope I got your name right, this too got deleted, as did the e-mailed version Anyway, I remember you said that Bakura caught your attention in the summary and that you wanted to see more of him in the story, right? Well, how did you like it? Don't worry, he'll be back!)
?- (Again, another reviewer that got deleted, as did the e-mailed version. For starters, I'm sorry I didn't even remember your name! Very sorry, but I think I remember what you said in your review. You guessed correctly, the person with the blue eyes was Kisara. Hope you review again, I'll print it right away this time!)
Added Reviewers
Shadowfrost Panther- (Now there's an interesting fact I didn't know, I'll have to figure a way out to fix that up in the next part. Thank you for the review and the information too!)
Evilseto- (Glad the choppy work didn't bother you. I wrote to you like you asked, but I don't know if you received it. Hm, either way, you can write to me through my bio address if you wish. Drop by again!)
Readers Who Don't/Haven't Reviewed- (Thanks for taking the time to finish reading this story and hope all of you liked it. Even though some don't like to review, I know there are a lot of people who read it, and either liked it or hated it. Maybe I'll hear from some of you in the coming stories!)
Please send all questions, comments, criticisms to the e-mail address on my bio page. Check my bio for update information. Thank you!
Copyright (C) 2004 by Rune-Sorceress. All rights reserved.
