Chapter 4

Emma sat on a bench by the side of the river staring out towards the bridge that reminded her of her hometown. She'd been there for awhile trying to make sense of what she had read. Feeling betrayed she wiped the last of her tears from her eyes as she sang quietly to herself.

"When you walk away
You don't hear me say
Please, oh baby don't go
Simple and clean is the way that you're making me feel tonight

It's hard to let it go

Hold me, whatever lies beyond this morning

Is a little later on
Regardless of warnings
The future doesn't scare me at all
Nothing's like before "

She stopped singing as she heard the nearby bushes rustle, and then called out "Who's there?"

Kaiba appeared from the path behind the bushes.

"How long have you been there?" she asked him as she wiped her face once more.

"I didn't hear the whole song if that's what you mean." replied Kaiba with his stern face.

"I always sing to myself when I'm feeling really down or extremely happy." she told him, but got no response. "It's a comfort thing, you should try it sometime."

"You're in my spot." Kaiba stepped closer to the bench.

"Really?" Emma replied rather sarcastically. "I don't see your name on here anywhere."

"You've been taking lessons in sarcasm from Wheeler." He stopped where he was and slightly raised his eyebrow in his amusement.

"I've told you already that I don't have anything to do with them!" Emma exclaimed as she pushed herself to the far end of the bench as far away as she could possibly get from Kaiba. "In fact I just want to be on my own, I don't need anybody."

Kaiba sat down on the end of the bench and looked out across the river. "Same here."

Emma looked at Kaiba. "I didn't really mean it about being on my own."

"Then why say it?" replied Kaiba as he continued to stare out over the river.

"I'm just upset." Emma too stared out across the river. "Or angry, what's the difference? We all say things we don't mean when we're like that." she bit on her lip as she thought about who she really was and a single tear rolled down her face. "I'm just so confused."

There was silence for a while as the two of them continued to gaze over the river which reflected the moon in the night time sky. The bridge was also alight and twinkled in the darkness.

There was a slight breeze that blew strands of Emma's long dark hair across her face, but it didn't seem to bother her. "Do you believe in destiny?"

Kaiba looked at Emma to see her still stare out at the river, half of her face was almost covered with her hair.

"I use to think I did, but now I'm not so sure." she replied not waiting for him to answer.

"What made you have these doubts?" Kaiba asked as he diverted his gaze back to the river.

"Let's just say that somebody took advantage of my beliefs, and it's taken me a long time to find out." she bit her lip again as she thought about Shadi. "Now I want nothing more to do with that person."

There was silence once more between the two of them. The wind began to increase in strength which made Emma finally tie her hair back to keep in from her face. She decided that she wasn't going to let Shadi bother her anymore as there was no point in feeling sorry for herself. She turned to Kaiba. "What's your problem?"

Kaiba made no response, he just sat there like he hadn't even heard the question.

Emma attempted to try and start conversation once again. "If it's about the dueldisk, you can still take it back."

"It's not the dueldisk." came the reply.

"Well is it the duel itself?" Emma asked, surprised that Kaiba had replied to her last comment. "You know, if you want a rematch I'm ready for it."

"Despite what people say about my obsession with duelling, I don't always have my deck with me." Kaiba laughed to himself. "And no, its not the result of the duel either."

Emma felt slightly foolish as she hadn't even notice that he didn't have his dueldisk on. "Then what is it?" she asked.

There was no reply, but then again Emma wasn't expecting one as she knew that Kaiba wasn't the type to talk about things that bothered him. She was still surprised that he had spoken at all to her during the time he had been here.

"You know, keeping your problems to yourself all the time isn't always a good idea." she spoke quietly and could only just be heard above the noise of the wind blowing. "Sometimes it helps to get them out in the open so that others may help you."

"You're wrong." Kaiba snapped, he turned towards her. "That may be a nice little dream world that you live in but reality is different. You have to deal with your own problems head on until they are conquered. You can't expect any help from anyone else."

Even though Kaiba had just spoken angrily to her, Emma just smiled back at him. After a brief moment she said "I think that you've just proven that we're both right, thank you."

"How do you figure that out?" he asked looking rather puzzled.

"It's simple." she told him as she got up and placed her bag strap over her shoulder. "You've kept your problem to yourself so have stuck to your belief, and I have also stuck to mine and shared my problems with you. And like it or not you've just given me some advice that I am about to go and use."

Before Kaiba could say another word Emma had walked away down the path by the river to return in to the city. Filled with new enthusiasm she was going to face her problems head on like Kaiba had said. She wanted answers from Shadi and wasn't prepared to back down until she had gotten them.

It hadn't taken her long to get back on to the streets of Domino and Emma felt like she would be searching forever to find her way back to the hotel. She stopped a passer-by and asked for directions, which she had to ask them to repeat as two speeding fire engines drove by.

As she followed the directions that she had been given she pondered about what would be the best way to confront Shadi. It wasn't long before she could smell something burning and then she remembered the engines that had passed by her. She thought that she must be near whatever it was that they had been called out to.

Just a couple of minutes later she had found the street where her hotel was located. She was almost frozen as she watched people running about trying to put out the fire that was once the hotel.