Disclaimer: Never in my lifetime will I be able to own Yu-Gi-Oh. Conclusion? I DON'T own Yu-Gi-Oh? Isn't that pretty obvious?

Author's Notes: Thanks to all of my wonderful reviewers! You will never be able to imagine how busy I was lately… the horror! Even during this February vacation, I have tons of homework and several projects; I can barely breathe from the heavy school work I got. The sad thing is… school started today…(T.T)

One more thing, I am working on this Inuyasha fan fiction, so if anyone is a fan of Inuyasha, please feel free to read that story. Go to my info page to find it. I'm not getting too much reviews for that story, and my mood was pretty bad about that…I hope I don't have to delete that story, because I like it very much… So, reviews are appreciated!

I'll stop babbling now… Please, enjoy this new chapter!

The Spirit of the Sword

Chapter 15

Long, Long Hallway

Serenity seemed to be sitting calmly on her bed, but she was actually very worried about Mai and Joey. This morning, close to the afternoon, Seto dragged her back into their room. He told her to stay in the room and get some rest, and he promised to come back later. However, it had been the whole day already. Serenity stood up from the soft bed, and walked to the balcony. She raised her head and saw the black night sky, filled with only a few dim stars. The moon was hiding after the gray clouds. A bad feeling suddenly stroke Serenity.

A feeling that something bad happened to Mai scared her. Serenity's hazel eyes widened in fear. Why didn't Seto come back today? What happened to Mai? Seto promised to send doctors to her, so shouldn't he at least come back and tell me about it? What if something bad happened to Mai? The maid that ran towards Joey this morning seemed pretty frightened! And poor Joey, how is he going to deal with the problem if Mai is really sick? Lots of questions suddenly popped into Serenity's mind.

A feeling of guilty crept into her heart. I'm such a bad sister… and friend… How could I forget about Joey and Mai for the whole afternoon? All I was thinking this afternoon was Seto, and I didn't even know him that well. I'm a terrible sister… Serenity started blaming herself. It was hard for her to belief she wasted this whole afternoon in this room, thinking about someone she didn't even know that much. She could have used the time to visit Mai!

Serenity came back into the room. Determination was firmly in her hazel eyes. "I must go find Mai. I must know how she's feeling right now. And Joey, I have to be there for him." Serenity decided. She walked towards the door and turned the door knob. To her surprise, the door wasn't locked. She assumed that Seto might lock it, since he seemed a bit paranoid too easily, and that was what he did the last time he kidnapped her. Perhaps I'm the one being paranoid around here… I shouldn't suspect Seto would be so mean to lock me in. After all, he did seem pretty nice this morning, and I could tell he wasn't that cold-hearted. A faint tint of pink appeared on her face at the thought of Seto Kaiba.

Serenity shook her head, trying to get rid of the image of Seto holding her this morning. She focused her attention on the long hallway. There were no guards at all, and everything was quiet. The floor was covered with red carpet, and the lights were made of crystals with the shape of diamonds. Rooms were on both side of the hallway. It was indeed very luxurious in the castle.

Serenity suddenly stopped abruptly. She looked around, and realized that every door seemed to be the same! She didn't really had the chance to explore the Domino castle yet, since she was first locked up in the room when Seto kidnapped her, then it was her wedding and some maids were leading her down the hallway, then she was injured, she just awoke yesterday, and the last time she left the room was this morning with Joey, Tristan, and Duke. Oh no… what if I can't find my room later? And where is Mai and Joey, and the others? I didn't even know where the guest rooms were! How am I going to find them? Serenity thought nervously.

She hesitated a bit about searching the castle, since the castle seemed really huge. She would probably get lost in it. "Yes! I can ask a servant or a maid to take me there!" Serenity exclaimed. She looked around the hallway, but realized that there was no servant, not even one. A spooky feeling began creeping into her heart, as she was always afraid of being alone in a huge mansion, not to mention a castle, especially at night! Her fear arose from this nightmare that she used to have in the past. In the nightmare, she was being chased by something scary, but she never had the courage to turn her head and look at it. She just kept on running and running, but the long hallway seemed to be endless, and no one was there to help her… Serenity would then awake from the nightmare, cold sweat soaked her pajamas.

Too late now… Besides, I really wanted to see Mai… I guess I'll just have to walk down the hallway, and hopefully someone will tell me how to get to Mai and Joey… Serenity decided that would be the best choice. I hope someone will appear soon… being all alone in this hallway at night gives me this spooky feelings… as if someone is watching me in the dark… Serenity was frightening herself more with those thoughts. She seemed to be on the verge on crying… After a few more steps, she started running down the hallway, hoping to bump into someone she knew, then she wouldn't be as afraid as she was now.

What Serenity didn't know was that someone was watching her in the dark. A mysterious person with white spiky hair and brown eyes were observing her every move… A smirk slowly appeared on his face after seeing how scared she was. In a dark room, Bakura was watching her through the slit of the

narrowly-opened door…

In the guest room, several doctors were still surrounding the bed. They had been here since this afternoon, sent by King Kaiba. However, they seemed nervous about what they were doing, with cold sweats on their forehead. Joey was walking back and forth near the door. Yami was sitting on the black sofa with Tea. Duke and Tristan were no longer here since they were kicked out of the castle this morning by Seto. They all had the worried expression on their face, and Joey seemed like he was about to blow up at those doctors for not able to save Mai.

When Joey followed the maid this morning to Mai's guest room, she was already lying in bed. Her lips were extremely white, and she seemed to be in pain. Her face was also colorless and pale. All Mai was doing was mumbling Joey's name again and again. Joey's heart was almost ripped from his body at the scene of Mai being so frail this morning. It was hard for him to stand the pain he felt in his heart, but he must hang in there for Mai. Even now, the pain was still there in his heart.

"Dammit! Why are the doctors still here? They're supposed to heal Mai by now!" Joey punched the wall with his right fist. He was so worried at Mai. What could have happened to her? She was still fine last night.

"Calm down, Joey. The doctors are doing their best right now." Yami stood up from the sofa and patted Joey on his shoulder. He understood how hard it was for Joey to wait while not able to help Mai. If something similar happened to Tea, he would probably gone crazy too.

"But there's nothing I can do now! All I can do is wait! But Mai needs me!" Joey said with frustration. His head was lowered, and his messy blonde hair concealed his eyes so no one could see the tears in his eyes. His fist was still on the wall.

"Joey… We are all worried about Mai. She's our friend too. You must hang in there. The first thing she wanted to see when she wakes up is probably you, Joey." Tea also stood up and walked towards Joey. "We are your friends, and we will always be here for you." Tea started her friendship speech again.

"Thanks guys, but I just couldn't help it…" Joey answered weakly. He was praying for Mai to be fine. "I betta not find out that Kaiba's behind all this! This is his castle, and who knows what impious plans that guy might come up with this time! He did captured Serenity last time, and we are still not clear on his intentions!" Joey started directing his frustration at Kaiba.

"Joey! Don't accuse others without proves!" Yami said. The last thing he wanted was to have a furious Kaiba start another fight with Joey. Those two hated each other for some reason even Yami didn't understand much. "Trust me, the last thing you want is being kick out of the castle with Mai. She needed doctors now, and Kaiba is the only person able to provide doctors at this moment." Yami analyzed the situation to Joey, hoping he wouldn't start bickering with Kaiba again.

"I know…" Joey mumbled. He finally decided to sit down on the sofa for a while. Joey lowered her head and put his head in his palms. He needed to clear up his head now. Tea walked over to Yami, and he put his arm around her shoulders. All they could do now was to wait…

Bakura were now trailing behind the scared Serenity. He made sure to keep some distant, so that she wouldn't notice him. However, Serenity was probably too scared of being alone in the hallway anyway to even notice someone was following her.

Bakura's sharp brown eyes were staring with awe at Serenity's beauty. Her long auburn hair was billowing in the air as she ran down the hallway. Her white long dress made her looked so angelic and pure, like an angel from the heaven. Even though he couldn't see her beautiful face at this moment, he could imagine her scared, but still cute, little face. Exactly when did he begin to have this desire for her? He didn't know, and didn't care. He still remembered the day of her wedding, she looked so beautiful in that wedding dress. Perhaps it was only lust for her body, her beauty, and his own satisfaction on possessing such a beautiful girl, not really a feeling of love towards her, but Bakura's inner self was urging him to get his hand on her anyway.

Since Bakura didn't really felt any obligation to Kaiba, he decided he should just get Serenity no matter what problems he might cause for others. He only served under Kaiba before because he felt that Kaiba seemed to be the strongest King compared to Yami and Pegasus. Besides, Bakura didn't exactly like to serve under Yami for Yami was a frank and upright king. Conclusion? Bakura cannot be trusted. He would never be loyal to anyone. He did everything for the benefit of himself.

After trailing behind Serenity for quite some time, and it seemed like she was lost, since she had been going around in circle and didn't even realizes it. The castle was actually rounded, so if you don't make a turn, just keeps on walking straight, you will never get out since you're basically walking in circle. The design was made so that enemies of the king would find it hard to murder him. And of course, the design of the castle was made by Gozaburo Kaiba, and Seto just decided to keep it the same.

Bakura had decided he should probably go up to Serenity and tell her the right way by now, if he wanted to make a good impression on her, like a hero saving a lost little girl. The decision was made, and Bakura never hesitate about what he wanted to do. He called out to Serenity, "Serenity!" and then caught up to her. A smirk appeared on his face when Serenity stopped abruptly after hearing his voice.

Serenity turned around, tears were threatening to fall out of her big watery eyes. She seemed so relief after seeing Bakura, even though she was always afraid of him for some unknown reason, as if her feeling was telling her not to be too close to him. Bakura! I'm not alone here! Oh, thank God! I'm so afraid of being lonely in such a big place… A weak smile appeared on her face as she watched Bakura walked up to her.

"Bakura! Thank God I saw you!" Serenity exclaimed. She ran up to Bakura to ask him about her position in the castle. "Where am I? This hallway is so long! I've been running straight for a long time, and it doesn't seem to end! And I was scared of being all alone in the hallway at night, and I didn't see anyone here-" Serenity started talking on and on, which was the symptom that she was really really afraid and was on the verge of crying. However, Bakura stopped her.

An unnoticeable smirk started growing on Bakura's face, but Serenity could only notice if she looked carefully at Bakura, which wasn't going to happen since she was totally freak out by now. Haha. This is the reaction I want. Then, I can save her from her fear, and she would thank me, and then she would fall for me. Hahaha… Bakura thought. However, his real thoughts were concealed perfectly from Serenity. Instead, he raised his hand and made a silence gesture, and brought his hand to his lips, in order to calm her down, while saying, "Shh… it's all right now…" Of course, he wasn't planning on telling her about the design of the building, since he didn't see the need of explaining to her.

Serenity stopped immediately. She realized that she was acting like a little child, and started blushing like a red cherry. "Sorry…" She said while lowering her head. "Please, Bakura. Please tell me how to get to the guest rooms. I want to go see how Mai's doing. Oh, and by the way, do you know anything about what happened to Mai?" Serenity asked politely.

Hahahaha… of course I know what happened to that blonde girl Mai. She was actually being poisoned, and the stupid doctors are now trying to figure out what kind of poison it was. This is the perfect plan to get Domino Kingdom and Yami Kingdom into a war… When Kaiba loses everything, or when Kaiba kill your brother and your friends, you will abandon him and come into by arms. See… this is the perfect plan, with the help of Pegasus of course. He is just a tool for me to get you, and he can have his revenge on Kaiba all he wants, I don't care! The malevolent plan was running in Bakura's mind. After reviewing his plan, he snapped back to reality very quick. "I'm afraid I don't know. But I can tell you how to get to Mai's guest room. Please excuse me that I cannot accompany you to her room, for I have other tasks that I must complete." Bakura answered very politely.

"It's fine, Bakura. I don't want you to get into trouble because of me." Serenity smiled at him. Bakura seemed to be a really nice guy. Why would I even felt that he couldn't be trusted when I first saw him? Maybe it was because his eyes seemed so devious, but Seto's eyes were icy too… Maybe I'm being a bit paranoid lately… first I suspected that Seto is an iceberg, and he would lock me in the room, then I suspect Bakura is a dangerous person… I should really stop acting so paranoid… Serenity frowned at herself for being paranoid. What she didn't know was that both Seto Kaiba and Yami Bakura did had some wicked plans in their heads, her senses were actually right.

"First, walk down the hallway. One the first intersection, turn right. You'll see a stair downstairs to the first floor. Take the stair. Make another right when you got to the first floor. There, you will see a long hallway, and only the right side has doors. The door color is different. If you notice, King and queen's door is golden color. The guest rooms' doors are red color. On the second guest room, it is Mai's room, and lots of people will probably in there already worried about Mai. It's that simple. Are you clear?" Bakura gave a long direction to Serenity.

Serenity had a nervous smile on her face. Huh-huh… Is he kidding me? Simple? That is a long and complicated direction! I hope I'm not going to get lost this time… Serenity tried to remember what exactly Bakura had told her. "Huh-huh… Um… Walk down the hallway, turn right, go down stairs to first floor… um… turn right again… and… um… red doors on the right side of the hallway? The second room is Mai's room?" Serenity re-stated the direction in a simpler form.

"Yes. You're very clever." Bakura said. He didn't notice that Serenity was nervously laughing and she was very unsure when she tried to memorize the direction to Mai's room. "I have to get going now. Have a nice evening, and I hope Mai is fine." –not! I hope Mai would be ill and haha… there will sure be a big argument between Joey and Kaiba. Bakura added silently. He saw that Serenity seemed to be less afraid of him now. He started walking away, and had a big smirk on his face. The second step of my plan is successful: get closer to Serenity's heart. First step completed: Mai poisoned. Let's see how Joey would react to this situation. Haha.

As Serenity started walking down the hallway, mumbling the directions again and again so that she wouldn't forget, Bakura suddenly stopped in the middle of the hallway. He took out a duel monster card, and mumbled something. The grin on his face only grew larger, and his eyes more wicked…

Serenity got to the intersection that Bakura was talking about, and turned right. She did see a stairs! Ah! A stair! Bakura was right! Serenity ran towards the stairs, glad that she could finally go see Mai. "To the first floor, turn right, second red door on the right side… To the first floor, turn right, second red door on the right side… … …" Serenity repeated the instructions given by Bakura.

Just when she was in the middle of the stairs walking toward the first floor, a shadow suddenly covered the light. Serenity was puzzled, and raised her head to look at the floor she just came down from, and her hazel eyes widened. She started trembling, even though she wanted to start running, but she couldn't. She was too afraid. What she saw was a ghost-looking-partly-transparent monster flying towards her, at a pretty fast speed, and accompanied with the monster stuff was a spooky sound "Oooooooouuuuuuuuu" Serenity freaked out completely. Tears were forming in her eyes. She finally found the strength to run when the bony hand of that monster was about to touch her arm. Goose bumps started forming on her arms.

"Ah" Serenity managed to screamed. I hope this is not real! I know I'm not in my nightmare! And I hope that 'ghost' is not what was chasing me in my nightmare! I never had the courage to look back in those horrible nightmares about me running down the hallway alone! Serenity thought. As she reached the first floor, she was just about to turn right, when she bumped into a really tall person.

"Ah!" Serenity screamed. She fell onto the ground and she just sat there, eyes closed tightly. Please tell me I didn't just bump into that 'ghost'! Serenity sat there, not even moving an inch, hoping that if she remained motionless, the ghost moster would go away.

At the mean time, Seto was bumped and faltered several steps backward. He was in a terrible mood since this afternoon after being informed that Mai was poisoned by some sort of rare poison that those imbecile doctors couldn't figure out. Someone dare poison his guest in his castle? He had been standing in the hallway outside of Mai's room since the afternoon, and that was why he didn't go back to visit Serenity like he promised, but perhaps he would never go visit her since he thought of her as dangerous to be around which would cause him to act abnormal. And one more thing that made him even angrier. He wasn't deaf, and he definitely heard what Joey had said about him. "I betta not find out that Kaiba's behind all this! This is his castle, and who knows what impious plans that guy might come up with this time! He did captured Serenity last time, and we are still not clear on his intentions!"Joey said. Rage started accumulating in Seto's head. Which stupid idiot bumped into me this time? Seto was about to blow up like a volcano.

When Seto looked down on the floor, his cerulean eyes widened in surprise. It was Serenity! She was just sitting there without moving, and her eyes were closed tightly, as if she was afraid to open her eyes. What is she doing on the floor? And why is she here? Seto thought, a little confused. He walked toward her, and saw that she was trembling. "Serenity?" Seto asked.

Serenity didn't response, and didn't open her eyes. She thought that might be an illusion or trick that ghost monster thing was trying to pull on her. Seto frowned at her reaction. He walked up to her and tried to pull her up by her arms, but Serenity immediately jumped when his fingers lightly brushed off her skin. Serenity jumped up and started running the other way, still with eyes closed.

What is she doing? Anger started building up in Seto's heart again. No one dare not to listen to him, let alone running away from him! "Stop, Serenity!" Seto ran up to Serenity and caught her arms, pulling her into his arms, and tightened his hold on her. "Open your eyes, Serenity, and look at me!" Seto yelled at her. How could she run away from me? Am I that scary? Seto was now on the verge on exploding again.

The familiar voice finally got into Serenity's mind. Seto? She slowly opened her eyes, and saw a blurry Seto holding onto her. Blurry because there were still tears in her eyes from her fear of that ghost. "Seto?" Serenity mumbled with her voice that sounded like she was about to cry.

"Of course it's me! Who do you expect?" Seto sounded harshly. "Why are you acting this way? Am I that scary to you? Hmph." Seto interrogated her furiously. He glared at Serenity's frightened eyes.

Serenity didn't answer Seto immediately. She looked around, and didn't see the ghost that was chasing her. The fear she was just feeling became stronger as she replay the image of the ghost getting closer and closer to her. "Seto" Serenity broke down crying in Seto's shoulders.

Seto became stiff for a few seconds, for he didn't expect her to react in this way. His hands were raised but stopped in the middle, hesitating about patting her back to comfort her. When Serenity buried her head in his chest, he finally put his hands on her back and patted her lightly. "… … Tell me what's wrong? Hm?" Seto asked gently. Serenity seemed like a frightened rabbit.

"A.. a ghost-looking thing was… floating in the air in the stairs when I came down here. It was chasing me, and had a scythe in its hands… it looked so scary! And… and it was coming towards me really fast!" Serenity said while she paused to sob. She hugged onto Seto tighter as if he was a floating wood on top of a river. Seto could protect her, and she knew it.

Seto's eyes narrowed. Ghost-looking thing with a scythe in its hands? That might be a duel monster card… but how could it be real? Unless it's a real ghost. What the hell am I talking about? There is no ghost in the world! Seto shook his head to get rid of the ridiculous idea of real ghost in the world. It was even more ridiculous for him to thought of that. Seto decided to find out later about the truth about the ghost Serenity was saying. Perhaps she was just having a nightmare and thought it was real.

"Whatever that thing might be, it's not here anymore. I'll protect you from it. Now tell me, why are you here? You're supposed to be in our room, resting, remember?" Seto reminded her. He wasn't too happy that she ran out of the room without his permission, even though he didn't lock the door.

"I… you… you said you were…" Serenity raised her big hazel eyes and looked at Seto. After making sure that he wasn't that angry that she left the room on her own, she continued. "You said you were going to come see me this afternoon, but you didn't. And I'm really worried about Mai! So… so I… I decided-" Serenity's unfinished sentence was finished by Seto.

"-decided to wonder in the hallway to find Mai? You probably didn't even know where she is, right?" Seto could guess correctly so easily. A light shade of pink appeared on Serenity's face. She was blushing that Seto could see what she was thinking so easily. "Did you get lost? The hallway is designed in a complicated way, that you might get lost very easilty." Seto guessed she probably got lost, and started imagining this ghost thing chasing her.

"… … huh-huh… yes… I got lost for a while…" Serenity started blushing harder. She felt that Seto could see through her heart without much effort, as if she was completely transparent to his keen eyes. "But Bakura called me, and then he told me how to get here!" Serenity said cheerfully. Seto's eyes grew colder for he could easily tell that she was grateful for seeing Bakura there and grateful for his kindness of telling her how to get here. What Seto didn't realize was that this uncomfortable feeling he had in his heart when Serenity talked happily about another man was actually jealousy. Perhaps he didn't want to admit he was jealous.

"The important thing is that you are here safely. You want to see Mai, right? Let's go." Seto just wanted to end the conversation before Serenity might get into how good Bakura was to lead her out of the hallway she was lost in. Seto held onto Serenity's hand and started walking towards Mai's guest room.

Serenity followed, but with her mouth wide opened. She thought that Seto didn't want to let her see Mai, since this morning Seto was so mad when she wanted to go see Mai, and he even started dragging her back to their room harshly. "Um… Seto? Are you sure… I can go see Mai?" Serenity asked meekly. She observed Seto's face from the corner of her eyes to make sure he wasn't angry, again. He seemed to be easily irritated all the times.

"Yes, of course I'm sure!" Seto answered in a coarser voice. He glared a second at Serenity's timid face. No one ever questions him, and so she shouldn't question him too. Serenity didn't say anything anymore. They walked silently towards Mai's room…

Author's note: I was planning to write more about Mai and Joey this chapter, but new ideas were just popping into my heads… So… I'm very sorry that Joey and Mai will be next chapter. This time, I promise! Please don't kill me, Joey-and-Mai fans. I won't delay that anymore, and it will definitely be in the next chapter.

So now, Bakura is evil right now. Will he become good later? I haven't decided yet, so anyone is welcome to comment on what would become of Bakura. Example: Evil Bakura can just die at the end; or I like Bakura, let him become good and live; or the Yami Bakura that is controlling the nice Ryuo Bakura will be sent to the shadow realm, so Ryuo Bakura is good. Get it? Just some ideas…

Geez… it seemed like everyone had some evil plans in their minds. Seto Kaiba wanted to use Serenity and he treated her not-so-nice in the beginning. Pegasus wanted revenge because Gozaburo killed Cecelia. And now, Bakura poisoned Mai so that he might be able to get Serenity in the future… Tsk, tsk, tsk, some evil people we got here.

Okay, last but not least, please, please, please! Please give me some reviews. Actually, I'm really happy that I people review my story. Thank you all! You made my day happier! And just a reminder, for those people who are also Inuyasha fans, you can go read my story "The Obscure Truth" because it seemed like not much people are reading it, and it made me feel a bit disappointed… It was very hard to get reviews in Inuyasha section… since so many people update per day, and the story got push back really fast…

Okay, I've talked too much. Thanks again for supporting my story. I'll try to update as sson as possible. But unfortunately, school started. (T.T)