Yay! Onto chapter 5! As a forewarning, this one is kinda dark towards the end, but on a brighter note, there's a picture that I drew from this chapter! Onward:
The end of the day finally arrived and Kiseki nearly got in trouble for leaving before the daily cleanup of the school. All of the students were assigned to different rooms to tidy up, and Kiseki made several administrators laugh when she asked why they didn't have janitors to do it. It's not that she didn't mind, she just got confused immensely by it since nearly all the students went about it without questions or complaints. She was assigned to Sensei Unishiwa's last room of the day, thankfully, and passed the cleaning time talking to him while the other students gave her odd looks and whispered to each other.
"Did you hear about her?"
"Yeah, I think I heard she has the best card in Duel Monsters or something..."
"Really? Wow, no fooling, what's her name?"
"I dunno... does it matter?"
Kiseki continued talking with the teacher as she leaned out the windows and clapped the chalkboard erasers together to dust them out. They were having a lot of fun discussing the differences in society, making Unishiwa laugh quite a bit.
"The students switch classrooms?" he asked incredulously, arranging his files and quirking an eyebrow at her.
Kiseki nodded, setting two erasers on the board tray to take out the last two. "Though a lot of teachers switched classrooms as well." She nearly let out a laugh at the look on his face as he shook his head and started packing things away in his suitcase. "There were some students who came late nearly every day because they spent time talking and meeting up with friends."
"They would have been suspended had they done that here," he said in all seriousness, then switching his tone to one of amusement again. "But of course, you were never caught being late," he chuckled, a somewhat teasing, sarcastic air about his words.
"Actually I wasn't," she replied simply and truthfully, placing the last erasers on the tray and dusting her hands off to fold her arms. "I didn't talk to many people then."
"Oh? And why was that?" inquired the professor, standing up and picking up his briefcase to start walking her out, for the cleaning was done with in that room and the students had begun to file out already.
Kiseki remained quiet for a few moments, not looking at him, before responding with a shrug. "I just didn't."
Unishiwa detected some tension in her voice, but it was the type that plainly warned him not to dig too deep into the matter, so he merely nodded and sighed, looking around at the hallways instead. There was a somewhat awkward silence between them at that point, so Kiseki changed the subject to something she always thought was humourous to hear about.
"So, what's the biggest stereotype you have here about America? Apart from the fact that we all live in huge houses and wear sunglasses everywhere?"
He laughed. "I must say, I've heard some really odd ones, but the funniest would definitely be the fact that everyone there carries a gun."
At this, Kiseki let a rather loud laugh out, making several students next to them jump. She shut her mouth, blushing slightly when she heard the professor chuckling heartily at her. "That's the most foolish thing I have ever heard," she muttered, keeping her face turned away from him until the slight colour had drained back out. Once it was pale again, she looked at Unishiwa, who was still smiling at her. "If that's going around, I don't think I want to hear the other odd ones about my home country," she said humourously.
"Oh the other ones aren't that bad," he admitted with a slight shrug. "They're all about what kinds of cars you all drive; big SUVs that couldn't see behind them if they were about to be crushed into a large cube."
"That's definitely my family for you," she said. "As soon as we got here, that was our first order of business; we have one."
"Well, I certainly hope that that thing doesn't cause you any misfortune," he said, turning to her and stopping, for they were now outside. "I'll see you tomorrow, then?"
She smiled and bowed with a small "hai", and he bowed back, then waving and walking to his car. Raising her hand slightly to wave back, she then turned to the gates of the school with a sigh. Her first day at Domino High had been completed. Smiling slightly, she readjusted her bag on her shoulder, only then realising how heavy it was with all of the textbooks her teachers had given her. Luckily a few had told her to keep them at home, but it seemed that the ones with the thickest books were set on making their students suffer by telling them to bring them every day. As she started toward the gate, her eyes wandered over the trees and plants on the campus, pausing occasionally as she spotted little nests with the chicks just beginning to fly out and in. She did not get too far, however, when suddenly she bumped into someone.
Stumbling backwards slightly, she regained her balance quickly and straightened up, about to apologise, when her breath caught in her throat. It was Kaiba. Though he looked far different compared to what she remembered. He was no longer in his school uniform, rather in an elegant outfit she would have expected on some sort of fashion designer.
He was wearing a long white trench coat with the necking turned up to curve around his face slightly, his broad torso brought out by the flared shoulders; the trench coat was one that seemingly defied gravity as it flared out behind him, accenting his slim figure, though not nearly as much as the tight-fitting black pants and turtleneck shirt he wore; slick black boots practically blended in with the pants; narrow buckles of dark purple were pulled tight about his upper arms and calves, with a sort of metal brace on his lower arms. She was so taken aback by his sudden transformation that she failed to notice the KC logo upon his belt buckle and trench coat flap. "You really should watch where you walk, kohai," he sneered at her.
She instantly felt the heat rushing to her face, but she kept calm and a slight tone of defiance wound its way into her voice. "You were the one looking forward, so you're partly to blame," she said, staring into his cerulean eyes.
"So says one who gets caught in an act of idiocy," he shot back at her.
Choosing to ignore this, she tightened her grip slightly on her bag. "Well you seem to have gotten quite comfortable," she said, surveying his outfit. "Do you honestly feel the need to change into something that obviously takes up a lot of time to put on?" Indeed, she did think it was foolish, though she had to admit with some vehemence that it made him look rather appealing.
"Do you honestly think I stick around to clean up after the slobs of the school? I refuse to lower myself to that level, but you are slightly correct in assuming I hate the school uniforms and yearn to rid myself of mine as soon as possible after school."
"So why did you come back?" asked Kiseki, shaking some of her bangs out of her eyes.
"You should know, kohai," snarled Seto. "I came to give you another chance to give me the card."
She blinked at him, scared slightly at the change in attitude that had befallen him. "Another chance?"
"Hard on hearing aren't you?" He held his powerful, slender hand out again. "Give me the card," he repeated firmly.
She backed away slightly from him. "I don't want to."
"That's not what I asked; I could care less whether you want to give it to me or not," he said, taking a step to narrow the space between them again.
"Leave me be," she argued, turning her eyes to the ground and moving to push past him. His hand immediately shot out and caught her roughly by the arm, pulling her back to him.
She winced at his grip, but kept her eyes fixed upon the gate as he leaned down to her ear and hissed into it. "I will have that card, kohai, you mark my words..." And with that, he let her go and she stumbled slightly away from him, not daring to look back as she distanced herself further away from him. She walked through the gate and then slipped behind the wall beside it, pressing herself to it. With a shaky hand she reached inside her bag and pulled out the card, as though to reassure herself that Seto had not somehow stolen it away from her. When she saw it, she breathed a sigh of relief and pressed the card to her chest, closing her eyes. The young CEO simply made his way to the limousine waiting for him outside the gate, and Kiseki drew in her breath and held it as she saw him walk past, but he did not notice her as he climbed in and shut the door. A few meters away, Yugi and the gang had seen the whole thing.
"Who does he think he is?" growled Anzu.
"I dunno but he's asking for a but-whooping I can tell you that much," said Honda, cracking his knuckles slightly.
"Not now, guys," said Yugi. "We should really go see if she's alright; c'mon!"
They all started towards where she had disappeared beyond the gate, though as she heard their voices, she tightened her grip on the card and pushed herself away from the wall, not wanting to speak to anyone after what had happened. As she sped away from the school, Seto chuckled, watching her every move from beyond the tinted windows of the limo. She's frightened... just how I want it to be, he said to himself, smirking, before sternly telling the driver to take him back to his office building.
That night, Kiseki sat out on the porch and took out a small canvas to use. Her emotions were completely stirred up; she could barely keep herself from crying as she came home and saw her parents, but she hid her feelings away until she was the only one awake in the house. Tears began to flow silently down her face as she took out some blue and black paint, dipping her paintbrush in each and swiping it hard against the fabric on her easel. As she continued, the strokes became more fervent, some paint splashing on the floor from how strongly she whipped the brush across the surface, her jaw clenching to keep herself from openly sobbing as her anger pulsed through her hand. At long last, she threw the paintbrush down an sat back in her couch, curling up and holding her head, staring at the black and blue-streaked canvas. She felt completely drained, but not drained enough to draw out the card again.
This card.... this was the reason everyone would not leave her alone... if it wasn't for this card, Yugi would have never introduced her to his pretty friend. Her hand tightened on it. I vowed never to let those emotions show again... I almost let them slip out again... This card was the reason that Kaiba was after her... She hated it. She found herself standing up and walking to the balcony with the card in hand; her arm lifted to throw the cursed thing off into the wind...out of her life for good—when she looked up and saw the KC building once more.
The single office window was lit up, and she stood, frozen, watching it. The person inside was still working at this late hour... A cool wind blew by, bringing the fresh scent of the night along with it as she remained there for a long while, just staring, her arm held over the balcony. They're not giving up on work for sleep... they're pushing through it, even if it means sacrificing something that keeps them sane... She felt a familiar feeling growing inside her, one of determination and defiance; her arm slowly dropped to her side as she gazed out at the building, and a slight promise was made to herself in that moment. As long as they keep pushing themselves to get through their time, I will do the same... The card went back into her bag. I will watch for you, my inspiration...
20 blocks away, on the 20th floor, Seto typed continuously away on his laptop, the empty Kaiba Corp building quietly creaking to itself as it settled; no other noise was to be heard, as he was the only one left... searching... searching for what the card might be... searching... he would search until he found it... he would search until she gave it up to him... ever searching...

And yeah, that's all for now; go to the webpage in my profile to see the picture I mentioned . Hope you all are enjoying this so far!