Clovershipping (Kaiba Noa/Kisara)

. . .

He woke slowly, his body coming awake before his eyes did. The thing that was most surprising was that he could feel himself at all. His fingers twitched beside him, feeling something ...soft, and grassy, under his palms. His body felt kind of light, like he was laying on clouds—except for his head, which felt propped up underneath something warm.

A cool hand touched his cheek, brushing the strands of hair from his eyes. His lips parted on their own, and he didn't mean to let it slip, but it felt so familiar that...

"M...mother...?" he mumbled.

The hand hesitated. Then it brushed gently through his hair.

"No," said a soft voice. "I'm sorry...you haven't quite passed on yet. You're still in the in between."

Passed on...? The in-between...? Oh! That was right, he remembered, now, he remembered his father screaming as Noa ripped them both to pieces, as the computerized world started to collapse in on itself and everything just—

Noa's eyes flew open. He sat up so quickly that his head almost clipped the head over his—and then he had to stop, because...he wasn't in the computer anymore. At least, he didn't think so.

The world stretched out in all directions all around him for as far as he could see. Underneath him, a thick patch of clover sprouted like a bed, and the clover and grass spread out all the way to the horizon, where it met with the perfectly clear blue sky. Endless, he thought. I could walk for years and never find anything more but this, couldn't I?

His head finally turned around to the woman—because she was a woman, he saw now. And she was the only other visible thing in this endless world.

She was older than him, maybe. He couldn't...quitetell, but she was definitely taller and more mature. She had beautiful hair that washed over her shoulders and pooled on the ground like spun platinum, and dark blue eyes in a pale face. She smiled, tentative, as he found her eyes.

"Hello," she said. "You just got here, so take your time. It's not often that people stay here."

"R-really?" Noa said. He looked back up at the sky and then down at the ground. The clover...feltreal, he thought, as he bunched it up under his fingers. He plucked one and brought it up to his face. It looked real, too. The breeze that filtered through them was cool and refreshing. Was this the computer, or not? He didn't have an explanation for this place otherwise. "Where am I?"

"This is the in-between," she said. "Spirits pass through here on their way to the next place."

"The...next place?"

She shrugged.

"I haven't been past here, so I don't know," she said. "I remember a lot of stories, though. They could drift up towards the place of rest, or down towards the place of uncertainty. They could pass through here and come back on the other side as something or someone different."

"You mean like—reincarnation?"

"I suppose that's what you would call it."

Noa's lips parted. Another breeze whistled between them, shifting her hair and making it catch the sunlight in a flurry of sparkles. Where was the sunlight coming from, anyway? There wasn't...there wasn't a sun in the sky. It was just a clear blue all the way around.

"And...who are you?" Noa asked.

The woman smiled then, and it was a beautiful, calming thing.

"I'm Kisara," she said. "You must be Noa, right? I saw you through Seto's eyes."

Noa's breath caught.

"Seto? What about him?" he said. "Is—did they—"

She laid a hand on his shoulder, smiling.

"Everyone who you brought into the virtual world is all right," she said. "They all escaped. You got them out."

Noa's shoulders slumped under her touch, letting out a huge breath. That was—that was good. Mokuba was okay then, and everyone else. He hadn't...he hadn't been able to hurt them in the end, as much as he thought he could. He was...glad of that.

"So...what do you mean you could see it through Seto's eyes?" he asked, looking back up at her.

Her eyes became distant, like shards of glass, as her gaze rose up towards the horizon.

"Seto and I...we're connected, you see," she said. "It's why I'm here. I died, but I tied myself to him. So I can't pass on, but I can't stay in the world of the living anymore, either."

Noa looked at the ground, cupping the clovers in his hands without picking them.

"Then...why am I here?" he asked. "Am I...connected to someone too, somehow?"

Kisara didn't answer for a while. And then, she was pulling him closer, hugging him against her as her hand stroked through his hair. She smelled like lilies, Noa thought, tears pricking at the corners of his eyes. This...this felt like...like when his mother used to hold him...

"I don't know," she said. "But maybe...maybe it means you still have something left you can do."

She smiled when she drew back, stroking his hair and then cupping the side of his face like a mother.

"Maybe it means you can still go back," she said. "Maybe it means it's not over yet for you."

The pricks turned into actual tears, bubbling up and blurring his vision. She just held him while he cried, whispering soothing things.

Until I figure it out...at least I'm not alone here...

. . .

A/N: Kisara is a good momma. Next is Cloudshipping (Shizuka x Noa).