Chapter 2 came a little faster than I'd have expected it to... but then again not much happens in this one, either! Just hang in with me until he gets there, then things'll get going. -evil cackle- I forget whether we're allowed to respond to reviews in our chapters; I'll check that. Well, I suppose if we're not, I'll start PMing the lot of you to respond. Mwahaha.

Kikoken--I was so honored to have you give the first review! I still love your stories and respect you very much as an author. Thank you very much for the kisses! I hope you enjoy this story : )

twilight eyes 8120--Thank you for that lovely review! It made me blush a lot... I hope this was quick enough to your fancy? I will try my darndest to make this more heart-wrenching than the first! This is, after all, a sequel, and sequels are notorious for falling flat on their metaphorical faces!

Chaos Tears--Calm down, there, haha. And it WAS forever. I finished Kiseki probably at least a year ago, right? I promised a sequel ten months ago! You've been waiting a very long time. I'm sorry!!

AllisonWalker--I completely agree with you on that. I'll admit, I had to go back and reread my own story before writing this one, and Seto came off as OOC once he realized he loved Kiseki. I'm going to keep that in check in this story, I promise. It will be easy with what I have planned, anyway, haha. But, then again, Seto falling in love is in itself OOC, isn't it?

White Alchemist Taya--Yay! I'm glad : ) I hope you'll continue reading! Enjoy!

Anyway, this chapter actually ended up with a lot of symbolism, something I totally suck at--both in writing and in finding it in other stories, haha. See if you can pick it out if you are bored enough to watch for it! Onwards!

Chapter 2

After a few more days' searching, he found that Garrett Messinger was at least living with one Molly Messinger, so they were either siblings (Seto highly doubted this), or they were married. He decided to take his chances.

It took him about a week after that to set up his company for his vacation; since he had never formally taken one before, hardly anyone knew what to do when he announced he'd be away on business for an uncertain amount of time. He nominated the vice president in charge and gave him his cell phone number in case anything went wrong. He felt confident enough to leave it to someone else because of the after Christmas doldrums.

All was packed, and he was on his way to America.

An eleven hour flight would take him to Oregon, on the west coast, and from there to Colorado in two hours. His laptop provided sufficient entertainment while he did spreadsheets for general business; he had others that did this, of course, but the fact that he couldn't connect to the internet prevented him from doing anything else. It only lasted for three hours before he shut it and put it away, folding his hands.

They got some rather fishy-looking sushi; he slightly prodded it before deciding it would do. He never liked airline food, but he figured that he wouldn't risk such a long time to go without anything to eat. Afterwards, he started glancing around his seat, trying to find something to entertain himself. He had over six hours to go anyway. He found that the armrest had a tiny videogame-like controller built in. It looked so simple that he didn't want to even try what stupid games they had on the tv in front of him. He replaced it and tried not to look at the Japanese soap opera the woman next to him was watching; it was hard to ignore with her trying not to cry too loudly. The flight attendants then told him to pull the window shades shut, as it was time for everyone to get some rest.

He leaned back his head, annoyed at how long the flight was taking. He was in the business class, so he could ask for anything at any time, however he didn't want to eat anymore. All he wanted to do was keep his mind busy.

As the woman next to him continued to let silent tears roll down her cheeks, he'd bristle every time she sniffed quietly, becoming annoyed. When the show did finally end, she took out the earphones, wiped her eyes, and went to sleep. After a few minutes, he half-wished something would happen to distract him, because his mind began to drift to what he was actually about to do.

It had been over six months since he had seen Kiseki; he dared not ask whether she would remember him. Of course she would. Perhaps not the last part of their meeting as well as when he tormented her for the dueling card she held. He knew he still loved her, but part of him said it was slightly less than when they had last seen each other; this almost gave way to the hope that not only would she would turn him away, but he would not feel the same feelings for her when he arrived at her house.

He shook his head. That wasn't the way to be thinking when he had spent at least 140,000 yen just to fly there and back. Such a waste of money. Closing his eyes, he felt his teeth clench in frustration. This is exactly what he didn't want to be doing—second-guessing himself.

He decided to think about why the Messingers needed aliases in Japan. Japan was certainly much safer than the US; there was crime, certainly, but at least it didn't have a notorious rumor about the fact that everyone walks around with a handgun. Perhaps it had something to do with what the company did.

Wabash and Gregg was a small law firm that fought for small businesses… probably protecting them from bigger businesses trying to take over? That could mean that W&G got involved with people much higher above them, and therefore made it dangerous for the people working for them… Most law firms don't use aliases; wouldn't that make the small businesses distrust them somehow?

His thoughts were interrupted when a young girl in front of him sat up. "Mommy! The map says we're flying over Alaska! Can I look, mommy?"

"Sure, sweetie," murmured the mother, obviously half-asleep and not aware of what the child had asked.

The girl yanked up her window shade and blinded the still-awake people around her as the blank, white Alaskan landscape burned through the glass. She gasped and pressed her nose against the window and looked down at the mountains covered in glistening snow. Trying to shut his eyes against the light, Seto suddenly realized he had a pounding headache. He angrily jabbed the waitress button on his armrest, and she appeared politely 15 seconds later.

"Do you have any Aspirin?" he asked her. She nodded.

"I'll be right back with it, sir."

"And—" he pointed impatiently at the back of the girl's chair.

The stewardess looked over, smiled broadly at the child, and nodded at Kaiba. "Honey," she said sweetly. The girl turned around. "The man behind you is trying to get some rest; could you take one last look at Alaska and then put the shade back down?"

"Aww…" she mumbled. When the woman had gone to get Seto's Aspirin, the girl unbuckled her seatbelt and turned around in her seat to look over the top at Seto. "You grumpy old man; I was just looking out the window."

Seto chose not to respond, intent on glaring at his shut window with his chin on his hand. The girl pouted, stuck her tongue out, and said "Well, you're ugly" before flopping down again.

He took a deep breath to keep from blowing a fuse, closing his eyes once again against the pain throbbing behind them. The stewardess came back with the medicine and a glass of water. He drank the pills down and laid back, rubbing his forehead. The little girl worsened his mood considerably. What had he been thinking?

Wabash and Gregg… right. Not wanting to think too hard about something that arbitrary, he simply dismissed the why's of the company and tried to clear his throbbing head. They used aliases, so what.

After a rather short amount of time, he felt sleep overtaking him, and as he settled in a little more into his chair, one last thought struggled out of the tired mess of his mind.

I wonder if "Kiseki" was an alias, too…