Phoenix: I lie a lot, don't I? I promised you guys this chapter on Tuesday…and it is in fact Wednesday. By the way, I changed my penname.

Chapter 17: The Last Attack

Kaiba pulled away from Kari right before Misty came back with the nurse. He closed his eyes, appearing as if he was sleeping, and a slight shade of pink spread across his face.

"Here they are," Misty gestured in their general direction to the nurse.

"What happened here?" the nurse asked.

"Kari came to school today with a headache and said she didn't feel so good. I think it's just a fever."

"I would send her home," the nurse started, "but we only have a half hour left of school for the day."

"She can't wait a half hour," Kaiba said, annoyed.

Reluctantly, the nurse nodded. "Shall I call her parents?"

"She lives alone in an apartment," Misty said. "And she always walks."

After everyone staring at each other for a while, trying to think of an idea, Kaiba spoke up. "I'll take her home."

The nurse nodded. "If that's alright with you, then fine. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a girl in my office asking for water and ice." Then she headed back inside. A few minutes later, Akina came out, holding an ice pack. She looked at Kaiba's pink-tinted cheeks. She smiled.

Kaiba took out his phone, had a quick conversation with his limo driver, and got up. He carried Kari in his arms again, the same way he did earlier. Then he headed to the front of the school and met Roland there.

Roland knew better than to question, he simply opened the door for Kaiba and got in the front seat himself. He headed to Kari's apartment, for Kaiba told him where it was, and looked back in the rearview mirror. Taking a risk, even though he might regret it, he asked, "What happened to her?"

"She was in an accident."

Seeing as how his boss wouldn't elaborate, Roland simply focused back on the road. Then, taking an even bigger chance, he asked, "Is she your girlfriend?"

Kaiba shot him one of the worst glares he could muster. Roland decided not to question anymore.

"Seto! You're home early today," Kaiba's little brother Mokuba said as he walked through the door to his mansion. "What happened?"

"I had to take Kisara home."

Mokuba stared at his brother, then mischievously smiled. "Do you like her?" He prodded Kaiba with his elbow.

Kaiba was silent. He didn't exactly want to lie, so he simply said nothing.

"So you do, then! Big Brother, if you didn't like her at least a little, then you wouldn't have taken her home and would have let someone else do it." Mokuba pointed out.

"I'm going to the office," was all he said.

"Hey, look at this one! Isn't the guy on the cover sort of cute?" Akina showed Misty a manga. They were in the same book store they had met in.

Misty shrugged. "Oh, I've read that. I think you'll like it."

"I think I'll get it," Akina said. She then proceeded to go to pay for it.

Misty looked out the window, with her eyes in a shroud. What was going to happen? Is Kari going to die? She desperately wanted to help, although she knew that she was powerless. All that she could do was stick to the plan—duel.

"Okay, I paid! Are you done, Misty?" Akina broke her train of thoughts.

She nodded. "Do you think we could to the card store?"

Puzzled, Akina nodded. "I don't see why not."

The two walked along the sidewalk, going to their destination. While Akina looked through the glass display windows, Misty again started worrying.

I wanted new cards anyway. I'll get to test them out on Akhenaden.

"Here it is!" Akina said as she once again disrupted her thoughts.

"Okay," Misty said, pulling out her deck. "I've got work to do…"

It was a new morning. Kari surprisingly felt a little better than she would have expected, and it was enough to get ready and walk to school until she grew tired again.

"Good morning," the same tall brown-haired girl from the previous day said.

"Morning," Kari replied, not wishing to put "good" in front of it. Because being attack by an ancient ghost who's out to kill you was certainly not good.

The bell rang and everyone flooded inside. It's at ninth period; the end of the day, she thought. He always came at the end of the day. That's bound to be when he comes again.

"Everyone, your Egyptian model projects our due at the end of the week," Mr. C said as he paced in front of the room at the end of first period. "I expect you all should be very close to finishing them. Any questions?"

Silence. "Also," Mr. C added, "Don't forget that the winter dance is also at the end of the week."

Students in the room lit up a little when he said that and started whispering amongst themselves. Kari simply stared off into space until the bell rang.

Once the bell to ninth period rang, Kari froze. She wanted to stay inside, but she knew that Akhenaden would just find her anyway. She slowly stepped outside and walked towards the tree, where Kaiba promptly was already with his laptop (he was glued to it whenever he got the chance), and Akina and Misty were looking through their duel decks. They all had their duel disks on their arms.

"Are those cards new?" Kari asked as she sat down with them.

"Yeah, I just got them," Misty replied.

"I got new cards too," Akina said, "And they're different from the last time we dueled. You know, we should have a rematch sometime."

"I guess, we—"

A loud boom was heard behind Kari's turned back. She turned around, and to her horror, saw Akhenaden. However, there was a Duel Monster that blocked the attack in front of her; Kaiser Sea Horse. Kaiba's laptop was closed next to him, and he held out his duel disk that had the Duel Monster card on it.

Everyone stood up. "Akhenaden, I challenge you to a duel. I won't take no for an answer,"

"So do we!" Akina said as they jumped to Kaiba's side.

"I accept." He said as a golden duel disk-looking thing materialized on his arm. Kari remembered Yugi telling her something about those. She recalled him calling it a DiaDhank.

"But there are three of you, and one of me."

"Four of us!" Kari said while using all her strength to stand up and activate the duel disk she had brought to school.

"Anyway, let us even up the sides." He pointed his Millennium Rod towards Akina, and let go a blast of magic. She tried dodging, but it must have hit her since she froze and started walking towards Akhenaden.

"He brainwashed her," Kaiba said. "Now we really have to win." Without warning, he played another monster, but then sacrificed it and Kaiser Sea Horse to bring out Blue Eyes White Dragon. He wasn't fooling around.

It was Misty's turn. She played Polymerization and took the King's Knight, Queen's Knight, and Jack's Knight from her hand to fuse them into Arcana Knight Joker.

Kari also took two monsters in her hand as a sacrifice, and summoned her Dark Magician Girl. Now their side had Blue Eyes, Dark Magician Girl, and a fusion monster. They'd like to see Akhenaden top that.

"I have no use for your friend, as I will beat you by myself," Akhenaden said as Akina just stood behind him and nothing more. Akhenaden also summoned a Blue Eyes White Dragon. He lifted up his DiaDhank and called for it, until its image appeared on one of his empty slots. However, it took a little energy out of him.

It was Kaiba's turn again. He put a card face down and finished. Misty put a card down as well, and attacked Akhenaden's Blue Eyes with Arcana Knight Joker. Once it was destroyed, the ghost faded a little, visibly weaker. Then Kari attacked him directly with Dark Magician Girl.

After the smoke cleared, everyone expected to see him completely weak. However, a monster was in front of him. It was a dragon that looked a lot like the Duel Monster Tyrant Dragon.

"It wasn't his turn, though!" Misty said.

"He resulted in cheating," Kaiba answered. "How could you stoop down so low as to cheat, and ruin your pride?" he turned to Akhenaden.

But the ghost merely smirked. His turn came, and he summoned another monster, which was recognized as Hyozanryu. He used Tyrant Dragon to attack Dark Magician Girl, who was destroyed. She was in attack position, so Kari lost a couple hundred Life Points. Then he used Hyozanryu to attack Kari directly (of course his main target was Kari).

"I activate Ring of Destruction!" Kaiba said as his face down was revealed. Hyozanryu was destroyed and made Akhenaden weaker, but Kaiba also had to take equal amount of damage.

Akhenaden simply summoned another monster, since he didn't care for the rules anymore. It was yet another dragon, but Misty defeated it with her own face down card.

"I suppose I have to result to other ways of beating you," he said with annoyance. He called Akina forward. "You might not want to win against her, because if you do, then she is banished to the shadows."

Akina walked in front of him. She started raising her arm as if to activate her duel disk. Instead, she whirled around and used it to punch him…hard.

"I was just pretending it hit me, idiot! I actually dodged your blast." Then, with another look at him, she said with a little surprise, "Wow, I guess it worked, even though you look as if my fist would go right through you. By the way, I took your Millennium Rod when you weren't looking."

Akina turned around and tossed it to Kaiba, who was after all, the one who wielded it in his past life. He was about to question how to use it, but then it came naturally as he pointed the Rod to his ancient father and blasted him into oblivion.

There were still traces of him in the air, but they turned into light and rushed like crazy towards Kari. They went inside her, since they were her amounts of energy that had been stolen. Her cuts were immediately healed as the bandages on her arms fell off, and she looked less pale. She was back to normal.

"I wonder why he had the Rod, anyway," Akina questioned. "I thought he had the Eye—"

"He needed the Rod to seal away Kari's Blue Eyes," Kaiba finished. "That's why he probably stole that from the tablet in Egypt where all the Items are instead." Maybe this magic nonsense actually does exist, he thought.

"Good move, Akina," Kari said. "We wouldn't have gotten the Rod if you didn't pretend that blast hit you."

"Well, as long as you're better now is all that matters." She shrugged, but smiled since she was glad she helped. "Let's go on to more normal things now…like the dance on Friday! Hey Kaiba, you're going to ask Kari to the dance, right?"

Kaiba, again, coldly stared in silence.

"Oh, face it, you did kiss her after all." Akina pointed out.

"What?" Kari asked. "Can you repeat that?"

"I didn't see him, but when I came out of the nurse's office, he was blushing and avoiding eye contact with her. Pretty obvious." She said like it was common sense.

"So you do like her," Misty said to Kaiba.

More staring. "You sound like my brother," was all he said, and sat down again as he opened his laptop as if nothing happened. Everything happened so fast, so it was easy for him to pretend like it didn't happen at all.

"Everything really is back to normal," Kari sighed happily. She sat down also, just closing her eyes and enjoying the peace. But what everyone else didn't know, not even Akina, is that she just pretended she didn't know that Kaiba kissed her. She was actually awake when he did.

Phoenix: Long chapter this time. Yes, Kari knew that Kaiba kissed her :P. A dance is coming up and Kari, Misty, and Akina are going as group. It should be good. I'm nearing the end of my story; next chapter is the dance and the chapter after that is possibly the epilogue. Only two chapters left. Review please.