December 13 2006: Author Notes: I've watched some more of the Yu-gi-oh series the past couple days sense my first post and though I still haven't seen all of it I think I want to leave the timeline for Kaiba and Kagome at different points. Kagome is obviously even after where the series is right now and after the well is closed. As far as Kaiba goes I want to leave it after the part of the series where he defeats Siegfried (I think that is the character's name) he's the pink haired guy that likes roses and is screwing with Kaiba before the final series in Egypt. I want to leave the millennium items in use so it makes the most sense to have this be before the last part of the series. Thanks for reading.

Chapter 2: Blue Eyes, Sacred Dragon

The weather hadn't done much to improve over the past few hours, the rain wasn't nearly as bad as it had been when that woman had bumped into him in the bank lobby, instead it had slowed to a more miserable drizzle, an uneven pitter-pat on the windshield starting to build up moisture as Kaiba pulled the red sports car up to the shrine where the address listed on the flyer that his guard had found.

"Wow, that's a lot of steps." Mokuba observed with wide eyes. "Can I come up too? I haven't seen one of these old shrines in a really long time."

"Aren't you suppose to be grounded?" Kaiba returned the question with another. "Do your homework while you watch the car, perhaps another time when you aren't in trouble."

"Aw. Okay Seto." Mokuba agreed disappointedly, opening up one of his school books as Kaiba got out of the car, shutting the door and moving with his briefcase to the long set of steps, glancing up toward the shrine and house at the top of the long hill.

He moved up after taking the moment to look it all over, ignoring the rain that was falling on him as he made his way to the top and saw the smaller shrine and the dead tree with the fence around it. He shook his head, not quite understanding why anyone would want to visit such a place, then went and knocked on the door to the two story home. Waiting patiently for a response as blue eyes gazed over the place, he would never comprehend why Mokuba was interested in such things.

He turned back at the click and small squeak as the door moved open, a woman he didn't recognize with short chocolate brown hair wearing a striped white and blue shirt with a tan jacket and brown pants, she had a white apron on over the top of it all, smiling to Kaiba warmly as she opened the door further.

"Come out of the poor weather." She insisted before following with a question. "Can I help you with something young man? Are you one of Kagome's friends?"

"I girl and I ran into each other on accident earlier today, she dropped this." He handed over the flyer that had lead him here. "I think she might have picked up a card of mine when it happened and wanted to ask her about it."

"Oh, all right. Well come inside then, she isn't home yet but she should be back soon. Would you like to stay for dinner?" The woman asked kindly. "I'm still working on it but any friend of Kagome's is welcome."

"Thank you miss but my little brother is waiting in the car for me." Kaiba declined as politely as he knew how, unable to be really rude to the lady. "Do you know how long she'll be?"

"Oh, just soon I suppose. Hey Souta." She called into the next room. "Go down to the car at the bottom of the steps and ask this fellow's brother to come up and join us for dinner."

Kaiba resisted the urge to protest, not wanting to be too disagreeable until he got his Blue-Eyes back in his possession.

This better not be a waste of my time. He thought at the lady. At least Mokuba will probably enjoy it.

A young kid about his brother's age headed into the room, a green sweater with jeans on, having the black hair to match his sisters but cut short like his mom's. He looked over Kaiba curiously as he put his shoes on.

"I'm Souta. Who are you?" Souta introduced himself with a wave as he was still putting his shoes on.

"Seto Kaiba." he answered easily. "My brother is Mokuba."

"Nice to meet you, be back soon then." He grinned and hurried out the door toward the long set of steps.

"Come on in and have a seat." the mother insisted as she returned to a kitchen where even Kaiba had to admit the smells were enticing.

He sighed as he took his shoes off. I can't believe I'm doing this.

He moved into the kitchen, where he had to admit it at least smelled amazing. He would have to get some better chefs if he could walk into a commonplace home and enjoy a meal more than one at his mansion.

"So what do you do Seto?" the lady asked as she continued to cook. Keeping conversation even if she wasn't facing him.

"I am the CEO of Kaiba corporation." he answered truthfully as he looked around the humble but homey kitchen.

"Well that's nice. Will you be going to school with Kagome." her mother didn't seem to really comprehend the immensity of what he'd just told her. That or it just didn't effect her as much as it would most people.

"I don't know, where does your daughter go to school."

"Oh, let me see." She paused after pouring some oil into one of the pans, thinking about it. "Domino? I think that's the name of the one she's going too now. She just transferred there this year."

"That's a little far from here." Kaiba observed, surprised that this girl would possibly be one of his classmates soon. "I go to that high school but I didn't think anyone this far in the city would be there."

"Well, it has a much better average than many of the ones around here and I felt it would give her a better chance at a nicer college." The mother wisely explained. "It's nice that she already has a friend at her new school though."

"I don't really know her, I just want to speak to her about our misunderstanding." Kaiba did his best to not directly say they weren't friends. The things I go through for my Blue Eyes.

"It'll work out I'm sure." the mom smiled warmly at him and moved a few of the pans around, adding things or stirring others.

The door opened and shut again, Mokuba following the other boy and the two were chatting away about duel monsters of all things. The two coming to sit at the table.

"Thank you for inviting me." Mokuba offered appreciation to Kagome's mother, smiling at her as he sat down. "Souta is going to be in my class this year Seto, can I have him over sometime?"

"When you aren't grounded." Kaiba answered coolly, annoyed by the situation. Raising an eyebrow at the way the unfamiliar young boy was staring at him.

"Are you really -the- Seto Kaiba?" Souta asked with his voice holding some awe. "I read about you online, you were one of the greatest duelists to ever play the game."

"I am that Seto Kaiba," he agreed, glad someone finally recognized him. "Do you know if your sister plays?"

"Kagome?" he laughed. "Yeah right, she doesn't really get into too many games, she's really good at rock, paper, scissors though. I don't think she'd be too good at Duel Monsters."

"I see."

At least she probably wasn't trying to steal anything then. Kaiba thought to himself. This is certainly more tolerable than most of the freaks that target me.

The door opened and closed again and this time it was the girl he was pursuing.

"Sorry I'm late mom," she announced before ever noticing the guests. "I had some problems this afternoon, you won't believe who I ran into Souta…"

She broke off as she rounded the corner and saw Kaiba at her kitchen table. A plastic bag in one hand and what was left of the flyers in the other.

"Hey hon." Kagome's mom greeted with a wide smile. "Seto here visited you and I asked him to stay for dinner. Come join us."

Kagome opened her mouth to reply, then closed it again as Souta jumped up and moved over.

"Wow, you going to start playing Duel Monsters now sis?" he had seen the starter deck and booster packs she'd bought this afternoon on impulse.

"I thought about it." Kagome said, knocked from her shock. "I…wow. I didn't expect to see you again, but I kept a card that you dropped earlier cause I thought you might want it."

She dug through the flyers where she'd obviously taken care to keep it from harm and handed back his blue eyes with a smile. "Here you go."

"Thank you." Kaiba said honestly, equally surprised that it had been so easy to get the precious rare back in his possession. Reaching out to take it and feeling a spark of energy pass between them as he did. Each meeting the other's eyes in a moment of mutual uncertainty before Kagome let go of the card and the strange electricity passed.

"You are welcome." Kagome sat and offered an uncertain smile. "I figured it was the least I could do after slamming into you."

"Good observation."

"Hi." Mokuba interrupted anything else rude his brother might say. "I'm Mokuba, Seto's little brother. Thanks for looking out for his card for him, his Blue-Eyes are really important to him."

"Mokuba." Seto warned. "Don't talk about things that are unnecessary."

Kagome frowned a bit at the guy's attitude then returned a grin to the boy. "I was happy too, do you play the game as well Mokuba? I decided to buy a few packs and a starter deck after I ran into your brother today. Thought it would be nice to get a new hobby, is it fun?"

"It's the best," Mokuba answered, "you can play with your brother too. He can probably help show you stuff. Seto never really has much time to teach anyone with the company details."

"You kids are welcome to come play here whenever you'd like too." kagome's mom offered as she started serving up some mixed vegetables and rice with a few other side dishes that all smelled amazing. "It'd be nice to have some people to cook for once in a while."

"Really?" Mokuba asked.

"Of course dear."

"Would you mind Seto?"

"When you aren't grounded." the older brother reminded him again.

The food was better than it smelled, it was a little on the spicy side but it was the best meal either of the Kaiba brothers had eaten in a very long time. Seto settled to listening the rest of the small family make small talk about the shrine and other mundane activities of their lives.

"Oh!" Souta said as he came to a realization aloud. "If we wanted to make a lot of money for the shrine this weekend we could get Mr. Seto to come and duel people that wanted to duel him, we'd have a line for miles."

"Souta." Kagome's mom's voice took it's first non pleasant tone. "We don't just decide to have other people do things for us. I imagine that Seto is a very busy young man and we'll manage just fine without such help. I'm sorry for him, he's just a little overzealous at times."

Kaiba frowned as he knew that Mokuba wouldn't let it rest at that, if he wouldn't help then his little brother would want to do whatever Mokuba could and as a result he would be pulled in if he wanted too waste his time on it or not.

"I'll come help if Seto says it's okay." Mokuba offered on cue. "If he doesn't mind me dropping my punishment long enough to do so this weekend."

"We'll both come along." Seto said. "But don't get me wrong, I'm just coming to make sure Mokuba doesn't get himself into trouble again."

"Well just come and enjoy the festival." Kagome's mom said. "How about we have Mokuba help us and work hard to help him finish that punishment of his and then you can just relax for a while."

She didn't wait for a response, the motherly lady starting to clear the table.

"Thank you for the meal. It was great!" Mokuba exclaimed. "It's much better than what we usually have."

"Oh no," the mom blushed. "Thank you dear but it's not that good. Why don't you all go on and sit in the living room and I'll bring in some ice cream after a little while."

"You are awesome mom." Souta replied and pulled Mokuba along. "Come on, you can help me build a better deck. You've got to be better than me with the famous Seto Kaiba as your brother."

Kaiba and Kagome were both relocated into the living room and she wasn't sure what to make of his irritated look.

"So ah, this is probably not something you'd really like to do but would you mind telling me if I got any good cards with the packs I bought today?" She figured at least it was something he was familiar with and she could ask him why he was always so cold if she could get some common ground first.

"Nothing better to do in the meantime." Kaiba shrugged, settling himself on the couch.

Could he be anymore pompous? Kagome thought as she sat down, carefully opening the first of her booster packs.

She raised an eyebrow when she saw 'Sacred Jewel' as a card, letting them drop to read the text.

-Requires three 'Shards of the Jewel' to be sacrificed to play. Triples the attack and defense of equipped monster, monster cannot be destroyed by the effect of a magic or trap card.-

She read the text with a bit of a frown but kept going through the cards she'd gotten, finding all three 'Shards of the Jewel' she needed to make the full one. Each of the three having the effect of: -Adds 500 to the ATT and DEF points of the creature equipped with it-. Then a 'Mystical Monk', "Famous Demon Slayer', 'Partial Demon Guardian', 'Cute Fox', and 'Bittersweet Priestess'.

Even the artwork was fairly close to her old friends, making her unsure if she wanted to smile or frown at the cards. She knew that stories still existed about the sacred jewel but she never thought there would be that much detail; definitely that no version she'd ever seen involved Miroku and Sango.

"Those are all cards I don't recognize." Kaiba observed aloud, knowing something was wrong. "Someone might have cheated you, they could just be counterfeit cards someone made up."

"How do I find out?" Kagome asked, suddenly nervous about this whole thing.

"I can test it now." Kaiba was already pulling out his laptop and setting it up. Wanting to know if these cards were really all rare things she'd just happened to pick up on coincidence. "Let me see them please."

"All right." Kagome handed them over, hesitating on giving over the card that read the 'Sacred Jewel'. Something about it didn't seem right. Finally, once she realized he'd been staring at her, she handed them over. "sorry, they just remind me of something."

He took them and settled them where he could scan them for inconsistency's, surprised to find that the computer did not read them as counterfeit and instead implied that they were an incomplete part of what was likely a twenty-seven card set.

"Open your other boosters." he ordered, the frown set back on his face. This is just like the odd things that keep happening around Yugi and the others. How did some girl that just bought cards today end up with a set never heard of before?

She handed over the other cards she picked out of the two other boosters, all of them somehow a reminder of her time in the feudal era.

He finished scanning the cards into his system, eyeing the power behind many of the cards she had in her possession. He had a bad feeling about where this would end up going, why was it these annoying things kept happening to him.

"These are all cards that register in the system as real but none have been recorded before. You have quite a bit of luck to end up with all of them with just the boosters you bought. Could you tell me where you got them?"

"Oh…from a street vendor, he was walking by on one of the main streets with a cart of various goods and asked me if I'd be interested in trying the game out." Kagome answered. "I bought them on impulse more than anything. I didn't figure I'd actually start playing the game."

"You should." Kaiba replied. "If used right these cards would make quite the challenging deck."

He had to give in a little to his love for a good game, if there were new cards and she started playing he could prove that his blue-eyes were the best again. It would be nice now that his company was secure and out of financial trouble again if he could re-take his title as the Champion of Games by having another tournament.

"I'll have to think about it." Kagome answered, still disturbed by the image that was too close to Inuyasha. "Thanks for letting Mokuba stay. He and Souta seem like they'll get along well."

The rude remark Kaiba was about to make was interrupted this time by Kagome's mother calling from the kitchen for the two boys as she came in and gave them each a bowl of ice cream before disappearing again to get the bowls for the younger kids.

They ate in silence, each having thoughts of their own. Kagome worries and regrets as to what could be happening with the new card game and Kaiba anticipating ideas for his new tournament.

"Well," Kagome finally spoke first when they'd finished. "I bet you are really busy. Hope the rest of your day goes well Seto."

"Sure." he answered. "My brother and I should be on our way. Thank you for dinner Ms. Higurashi."

"Anytime." the mom replied easily. "Come back you two."

"Thanks." Mokuba agreed as he left with his brother, about half-way down the long stairway with his brother before mentioning his thoughts. "I like them Seto. They seem really nice."

"At least the meal was worth it." Kaiba retorted. "We'll be back this weekend. I think that boy's idea might not be that bad. I don't really want to duel most of the losers that would show up but it would be a good hype for the new tournament."

"You are having a new tournament?" Mokuba was shocked at the sudden news. "When?"

"I'll start it in a few weeks." Kaiba answered. "Get some people to train that girl how to use her new deck. I want it to actually be worth the effort."

"Um…okay…but Seto." Mokuba protested his confusion, asking for more details on this sudden new decision, noticing the energy his brother suddenly had and a bit glad to see he was finally being passionate about something again.

End Chapter

Okay, I went through a couple ideas for this chapter before deciding on this. Mostly more plot than anything set in stone. Wanted to move things along and get a reason that the two characters would be around each other long enough to develop an actual relationship. Mokuba and Souta becoming friends was a great way to keep the other two characters together. This way I can include some more of the other cast of Yu-gi-oh and yeah Inuyasha members might suddenly be cards in this fiction. Well. Hope you keep enjoying my story.

-Aura