Author Nonsense: December 24 2006: Back from my trip - which was amazing! le sigh I had actually typed up most of this chapter before leaving but didn't manage to finish it. So I thought it would be nice to toss it up as a sort of Christmas present for any fans that might be reading over the next couple days. As I'll likely be very busy over the holiday. Anyway, this chapter is a bit fluffy toward the end - but that's okay on occasion.
Chapter 7: Would-be Savior
"Leave her alone Wheeler." Kaiba's voice had taken a deadly tone, blue eyes narrowed on his joke of a rival. Moving quickly to intercede between Kagome and the perceived threat. "I shouldn't be surprised that you take your frustration out on people smaller than you.'
"I didn't touch her." Joey snapped, insulted at the insinuation. "She fell over on her own. I don't beat on girls."
"It's okay." Kagome assured the truth of the story. "I tripped over the desk and fell back. Joey didn't push me."
She sighed at the complicated situation, wincing again as she moved to get up, she would have a nasty bruise on her backside after that fall, surprised to see Kaiba offering her help up. Though he was still staring at Joey with an unnerving intensity in his extraordinarily pure blue gaze, she accepted the extra aid getting to her feet and glanced back at the tense scene.
"Get out of my sight Wheeler. I'll make you regret your actions in the duel later." Kaiba ordered with a tone filled with far more seriousness than his teasing of the blond haired boy usually held.
"Yeah whatever." Joey snapped. "We'll see. You two are a piece of work."
He stormed off and Kaiba watched after the door for a minute before Kagome's movement brought his attention back to her.
"Are you all right?" Kaiba asked. "If that dog ever tries to hurt you tell me."
Kagome wanted to keep eye-contact but was too bashful under the sheer ferocity behind those eyes.
"It seems I owe you even more thanks." Kagome whispered, trying not to flush at another moment of Kaiba being her hero. "You are always coming to my rescue."
"I didn't do anything." Kaiba was as frigid as ever, but he let his tone lighten when she kept looking down. "You defended me first Clumsy, I was just returning the favor. We're even this way, don't want you thinking that I owe you."
Kagome glanced back up at the kinder (at least for Kaiba) words and smirked. "But what are you going to do? The whole school thinks we're going out…I'm sure that has to bother you."
"I don't care what the loser kids think. I'm just here cause it's required by law that I attend a high school through completion to keep my company." Kaiba shrugged. "Besides, they might not be too wrong. I do believe the winner gets a date from what I understood. I'm heading back to class, if that's really bad you should go to the nurse."
"I…I…" Kagome blinked in surprise at his reply and stuttered after him as he walked away from the room and didn't mange to finish until he was out the door. "But I never agreed to that. I'm gonna kill that girl Karen for this."
Moving the scene ahead.
The day went far too slow for the first half for Kagome, concerned with how this thing at lunch would go and trying to avoid all the questions people had for her about the situation. No, she wasn't dating Kaiba. No, she didn't want to date him -or- Joey. Um…she wasn't sure as far as going out with the winner. Yes, the whole thing made her really uncomfortable.
At the very least a lot of the school seemed to be on her side, whatever the result. Many seemed to actually sympathize with her. At least Karen had lost her creditability as a reporter long before she'd taken Kagome as her newest target. She was more concerned with the fact that Kaiba had seemed to be asking her on a date; in his own demented way but she was suddenly so unsure of this sudden new relationship. Was she over Inuyasha enough to actually go out with someone else. Did she want to try going out with Seto in the first place? The questions didn't end and the time drug on for hours before the bell for lunch finally rang and she found herself rushing to get a good view of the duel that would be going on.
The crowd that gathered was larger than she'd expected, a good chunk of the school still went about lives as normal but there were almost as many that were trying to get a play by play of the game. People moved to allow both Joey and Kaiba to the table and then let Joey's friends through to sit down for lunch, someone else pulling her out and sitting her on Kaiba's side. She blushed at being pressed forward then sent the blond haired trouble maker a glare as Karen motioned for people to be quiet. She was about to speak when Kaiba did instead.
"Let's not make this bigger than it is. I have other things that need to get done and as fun as humiliating Joey is, I need to move this along. Your move loser." Kaiba announced, starting the duel by stealing away Karen's momentum.
"You'll eat those words Kaiba." Joey growled, drawing a card and eyeing his hand for a bit before nodding. "First I put these two cards face down. I'll summon my Axe Warrior in attack mode. Then I'll end my turn."
"I set a single card face down and I summon my Mad Dog of Darkness." Kaiba spoke as if he were bored. "Attack his axe warrior my creature of darkness."
The small image on the miniature holograph table that had been brought in by someone jumped forward and bit into the axe warrior, tearing it to ribbons before returning to it's side of the field and barking at Joey challengingly. Kagome found herself as taken with the battle going on as everyone else around her. Quietly cheering on her new-found friend against the guy that had been bullying her sense he found out Kaiba was her friend.
"I lay another card face down and end my turn."
"Enjoy the temporary victory." Joey announced. "I'll put my luck into my new monster. Time wizard, spin your clock for me! If it lands on one of the skulls then I lost my wizard and half his attack points in life, but otherwise you lose your monster and half it's attack points!"
The crowd leaned in to try to see the result. Kaiba's Dog shattering a moment later and his life points dropping by 950 as Joey had explained. "All right! Take that you mongrel, I'll lay another card face down and end my turn. Who's winning now Kaiba?"
"Wheeler, you have always been a loser, and you'll always be a loser. You should know this set of moves by now but I'll summon my Lord of Dragon's in attack mode first."
"You've got to be kidding me." Joey muttered under his breath. "This guy always pulls this damn move."
"Then I activate the spell card Dragon Summoning Flute. Which allows me to pull two dragon cards from my hand and put them on the field without tribute. First I'll put my Trans-dimensional Dragon on the field and for the second monster I summon my Blue-Eyes White-Dragon." Kaiba explained and then shook his head. "You shouldn't try to go to new levels when you haven't mastered the basics Wheeler. First my Dragon Lord will attack your Time Wizard."
"Don't think so Kaiba, I activate Rageki Break which allows me to discard a card to destroy one of your monsters. I can't target your dragons while the lord is on the field so I'll remove him from play instead." Joey blocked with a smirk.
"Then I'll just have to switch the attack of your time wizard to my Trans-dimensional Dragon instead. You only have so many traps to spring Wheeler." Kaiba seemed so bored that the tedium in his voice alone was insult to the player across the table. He wasn't even putting in effort for Joey and it showed in the lazy way he responded to being baited.
"I'll get you to take me seriously." Joey promised as he nudged his next trap up. "I activate Widespread Ruin destroying your Blue Eyes White Dragon."
Kaiba didn't respond as his token monster was blown off the field. Instead watching as his remaining dragon blew threw the time wizard and took away some more of the opponents life points.
"I'll then end my turn."
"Right!" Joey exclaimed excitedly, drawing a card and smiling. "Okay, first I'll use monster reborn to summon back my Time Wizard. Then I'll summon Baby Dragon to the field! Using Polymerization
I'll combine the two to summon my Ancient Dragon."
The Dragon formed and then fell into a pit, the image shattering as Kaiba revealed the trap card: Bottomless Trap Hole.
"No way!" Joey protested. Damn Kaiba, he always has some nasty trick up his sleeve. "Well I'll survive, you're turn."
"About time." Kaiba replied, drawing a card. "First I'll play my Pot of Greed allowing me to draw two new cards, then I'll flip Royal Decree, stopping all other traps in play from working even if they are activated. Next I'll play my Kaiser Sea Horse in attack mode. Following so far Wheeler? I don't need a Blue-Eyes to take out your sorry excuse for a deck. Trans-Dimensional Dragon and Kaiser Sea Horse, attack his life points directly and finish this duel."
The small images jumped forward and slammed into Joey's side of the field with harsh swipes, knocking his already lowered life points to zero. Everyone was clapping again except for Yugi and his friends who weren't as surprised as when Yugi lost but more consoling of their friend that had lost to Kaiba again.
Kagome tried to retreat while people were paying attention to the two duelists and ended up nearly falling over the side of the bench that was part of the lunch tables, starting to fall again before Kaiba reached back, grabbed her, and steadied her on the bench. All without even looking at her, gathering his deck up and standing from the table.
"Now that I cleared up this nonsense I have work to do. At least next time you want to waste my time Wheeler make it somewhat interesting. My time would have been better spent napping." Kaiba coolly informed him before heading off.
"Good job Seto." Kagome offered with a smile before he'd fully retreated, glancing back at the small group of friends and shaking her head. "I never meant for it to go this far. Better luck next time I guess."
She moved away from the 'Yugi' table and found a seat with a group of girls that had pulled her over and gotten her to sit with them while she ate. Tactful enough not to bring up Kaiba the first time she sat with them and getting along fairly well for the rest of the hour.
The day went with varied people talking to her and while it was usually for the duel that had occurred it wasn't always and she managed to start making some friends in her classes. She was heading out after her last class and trading things in and out of her locker when Karen approached her again.
"Hey, that was great today wasn't it!" the busybody exclaimed with a thrilled glint in her eyes. "I loved it, Kaiba is so dreamy when he's on top of things. So are you going to go out with him now that he won against Joey?"
"It's none of your business but I really don't know." Kagome replied sharply. Eyes narrowing on the troublemaker with a vengeance. "You're lucky I'm still talking to you at all after that stunt."
"No harm done." Karen shrugged it off. "You are still talking to me though and why is it you don't want to go out with Kaiba."
"We're done here." Kagome announced and shut her locker before heading out of the school. Leaving the would-be reporter to consider her a bit before getting distracted by one of the leading jocks passing by and heading off to take up pursuit of another possible story for a time.
Kagome let out the breath she'd been holding in relief when the bubbly girl didn't deem to follow her, shaking her head and frowning a little as she had thoughts of her own to work through on the questions the girl had brought up.
Do I want to go out with Kaiba?
Switch Scene
Kaiba avoided the various attention afforded him from his retaken Number One duelist title. Ignoring both the questions from fans for autographs or advice as well as anyone that whispered insults or uncertainty's as to his honesty. He didn't need to lower himself to paying the twits around him any mind, instead lost in thoughts of his own involving the girl that had turned his usual routine around and with more of a profit than he could have ever predicted.
She is definitely one of the most inept people at remaining on her feet that I've ever met but I don't mind catching her really. He kept the smile firmly from his face as he headed out of the school. I can say I don't regret her slamming into me, at the very least I am ahead right now. If it doesn't go any further…is it going any further? I did win myself a date with the woman, foreign as that word is.
He'd never considered himself someone that would fall into the whole dating nonsense that the other students seemed to stress such importance on. Then, it wasn't quite the same as how they normally went about it, or it wouldn't be if he did it.
"Bah." he muttered as he opened his car door. "This is a pointless train of thought."
He paused as he saw Kagome heading out the doors…least he could do was offer her a ride.
"Higurashi!" he called, his deep voice drawing her attention up to him easily. She waved and then seemed confused a moment when he motioned her over. Nonetheless she shrugged and headed his way, a few of the people that saw the exchange already talking to each other about the implications. Though the opinions of the other students still didn't mean anything to him.
"Yeah?" She asked uncertainly.
"Want a ride? You'd have to go with me to pick up Mokuba, so if you won't mind that side trip." Kaiba offered. "Get in."
Kagome raised an eyebrow at the nice offer followed by the order but had to smile and open the door to the great car anyway. Looking over the rich interior with a low whistle. "Wow, this thing must have cost a fortune."
"500,000 actually. I got cheated but I was in a huge hurry at the time." Kaiba answered as he pulled out and headed away from the school with a skill that showed his years of driving and piloting various equipment despite his young age.
"I can't imagine spending that much money on a car." Kagome laughed and looked out the window. "Heck, I can't imagine having that much money. You are lucky."
"I'm not lucky, I'm skilled." Kaiba retorted quickly at the comment. "I worked and continue to work exceptionally hard for everything I have."
"I never meant to imply you didn't." Kagome frowned some. "You've just had opportunities some other people have not."
"That could be said of anyone." Kaiba retorted, turning smoothly onto one of the highways before asking "What is it you plan to do after school exactly?"
"Not sure yet." Kagome chuckled some. "Sounds sort of lame to you I suppose, it's obvious in your case what you'll be doing. I'm thinking of something medical where I can help people."
He didn't answer or continue the conversation, mind and eyes on the heavily trafficked road as he weaved around the other vehicles taking up positions in the three lanes. Kagome considered him for a while then looked away as she realized she might be staring.
"What in the world am I suppose to do anyway? It's not like he'd really want to go out with me, and what about Inuyasha?" The thought gave her a moment of pause, turning her dark eyes skyward. "What about him? He's gone, he won't be back. I can't mourn him forever."
"So…" They both started at once then paused.
"Go ahead." Kagome smiled.
"No. You first." Kaiba insisted as he took an exit that would lead them toward his brother's school.
"Well…" Kagome paused a little uncertainly. "Where would you like to go out?"
"Go out?" Kaiba asked with a neutral tone, letting a hint of innocent curiosity enter his voice. "What for?"
"Um…" Her cheeks reddened some and she lowered her voice as she suddenly found the railway they were passing fascinating. "I…mean. You did win and mentioned that date."
"She does want to go out then." Kaiba considered. "It can't hurt really. It'll give Mokuba someone else to nag at for a while other than myself."
"I'll surprise you." He finally answered. "This Friday sound reasonable?"
"What time?" Kagome swallowed and cleared her throat so she didn't sound so hoarse. I really am truly helpless when it comes to this sort of thing. What am I getting myself into? Surprise me…?
"Unless you'd rather not." Kaiba had to smile a bit at how easily he could tease her.
"Oh…no…I mean. Yes, Friday sounds okay. What time?" Kagome fumbled.
"Six thirty all right?" Kaiba pulled up to the curb where he'd be picking up his little brother and Kagome just nodded animatedly as opposed to speaking, starting to distrust what might leave her lips these days.
"Excellent, I'll meet you then. Would you mind waiting here while I go to pick up Mokuba?" Kaiba questioned before just getting out and closing his door without waiting for a reply. She glanced up after him and noted that he'd looked away as she'd looked up.
He is an enigma. She smiled despite herself. At least I've managed to genuinely smile around him for the first time sense the well closed. Maybe this won't be so bad…I just need to get him to learn a little bit of etiquette and he'd be quite the gentleman…
End Chapter
To my reviewers:
Zorro-chan - Soon as I could. Vacation and all. Happy holidays though!
NaokiB4U - I always try to reply to those that review my work. Moving it along slowly but surely :)