Author's Nonsense - Last chapter seemed a bit off but forgive me, I'm gonna try to get things back on track.
End of Chapter 17:
He lingered still, not wanting to escape from the small fingers still lightly stroking his sides - even if she was tickling him lightly he didn't want to step away from the moment just yet. Slightly afraid it might end if he walked away - that he'd lose it and wouldn't be able to recreate it…though if she hadn't wanted it she wouldn't still be there holding him in return would she?
Chapter 18: Shadow Game
Even if they had agreed to go out…there was the press and his servants spreading rumors that he needed to worry about when it came to her. If they were caught making out on the steps moments after arriving it wouldn't do a whole lot for his view in the media industry.
"Kagome…" he finally managed to sound serious again. "We should go eat."
"Yeah." she agreed softly, shifting her eyes back to his and seeming to wait for him to break away first. He made sure she had her footing before he turned to head back downstairs again, grinding his teeth at the unfamiliar situation and then motioning at a servant upon seeing one when they reached a hallway. "Is dinner prepared?"
"Yes master Kaiba." the man answered immediately, looking over the young pair and nodding. "Everything has been arranged to your requests."
"Thank you Nicholas." he nodded and lead Kagome further along one of the cool halls to a large dining room that was noticeably warmer thanks to two large fireplaces placed along it's length. Only one end of the table was set for their use - given how long the table actually was. There was an immense variety of dishes for her to choose from and she had to widen her eyes a little at all the thought he'd put into it.
"Wow…Kaiba…you did all this for me?" she breathed as she walked toward the many inviting scents where the table was set.
"I simply enjoy a large group of foods." he replied with his usual indifference and she smirked - not fully believing his harsh demeanor anymore. "Though it was safer than you telling me that you dislike a single dish or two."
"Do you always have to be so quick to deny your kindness?" Kagome asked as she picked up a stuffed mushroom and took a bite.
"Kindness is weak in my position." Kaiba shrugged the question off. "I'm not a nice person just because I treat a few people kindly Kagome."
"You could just say 'no'." Kagome pointed out and finished the other half of the mushroom. "You are much more wonderful than you want anyone to believe."
"Perhaps your crush on me is just blinding you to the truth." he followed her over and took a seat, smirking at the small dirty look he got for the comment. "Besides, you are in danger because of me."
"It's not your fault Seto." Kagome shook her head as she took a seat at his pulling it out for her. "You didn't want them to attack me and for all of this to happen. I'm not going to blame you for the actions of others, regardless of what others want to think about it."
"You are certainly a unique woman Kagome." he smiled a little and started to put some of the food on his dish, enough to prompt her to do the same. "Though life around me always tends to be heavily dangerous. You seem well enough now that after this weekend you should probably return to class. I wanted to bring you here because this home isn't well known to be mine and it's separated enough that you should be safe from people trying to attack you."
"You aren't going to stay?" she seemed alarmed for a moment - she had assumed that he would be staying with her and she wouldn't be in the large castle without him. She would feel alone even with the other people that were here.
"I can't afford to stay." he shook his head. "I have a lot of things that I'm falling behind on at work and I need to use the weekend to catch up on them before school begins again this week. You'll be retaining the tutor I mentioned for the purposes of aiding your grades this year after whatever happened to you during the last semesters at your old school. You are the one that likes to mention things of the past being just that."
"Here I thought you didn't listen to me when I mentioned that sort of thing." Kagome teased, though delighted to know that he did actually listen to her.
"Ye of little faith." he returned with his usual smirk. "Though I don't know if I'll have time to listen to you with as much as you distract me from work. Silly girl."
She stuck her tongue out at him and then kept eating. The two enjoying the meal in silence.
Scene Switch
Ryou had escaped the jail of the rich CEO and was in enough pain that he had found himself a new enemy to go after - how dare the worthless ex-priest treat him like that. His host was just afraid and confused enough to leave him in control thanks to the pain that the shots were still sending through his body. The ring was glowing slightly and showing him that the new target of his vengeance along with the girl he wanted to possess had left the city for the time being…something that meant he would just have to wait until they returned. For now he would have to find himself a hospital and keep away from the group of Yugi-followers and their idol until he could act. Otherwise they would try to get the ring away from his host and that was an unacceptable chain of events at the time being…
Scene Switch
Kagome was lingering on the steps where they'd kissed several hours before, touching her lips and trying to ignore the fact that he'd just left her out here in the middle of nowhere to travel away in the helicopter and leave her with little to do at the large castle he'd dropped her off at. It was a much nicer cage to keep her protected - but still a cage, she knew that it wasn't his fault. He was a busy guy and he'd already taken a lot of time away for her - but a part of her couldn't help but be slightly jealous by what he'd done. She sighed to herself and pushed up to start looking around - she might as well make the most of her time and find something better to do.
She was all the more surprised when she found an old style archery range and paused to pick out a bow and some arrows - she hadn't practiced in months and she had to give a few shots to see how much she'd gotten rusty in her time of not using the weapon.
She drew back and aimed carefully for a moment before releasing, the arrow hit the bottom of the target in the distance and while that wasn't perfect - it was still close enough to put a smile on her face. It was somewhat natural for her even now, just because she hadn't been using her miko powers didn't mean they didn't still exist. It was a great thing to feel as if she was really as unique as Kaiba had previously claimed - but how on earth would she ever tell him about her past without him thinking she was just some psycho?
A second shot hit an inch or so closer than the last, but was above as opposed to below the target this time. She was slowly adjusting back to the feel of the bow and was still glad to see that she wasn't completely back to being useless with it.
"You aren't that bad." The exceptionally deep voice caught her enough off guard that her next shot went completely wide and hit a target two targets away from where she had been aiming. Her eyes searching out the reason for her sudden shock and stepping back a little nervously away from the strange charcoal gray spiky haired man standing nearby. She hadn't told anyone she was coming out here and the man didn't look like one of Kaiba's servants - at least she was guessing he wasn't. Not by the tight pants and strange purple shirt he wore, some sort of gold colored stick in his hand.
"um…thanks…" she stuttered with a second step away. Something about the man just felt negative, sort of how Bakura had suddenly made her feel two days before. Why is it all these dark people are attracted to me?
"Nervous?" he asked her, eyes slightly manic as he started toward her, stalking after her even though she was backing away. "You are Kagome Higurashi right? The one that found unique cards and helped out Seto Kaiba by giving him one of them?"
She wanted to tell him no…that she just worked here. Then nodded a little despite that thought. "I am…who are you?"
"You can call me Marik." his voice seemed as if it wanted to crack from how deep of a baritone it was, "I want those cards of yours…the rare ones that you bought. Don't worry about screaming or running, the people here are under my control…as you will likely soon be. You don't seem as if you are as strong as the rumors that reached me but if you have rare cards it matters little."
"Why attack me just for some cards?" she blinked at him uncertainly. "That doesn't make any sense. What do you want? I'll just give them to you…I don't want to see anyone hurt over a card game."
"Of course…" he laughed wildly at her and came closer as she backed herself into a wall. "You don't have a clue what this card game actually means. Not that Kaiba ever actually tried to figure out the truth but I'm surprised he wouldn't mention how dangerous it could sometimes become. I'll switch my plans then and just take your mind to have you go after Kaiba for me. He's bound to have more cards useful for my purpose…perhaps through you I'll be able to finally get my hands back on the god cards."
Kagome was edging away from the madman but knew to trust her instincts that there was something dangerous about him and the Egyptian styled rod that he was carrying with him. It wasn't until he settled it in front of her eyes that she felt just how much power it had. It was trying to control her…like when her body had been taken from her before. Those thoughts enough for her to fight back against it and her divine power flaring enough that she pushed away the suggestion that she should give her will over to the crazed man that had stalked her in the courtyard.
"Fine…" he snapped when she fought through the millennium rod's control and instead demanded. "Do you have your new deck on you?"
"Um…yeah…" she answered, still breathing heavy from the work of pushing off the magic.
"Good, then I challenge you to a duel…a shadow duel should be more than enough to push through your pitiful defenses and take control of your weak mind." he laughed, she blinked as the world seemed to shift and she could feel dark energy akin to how she used to sense Jayki (sp?) whenever Naraku would be nearby.
"I…haven't played the game before though…" she blinked at the strange man and didn't want to say that she wouldn't play - something told her that she was being required too after his statement about a 'shadow game'. "Aren't you sort of cheating?"
"Ignorance is no excuse." he waved off her concern. "either you play or you forfeit. Either way the end result will be the same. This is better than what I even initially believed I would get out of waiting here and hunting you out."
"Why come after me?" she tried to push the conversation so she could think about possible ways out of this situation. "What have I done?"
"If Kaiba and the rest of that little group took an interest then there had to be something different about you…and I can feel the power resting in your soul. Waiting for someone worthy of it to pull it to the surface, no point in resisting…you'll end up as a puppet regardless of what you do. You don't have the experience to defeat me." Marik mocked her, laughing. "Now draw your deck and lets get this moved along…I have a lot of plans to put into motion and this will help me along."
Kagome blinked but pulled her small deck out of her hand, she didn't have a little duel disk hologram thing so they opted to just sit on a bench and play - she had a feeling even if she found someone working for Kaiba they wouldn't be able to help her so she took up the challenge that had been issued instead.
"I'll even be generous and let you choose if you or I will start." Marik laughed at her again and drew his opening five cards.
"I'll play first." she nodded, knowing she didn't want him to get a lot of defense. Looking at her own cards for a while. "I'll place these two cards face down, then put this card in face down defense mode. Then end my turn."
"Fine." Marik drew his sixth card then played. "First I'll play this creature in face down defense, then I'll set three cards face down. Your turn."
Kagome didn't have any remarks - afraid enough of how she'd do as it was. So she drew a card and then set down her 'Famous Demon Slayer' in face up attack mode. The four star monster with an attack of 1900 and def of 1500 had the spec ability that whenever it fought a fiend the fiend would be removed from the game. "I'll set this creature out and then I attack your face down monster."
"I activate the trap card, Nightmare Wheel on your monster with it's attack. It can no longer attack or change battle positions and each time a trap, magic, or effect card monster is activated it will deal you 300 points of damage." he destroyed her attack just like that and waited for her to continue.
"I…I'm done." she replied…not sure what else to do.
"Fine," Marik announced, drawing a card. "I lay this monster card in face down defense mode and then I activate the magic card Pot of Greed to draw two more cards. Causing you 300 damage. Then I end my turn."
"Okay." Kagome sighed a little, flipping out her other card - a show of her slightly uncertain strategy. "I turn over Gemini Elf and then I attack your face down card."
"Not so fast." he smirked at her, motioning his next card up. "I activate Ring of Destruction. Destroying your Gemini Elf and causing you 1900 points of damage along with an extra 300 by using the trap card."
Kagome's life points dropped to 1500 of the 4000 she started with, making her frown but concentrate on the game as much as she could. She had to have something that she could use to do anything against the man across from her.
"Your turn," she told him hesitantly.
"What…it took me 5 turns to defeat you?" he asked with a laugh. "First I'll use my Remove Trap magic card to remove that first face down card on your field."
Kagome blinked as her Trap Hole card disappeared from her grasp - making her more nervous.
"Next." he smirked. "I'll summon my Melchid the Four Faced Beast in face up attack mode. Then I will put a Black Pendant on it…dropping your life points to 1200 before I attack you directly."
Kagome blinked…looking at her cards and the face down magic card that wouldn't help her. Shaking her head as she watched her life points disappear…glancing back up when the dark man started laughing with his victory. Holding up the strange item she could feel the dark magic from, not able to pull up a defense before it blasted into her mind this time, shackling it with a ease pushed forward more by the fact that she'd lost the Shadow Game to him. It was all the priestess could do to manage to remain aware of her surroundings as he took control of her body but didn't manage to grasp her mind as he'd hoped….nonetheless leaving her rather afraid of what he had planned.
"Excellent." he chuckled a little more. "now then mind slave. Go off and let yourself get some sleep, I don't need you to be acting too differently from normal before I can launch an attack in return. Go to your room and tomorrow you'll look over your deck in detail for me so I know what you are capable of."
Kagome fought but couldn't even slow her body from responding to his demands, making her want to cry…someone else was going to use her to hurt the people she cared about…why was it she was always so weak?
End Chapter
Whew, okay…so I pushed the Marik peace a little bit but thought that he needed to enter the ring sometime soon. The guy is great for a villain after all.
-Aura
To my reviewers:
Kage Otome - Thank you. I hope you continue to enjoy the story. I've worked hard on it and updates got a little shorter recently but for some reason the past week it's suddenly garnered a load of attention.
Tashio - Sesshomaru did already show up - I'm still not sure if I'll add Shippou or when I do (if I do). Yu-gi-oh wise it is suppose to be before the final showdown in Egypt but after everything else. I didn't like the last season so that's why I sort of put it there.
0ribe Junpei - Thank you for all the reviews so far (up to chapter 10 last I got one) I'm glad for the support you are giving me and it's good to know that someone is enjoying it after I put all the time and effort into it.
Dark Demon2210 - Updated.