Pieces Of Us, Chapter 2
By: Storychan
The Saga of Sagi continues! LOL Thank you to everyone who followed or reviewed this story, and thanks again to my awesome beta, TheNuttyAuthor! I hope you enjoy this chapter, and please don't forget to review!
-Storychan
"H-how do you know my name?" I stammer.
The man called Kaiba Seto – Seto, that sounds so much like Set...what does this mean? – rolls his eyes at me as if he cannot believe I'm this stupid. "You dropped your student ID, too," he snickers, handing it back to me. "It had your name on it, Ryuya-san."
"…Oh." I blush. I feel dumb. But I don't know why I expected this stranger to know my name in the first place. I've never seen him before in my life. Well, I have seen his face. In my dreams. And that makes no sense at all. Whoever Seto is, he isn't Set. If Set were real, he'd call me Sagira…right? But, no. Set lived in Ancient Egypt. He wouldn't be in modern-day Japan anyway. No….he wouldn't be anywhere at all, because he doesn't exist. Then why, I wondered, does this Kaiba-san resemble him so much?
"I'm more surprised that you don'tknow myname," Kaiba Seto continued, still staring down at me as if unimpressed. "I'm famous, after all."
"Famous?" I repeat. "Are you an actor, or a singer, or –"
"I'm a duelist," he interrupts. "You're a duelist too. Shouldn't you know who I am?"
"I-I'm new to the dueling scene," I confess.
"You're a newbie?" Kaiba asks, raising an eyebrow. "Then, how did you come by a Blue-Eyes White Dragon?"
"Fate," Manami perks up, the hint of a smile in her green eyes. I'd forgotten she was here.
"I don't believe in fate," Kaiba replies.
"Neither do I," I admit. "I got the Blue-Eyes in a random, ordinary pack of cards." And then it started talking to me. But you don't need to know that.
"Really?" Kaiba says suspiciously. "Well, if you're a newbie duelist, I'm not sure you deserve the fortune of holding a Blue-Eyes in your deck."
"Fortune or not," I reply coldly, "it's mine now." Kaiba is a bit taken aback by my boldness. I'm normally a pretty bold person, actually. When I'm not running into faces from my nightmares.
Then, Kaiba suddenly pulls out his wallet. "How much do you want for it?" he asks.
"Excuse me?" I frown, eyes narrowing.
"I'm not just a duelist," Kaiba explains. "I'm the CEO of the Kaiba Corporation. As such, I can offer you any sum of money for the Blue-Eyes in your hand."
What? This arrogant boy is KaibaCorp's CEO? Even I know what that company is...I remember my mom used to work there before she died. It seems so unreal...almost like he's scamming me and Manami. I stare in shock for a bit, mouth dropping open as my eyes widen. He's gotta be kidding me! There's just no way that a teenager would be in charge of a multinational corporation! Stuff like that only happens in anime!
"It's not for sale!" I growl. "I'm not giving you my best card! Leave me alone."
"Sagiko, wait," Manami whispers, and gestures me to come over to her.
"If he's telling the truth, this guy's a multi-millionaire," she whispers. "And we need money. Dad would never need to worry about the rent again if we sold your card. And it's not like we're pro duelists, anyway. We only duel because the family's been flat broke ever since we lost Mom. Think about it, Sagiko. We could save our family with the fat check he'd give us. And that's what we really want, isn't it?"
"Of course, Manami," I respond. "But…."
I remember the face of that girl, Kisara, in my dreams. I remember her voice, clear as a bell, coming out of the card, begging for my help. Can I really…just abandon her?
Then, I shake my head. What am I thinking?! Kisara is notmy sister. She's dead. No – she was never alive. My realsister, Manami, is standing right here in front of me, begging for my help, too. I can save her and Uncle Takumi from losing our house or worse. This should be an easy decision. So why does it feel so wrong?
"I'm waiting, Ryuya-san," Kaiba smirks.
"Ok," I decide with a sigh. "You can have the card. But, in exchange, I want to make sure my family and I never want for anything, got it?"
"Of course," Kaiba agrees. "I understand perfectly the need to save a sibling."
Sister, help me!
I swear I hear Kisara's voice again as I place the Blue-Eyes White Dragon in Kaiba's hands and he places a check in mine. I dismiss it as a delusion. My real sibling is looking at me with green eyes that shine with gratitude and joy.
I should be happy. I shouldn't be chasing nightmares and ghosts.
"A pleasure doing business with you, Ryuya-san," Kaiba smirks, and I clutch the check tightly in my pale hands, hoping that if I cling to it tightly enough, this sensation that I've made a terrible mistake will fade.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
To my surprise, Kaiba gets off the train at the same stop as Manami and I.
Okay, this is weird...what's a rich CEO kid doing at our stop? Our old school had rich kids, but not like this. Not kids who trade me and Manami insane amounts of money for a single card for no apparent reason!
"You're a Domino High student, too?" Manami asks. Kaiba nods.
"Then why aren't you in a uniform?" I interrogate.
"I am," Kaiba says, like he still thinks I'm slow. "Under my coat."
"What class are you in?" I wonder.
"What difference does it make to you?" Kaiba retorts. "I don't know you. So I don't have to provide any information to you about myself."
You may have known me, I want to say. In another life. But I don't want to believe that's true, because if it is, if I was Sagira once – then I've just sold my twin's soul to the man that got her killed.
So I say, "Whatever," and I take Manami by the hand, and we dash ahead to our classroom, leaving Kaiba in the dust. We're almost late.
The teacher smiles at us as we enter the room. "You're the new students?" she asks. Manami and I nod.
"Attention, class!" the teacher announces. A blonde guy who'd been asleep on his desk in the corner wakes up and falls out of his chair. I suppress a chuckle. "We have two new students today," the teacher says. "Girls, introduce yourselves."
I go first. "My name is Ryuya Sagiko. I'm seventeen years old. It's nice to meet you all!"
Manami goes after me. She's a bit nervous. "My name is Mahomura Manami. I'm sixteen years old. Let's have a nice year together!"
"Thank you, Ryuya-san, Mahomura-san. Why don't you go have a seat next to Katsuya-san?" the teacher suggests, gesturing to the blonde who fell earlier. As I walk towards the desk next to him and sit down, I notice he's kind of…cute.
"Nice to meet you, Ryuya-san!" the blonde introduces. "I'm Katsuya Jounouchi." He gestures to three friends sitting around him. "This is Hiroto Honda," a brunette guy waves, "Mazaki Anzu," a girl, also brunette, bows, "and Muto Yugi." I look at the last one and almost drop my schoolbag in shock. He has strange pink, yellow, and black hair that I know I've seen before somewhere. I try to place it, and then I remember: he was in my dream, too! Or, rather, a much taller, tanner man with similar hair was. I think Set called him the Pharaoh. I think he also called him his dearest friend. This is crazy, I think. Running into two boys straight out of my nightmares in one morning.
But then I tell myself this short, shrimpy kid looking at me with a half-friendly, half-concerned smile can't be the same person. He has a kid-brother vibe, completely different from the regal man I dreamed of.
"Nice to meet you," I manage.
Then, another student walks in, late, and sits down at a desk on the other side of the room. Manami pokes me. "It's that Kaiba guy from the train!" she says. I turn around and see that she's right. "No way…he's in our class, too?"
"Oh, do you know Kaiba-san?" Yugi asks.
"Uh, no," I shake my head. "I mean, I just met him today." He's also been in my head for about a month now, but so have you! "Don't you know him?"
"Not really," Yugi replies. "I wouldn't really call us friends."
"Oh," I blink. "Is that so?" If they were really Set and the Pharaoh, they'd be close friends in this life, too, right? If they were the same people, then this is all wrong.
I try to clear my head of these silly thoughts. Some imaginary past life doesn't matter. I need to stay in the here and now. I open my textbook and listen to the lecture the teacher gives. Before I know it, it's time for our lunch break.
Jounouchi approaches me immediately. "Hey, Ryuya-san, are you a duelist?"
I look at Manami. I wonder if now that Kaiba has made us rich, if we have any reason to duel anymore.
"Sort of," I decide to reply. "I mean, I know how to play."
"Well, do you want to play with us, then?" he offers.
"Do you want to, Manami-chan?" I ask. She nods at me. "Ok. As long as she can play, too," I answer.
"Are you and Mahomura-san related somehow?" Jounouchi asks me.
"We're cousins," Manami informs him. More like sisters, I think, but we don't need to explain the whole story behind that to him right now.
"We just moved here," I add. He and his friends don't need to know the reason for that, either.
Manami and I follow him over to the corner of the room, where he sits down next to Yugi and pulls out his deck.
"Is it ok if me and Jounouchi play the first round?" Yugi asks. "You can duel whoever wins, Ryuya-san."
"That's fine," I agree. I think it's really cool that they're trying to make friends with us. I was worried nobody was going to want to hang out with us here.
As Yugi and Jounouchi duel, I strike up a conversation with Honda and Anzu. "Are you two duelists, as well?"
"We both duel a little," Anzu confesses. "But neither of us are very good. Mostly, we just watch Yugi-kun and Jounouchi-kun."
"It'll be interesting, though," says Honda, "to have some new duelists to watch them play against. What kind of deck do you use, Ryuya-san?"
"Mostly fire-type monsters," I tell him. While watching the duel, I notice Jounouchi uses mostly warrior-type monsters, while Yugi, like Manami, seems to prefer Spellcasters. Yugi wins pretty easily.
"How did you get so good at dueling, Yugi?" Jounouchi sighs.
"Well, I'm mostly just lucky because I have easy access to good cards," Yugi explains. "My grandpa owns Kame Game Shop."
"Really? No way!" Manami cries. "I bought Sagiko a pack of cards from there the other day!"
The pack, I recall, was the one where I found the Blue-Eyes White Dragon. Again, I feel a pang of regret about giving it away. I'm not sure why. We need the money. And I can't have seriously deluded myself into thinking my sister from a past life's soul was inside that card…right?
"Maybe after school, my grandpa will show us a super-rare card of his," Yugi suggests. My ears perk up. Super-rare? It couldn't be….
"Will you meet us there after school, Ryuya-san?" Yugi asks. "And you, too, Mahomura-san?"
"Sure," I grin. "Sounds fun."
"Yeah, ok," Manami approves.
The rest of the day seems to fly by after that, and before I know it I'm walking to the game shop with Manami, Jounouchi, Honda, Anzu, and Yugi.
"Did you enjoy the pack of cards you got from my grandpa's store, Ryuya-san?" Yugi asks politely.
"Uh, yeah," I nod. I got a lot of money for that Blue-Eyes, so I shouldn't be complaining.
A bell rings as we enter the shop. "Grandpa!" Yugi calls. "I brought some new friends! Can we see your special card, please?"
"I don't see why not," smiles a short, elderly man in a black bandana. He pulls a card out of an ornate box. My jaw drops. It's another Blue-Eyes White Dragon!
And suddenly I'm hearing the voice again. Sagira, help me!
Why is that same voice – Kisara's voice – coming out of a different Blue-Eyes card?! And why, when there are only four Blue-Eyes in the whole world, have I run into two in less than twenty-four hours? Is it fate, like Manami said?
You've found another piece of my soul, the card whispers. Collect the other two, and your own missing piece, and I will be free.
"Free from what?" I mumble.
"Did you say something, Ryuya-san?" Yugi blinks.
"No," I deny. I listen for the voice again, but this time I hear nothing. Of course I hear nothing, because cards can't talk. I'm losing my mind. "I must be hearing things."
"You sure you're alright?" Jounouchi asks, putting a supportive hand on my shoulder. But then the bell on the shop door rings again, and who steps inside but Kaiba Seto!
"I need to speak to the old man," he barks, but then he sees me and stops. "Ryuya-san?" he blinks. "Not looking to replace what I bought from you this morning, are you?"
"Wha…no," I shake my head. Jounouchi and the others look at me strangely.
"You'd better not be," Kaiba smirks. "Because this Blue-Eyes shall be mine, as well." He needs more than one Blue-Eyes card? I realize. Why?
"My Blue-Eyes isn't for sale," Yugi's grandpa declares.
"I'll give you any amount of money for it," Kaiba offers. The same offer he made me earlier. But unlike me, Yugi's grandpa doesn't seem willing to take it. "This card is priceless to me," he explains stubbornly.
Kaiba whips out a briefcase and opens it. My eyes widen. It's filled with rare and valuable cards! "You can have all of these if you give me your Blue-Eyes," Kaiba negotiates.
Once again, Yugi's grandpa refuses. "This card is a symbol of friendship with the man who gave it to me. I'll never sell it or trade it to anyone."
"I see," Kaiba snaps coldly, and storms out.
"What the heck was that all about?" Jounouchi cries. "And Ryuya-san, how do you know him?"
"I….I met him on the train this morning," I say vaguely. "Manami!" I call out. "We should go home."
"But we just got here!" Manami protests. "I want to hang out with Yugi-kun some more."
I bow to Yugi and his friends respectfully. "I'm sorry," I tell them. "We'll see you at school tomorrow."
On the train ride home, Manami continues to pout, but I knew I had to get out of there. I mean, I found another Blue-Eyes, which was weird enough. But then it started talking to me, like mine had last night. I'd dismissed that as the result of sleep deprivation….but when the card spoke to me in Kisara's voice again at Kame Game Shop, I had been wide awake.
What's happening to me? I wonder. Am I going full-on schizo? Auditory hallucinations are a sign of big-time mental illness. Maybe I should see a therapist. The same one I went to as a kid when Mom and Dad died.
"Sagiko, are you ok?" Manami asks.
I fake a smile and nod. "Yeah. I'm fine." Truthfully, I don't think I'm okay at all. I just don't want Manami to worry about me. She'd freak if she knew I was hearing voices that weren't there.
"Sure...if you say so…" Manami bites her lip, and I know she's not convinced. I pat her hand and smile at her again.
"Don't worry. It's just those bad dreams getting to me…" I try to convince myself of that, but I'm not sure. If I start losing my mind...
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
For once, I don't have the recurring dreams of Kisara that night. Instead, what startles me from my fitful sleep is the telephone ringing.
"Who's calling us at this hour?" Manami mutters sleepily. This is the second night in a row she's been roused in the middle of the night.
"Dunno," I shrug. "I didn't think anyone in Domino had our number yet." I get up and answer it, to stop the incessant ringing more than anything else.
"R-Ryuya-san?" stammers a scared voice on the other end of the line.
"Muto-san?" I recognize his voice immediately. He doesn't sound like he's okay. "How did you get this number?"
"The phone book. And just call me Yugi. Listen, I need your help!"
"My help? With what?"
I just met Yugi today. What is he calling me for help for? "Shouldn't you be calling Katsuya-san, or Mazaki-san, or…"
"I already did," Yugi explained. "But I figured you could help me, too, because you know Kaiba-san."
"Er, I wouldn't really say I know him," I clarified. "I met him today, just like I met you." Although I've seen him in my dreams for almost a month now.
"He kidnapped my grandpa," Yugi reveals.
"What?!" I shriek, almost dropping the phone. Manami looks at me questioningly.
"Why would he do something like that?" I ask frantically.
"It's because he wants Grandpa's Blue-Eyes so badly," Yugi guesses. "He was willing to kidnap him and force him into a duel to get it!"
"But…Kaiba-san already has a Blue-Eyes!" I blurt.
"He does? What do you mean, Ryuya-san?"
"If I'm going to call you Yugi, then just call me Sagiko," I advise. "And what I mean is….I had a Blue-Eyes, and I sold it to Kaiba-san on the train today."
"A-are you serious, Sagiko-san?" Yugi breathes, shocked. "You had one of the rare Blue-Eyes – one of only four in the world – and you gave it away?"
"Not gave away, sold," I correct. "For a good sum of money, Yugi-san. Anyway, I don't understand why Kaiba-san is doing this."
"Will you please come down to Kaiba Corporation headquarters?" Yugi begs. "That may be the only way that we can find out."
"Alright," I choose, and hang up the phone. I grab some clothes from my closet – a red shirt, black leather jacket, and camo-print skirt –fling my pajamas off, and change into them.
"What's going on, Sagiko?" Manami asks. "Where are you going? Should I get Dad?"
"No," I tell her. "Don't worry about it, Manami, I'll be back soon."
"But where…."
I don't hear the tail end of Manami's question, because I'm already out the door.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
I meet Yugi outside of the Kaiba Corporation building. Jounouchi, Honda, and Anzu are there with him.
"Yugi told me you had a Blue-Eyes and gave it to Kaiba-san!" Jounouchi immediately confronts me. "Why would you get rid of such a good card?"
"Does that really matter right now?" I scoff. "If you must know, I needed money for my sister."
"I thought Mahomura-san was your cousin," he says, confused.
"Well…she's like my sister, okay?" I defend. I feel like crying. I got dragged out of bed, and now I have to defend my life to these people I barely know?
Jounouchi's expression softens. "I understand," he whispers, squeezing my hand comfortingly. "I got a sister I gotta look out for too." I blush and jerk my hand away.
"Worry about that later!" I scold. "Right now, we gotta go save Yugi's grandpa!"
We burst into a room where Yugi's grandpa is lying on the floor, moaning in pain. Yugi runs to him.
"Grandpa..." he says sadly. "Are you alright?"
"Yugi..." Yugi's grandpa groans miserably. "I...I tried to teach him a lesson about the heart of the cards, but I failed…"
"It's ok, Grandpa," Yugi says.
"Jounouchi! We've got to get him to a hospital!" Jounouchi immediately steps in and calls an ambulance. Then, Kaiba steps out of the shadows with a triumphant smirk.
"Kaiba, what did you do to my grandpa?!" Yugi screams, raging.
"I dueled him. He lost," Kaiba says simply. "I guess it was too much for the old fogey's heart."
"You bastard!" Jonouchi cries.
Kaiba laughs. How can he show such mirth when an old man is in pain? This Kaiba Seto guy….he isn't a good person. Not like the Set from my dreams. I really do regret giving him my Blue-Eyes now. He doesn't deserve it!
"It doesn't matter," Kaiba says, "Because now I have the complete set!" He brandishes four cards. The Blue-Eyes White Dragon I sold him earlier, and the one he just stole from Yugi's grandpa. And…two others! Kaiba has all four of the Blue-Eyes White Dragon cards in the world! And it's partially thanks to me, I think guiltily.
And then I hear Kisara's voice one last time. This time, it sounds like there's four of her. It's like an echo chamber.
Sagira.
Sagira, my sister!
Sagira, help me!
SISTER, HELP ME!
No...I'm hearing things that aren't there again! This can't be happening! Not now! I put my hands over my ears. "This isn't real…" I tell myself. "You're not real….I'm not Sagira…I'm not your sister…"
Then, through the fingers stuffed into my ears, I hear Kaiba saying, "I only need three. The fourth is just a liability, because it could be used against me."
This can't be Set….right? Set wouldn't talk like this. He loved Kisara, and would want to keep every part of her sacred. If Seto is the reincarnation of Set, it would make sense that he wants all of the Blue-Eyes. I wouldn't have to bring Kisara back. That would be his job. If that's true, then why is Kaiba Seto talking about the Blue-Eyes as if they were just cards? As if he didn't remember Kisara? Maybe he doesn't remember, and that was why?
No, I think. This is all lunacy. There is no Set. There is no Kisara.
But then, Kaiba Seto rips the fourth Blue-Eyes White Dragon, the one that Yugi's grandpa had treasured, in two.
And all I can hear is the shrill sound of what can only be Kisara screaming.