Major shout out to MysticTyler for the help on this chapter. He's been helping me with proof reading, ideas, and some ways of Aki's speaking patterns (Such as her outburst, which he wrote out)

Several days had passed since my duel with Kaze, and things were progressing exactly as I had planned., that is is say, they weren't progressing at all. Sure, he still kept his seat next to me, but that was all that could be considered interaction between us.

True to his word, Kaze didn't try to shove any more of this so-called friendship my way. In fact, after that day, he hadn't said a word to me unless it was to work together on a project in class. Kaze had become noticeably obsessed with checking his phone, however. One time, I peered over to see what he was doing with it. All I managed to see was the name 'Rei Saotome' at the top of the message before the brunette sent the message, thus closing it from my view. Upon it clearing, however, I was able to view his background image.

A group of people, presumably his friends from Duel Academy, seeing as Kaze himself was in there was well. I never got around to asking him about it or his time at DA, for I never felt a need to, but I was still curious. If he was claiming to understand my pain, the group of friends in the image certainly was contradictory.

I didn't have time to think about the picture, though, as I was making my weekly trip to the card shop. Most of the students went there daily, whether to pick up one of the sandwiches or in hopes of getting a card pack with rare cards. Myself, however? I simply came to buy a Plant pack or two. I had no real reason to, as my deck was already how I liked it, but it never hurt to have some extra Plant monsters to change my deck around with in the future. After all, after you duel someone so many times, they'll memorize your deck. Simple changes like adding an extra Synchro or swapping out monsters would be enough to turn the duel in my favor.

You may wonder why I only visited weekly. The answer is rather simple - no one came to the store on Sunday nights. That was because they were all too busy cramming to get their homework done that they slacked off on, leaving me to visit in peace.

At least, that's what I thought. I forgot a certain abnormality that transfered into my life.

When I arrived at the store, the transfer was there talking to the cashier leisurely. "Oh, Ms. Izayoi," the cashier, the only cashier for our school actually, beckoned me in. She was an older woman who was almost constantly at the store. It wouldn't surprise me if she lived there. I couldn't get up the nerve to hate her, though. She was one of those rare neutral presences. She didn't act overly friendly with me, but she didn't show any malice or hate, either. It seemed like it was against her character to tilt either way. "You must come and meet Kaze here. He's an absolute darling," the woman continued. After giving a light laugh and insisting that he was no such thing, Kaze turned his attention to me. As tempting as it was to simply leave, I advanced over to them. "The usual, right?" I gave a nod in confirmation to the clerk's question and she hobbled off to the table behind her where the packs resided. If it wasn't for the dishonest students opting to stealing cards, the packs would probably be up front. It was no real bother though. It made transactions a lot more quicker, as you don't have to wait for people debating on which pack held the rarest cards.

While we Osiris students waited, Kaze awkwardly scanned his surroundings, as if looking for a topic of discussion. "Oh, um... Here, do you want a sandwich?" Kaze questioned suddenly. Without waiting for my response, he walked over to the cart where the wrapped sandwiches resided.

"I told you, dear! An absolute darling!" the woman called out without looking back before laughing lightly to herself, murmuring something about love. By the time she returned with my cards, Kaze had finished picked up two sandwiches, presumably one for each of us, and was handing the cashier some money. "Oh, no, no. You can have those on the house. It's the least I can do since you've given me some company!" the woman smiled. Said smile instantly dropped as another idea came to her, "if you get the Golden Eggwich, however, you just have to give it to your girlfriend!"

"Thank you very much," Kaze said while chuckling lightly to himself. Clearly, he was taking the woman's comment as a simple joke. I felt my face get hot, if only for a moment, but whether it was from anger of embarrassment, however, I couldn't tell. The two of us hardly even talked! How could she have came to such an assumption?

"Hold on a second, Kaze and I aren't-," I started with a rebuttal when Kaze suddenly turned to me and held out a sandwich. It was as if he were trying to prove the woman right..! Part of me wanted to lash out at him, thinking it was another attempt at him trying his friendship ploy. The other part, however, realizing that none of the other students were around, simply wanted to relax, take his offering, and enjoy a meal in peace. By no means did I have to become friends with him. I just didn't have to hate him. "How do you know if I'll even like this? It's random, is it not?" I questioned, taking the sandwich regardless.

There was one major flaw in the school's sandwich system - you weren't allowed to know which sandwich you got until you had already taken it out. Usually, that would turn you off from buying one unless you liked everything on the menu. Our faculty knew this, however, and made attempts to make the idea more appealing. Sometimes, they threw some cards, varying in their rarity, in the wrapping with the sandwich. They also had a supposed 'Golden Eggwich' every day, but there was only one. No one had ever claimed it, though, so it'd been more of a school rumor than anything. I heard that it's a Duel Academy chain thing, though, so Kaze may have seen it in his school.

"Oh, don't worry. I haven't met a person yet who hasn't liked that sandwich," Kaze replied as he took the wrapping off his sandwich, revealing it to be fried shrimp. As rude as it was to not eat the offering he gave me, I simply wasn't hungry at the moment. After all, our dorm had dinner not even an hour ago. Deciding on saving the sandwich and having it for lunch tomorrow, I placed the mystery sandwich in my pocket. Kaze, on the other hand, now had his sandwich hanging out of his mouth as he returned to his accumulated habit of checking his phone. Seeing as there would be no better time to ask, I decided to turn my attention to who I knew the message was either to or from, "So, just who is this Rei person?" Kaze quickly looked up, but not in an embarrassed manner. He seemed surprised, as if not understanding how I knew who she was. Upon realizing that I could easily see the name from where I was sitting, he relaxed.

"She's a good friend from back at DA. She's worried about me or something, so I've had to keep telling her that I'm okay," Kaze said dismissively. That's when he noticed that I was actually interested in something related to friendship. He completely turned to face me, but before he could continue with his little spiel from our last duel, I decided to change topics once more. Something else that had been pestering me.

"This girl seems to worry about you a lot. You seem to have such a good past. Tell me, how could you ever understand me?" I asked. The casual atmosphere disappeared in almost an instant, as did the bright and hopeful look on Kaze's face. Instead, the air turned cold filled with uncertainty and doubt.

"Alright, you two, it's time for the store to-" the cashier started to speak when she saw the two of us with eyes locked. "Oh, oh, never mind then! I can keep the store open as long as you guys want!" the woman exclaimed before scurrying off to grab a broom and appear busy.

"Aki, I've already told you. I know exactly what you're feeling. Just because I have friends like Rei doesn't change anything," Kaze said. Forget what I said earlier. Don't hate him? That was before this lie was exposed as what it was. How could someone who had such a near and dear friend worrying over their well-being understand what I was dealing with?

"If you have such good friends, then how do you know how I feel? How dare you think that you and I are even remotely similar!" I said, my voice slowly raising to a shout as my anger welled up. Somehow I ended up on my feet, glaring down at the Osiris.

"Aki, please. I know you're in pain, and you're hurt, and you feel like there's no one who could be your friend, but if you'd just open yourself up and make some friends-" Kaze started to spew more of his lies.

"Open? You want me to be open?" I mused to myself. I couldn't help but find it amusing. Being open would only cause more pain. Another point that just proved that he didn't understand me. "I've had no one to rely on, nobody to depend on, and everybody in this horrible place has distanced themselves from me because I have a flaw that I can't change! I wished and I wished that I could make it go away, but it can't. The power I possess will never go away, and neither will the people who badmouth me because of it. So you tell me, Kaze: is that how you feel? Can you honestly say to me that you feel that way when you have so many friends and everyone here likes you?" I demanded to know, my voice rising higher and higher regardless of the old cashier in back, who had long since dropped the broom in surprise. Those were words that needed to be said - words that had been waiting to be thrown like daggers to tear apart his lies. Spewing them out seemed to take a weight off of my chest, knowing that Kaze could never match them.

"In all honesty... no, I can't say that I feel that way now," Kaze started to say slowly, as if knowing he had to choose his words carefully. Not that it mattered how careful he was when he said the truth like that.

"So you admit it! You admit that you've been lying, just like-" I began to accuse the brunette.

"Let me finish! I don't feel that way now because I've made friends. I've found people who accept me for me, and since then the pain has gone away. But the pain will never go away if you don't learn to trust people... No, you don't even have to trust people... just trust me, Aki," Kaze said.

"After you've just lied and said you understand me when you don't? How could I trust someone who lies straight to my face?" I shouted. Kaze looked like he was about to say something when he recalled that the poor old woman was observing us. He stopped and turned to her, and I reluctantly did so as well, finding her in to be in utter shock and disbelief.

"I... Maybe we should talk about this somewhere else...?" We did just that, but it probably wasn't as far as Kaze would have liked. Not wanting him to back out of his promise to reveal this so-called truth, I lead him go into the adjacent room of the card shop. It was rather plain, but in the center of it was a table with two chairs facing each other from opposite ends. It was usually used for students who wanted a traditional duel without the holograms after they got a new set of cards for their decks, but for now, it served our purpose quite well. On opposing sides of the table, the brunette and I both took our seats. I waited for a few seconds for Kaze to start his story, but clearly he was too preoccupied in his mind with which lies to use.

"Well? Weren't you going to spin another tale about how you understand me?" I questioned.

"I was just wondering what I should all tell you about... but I guess the easiest way is to just start from the very beginning... I came from a family that's not too rich, but not so poor either. A middle class family that just managed to get by with two stable jobs. I was an only child of two business workers who worked in the offices of Kaiba Corp, and thus I was introduced to duel monsters at a very young age. It was a peaceful, quaint existence. Stay at home while my parents went to work, organize my deck or play some games until they came home, and then I would be rewarded with a new card pack or two to keep me entertained the next day. It wasn't fanciful living, but it was enough for me. I had three meals every day and I had a family that loved me, even though they were hardly around," Kaze started to say what I assumed to be the prologue to this supposedly tragic tale. As he spoke, he had this nostalgic look upon his face that I couldn't quite explain. If you asked me, however, it sounded like Kaze was much more well-off than I had expected. A family who loved him and a decent living... I couldn't help but be envious…

"And I would have enjoyed that simple lifestyle for a few more years if it wasn't for the accident, although, I probably shouldn't call it such. The day started off as every other, with my mother and my father giving their goodbyes and kissing me on the cheek. It continued on normally after that until the night began to come. My parents never arrived home. I figured it was a late work day, being idiotically innocent at the time, and I went to bed and such as usual, figuring my parents would return by morning. Only my parents never came. For the next few days, I clung to the foolish hope that my parents would return. I woke up, fed myself with whatever I could scavenge, spent the day goofing off, went to bed, and repeated it the next day. As a kid, I reasoned they went on a trip and simply forgot to tell me or I forgot about it myself. There's a certain point in time when even hope is pointless, however." The nostalgic expression dropped from Kaze's face as his voice began to drop. I noticed him subconsciously reaching up to latch onto his necklace.

"A day or so after I had given up hope, a letter arrived in the mail addressed to me. It had no return address, but I opened it anyway, not even bothering to question who it was from. Inside, I found my cherished duel monster card, Brionac, which you've already seen, a necklace with three gold bars, one of my father's cherished accessories which I am wearing now, and a letter. Said letter had one simple sentence on it, so I suppose it wasn't even a letter at all, 'We're sorry, but we're not coming home'. I was only fourteen years old when my parents mysteriously vanished, never to return." So, this was the part of the tale where Kaze started to try and make me believe him. While he may have lied before, I got the feeling that he was now telling the truth. His eyes had a certain undoubtable intensity to them as he met my gaze and his words were flowing without pause. He'd lived through these events, I could tell that much, and it was enough to catch my attention.

"After receiving that letter and realizing I wouldn't be able to continue living off of what my parents left, I contacted my grandparents. Both of them were sick and stuck in a nursing home, however, but they did send some money to help. That's when I realized that I was alone. I had read many stories and heard many things about children being abandoned by their parents and having to turn to the streets, and the thought actually scared me. As soon as I could, I left to go search for a job for some means of support, but at my age, no one wanted to hire me, something about preferring to have 'more grown-up people' than me.

"Disheartened, I began to make my way home when I ran into a friend from school. Seeing as it was summertime, I hadn't seen him in a while. A fervent duelist as well, he challenged me to a duel for old times' sake. His deck focused mainly on collecting Exodia and left him wide open to my frontal attacks, so he eventually lost. Upon winning, however, I noticed something. DP was added to my account. I almost hit myself for being oblivious to the idea, but at the same time, a wave of relief overtook me. DP, the currency for nearly everything in my town, came from duels. While I couldn't get a job, I could duel as much as I wanted to, and, to top it off, even someone like me could enter dueling tournaments. I had thought that these tournaments would be my savior, but in reality, they were the exact opposite. They ruined what little remained of my previous life." At this point, Kaze had begun to look more directly at me. It wasn't as if he was avoiding my eyes before, but he had occasionally looked down to his necklace or made a grab for his hat. Now he was seemingly past it and met my gaze with the same intensity as before, if not more.

"It was a stupid mistake. The first tournament that I entered, I did well, making it all the way to the finals. In the final match, however, I summoned Brionac for the first time. Since I had never summoned him before, I didn't realize that he was no average card. I later found out that he was enchanted, presumably by my parents at their work, to take shape as a real monster." Well then, that would explain the mystery around why Brionac wasn't see through like the rest of his monsters were. Kaze was certainly didn't have powers, this fact just proved it, but based upon my own experiences, I could tell exactly where this would be going. "As such, Brionac froze the entire stadium and started a blizzard at his very first appearance. No one saw my own shock as well, and they mistook me as a duelist who was attempting to harm everyone. They barred me from any other tournaments. As if that wasn't enough, the news spread that I was dangerous and was to be avoided at all costs. Soon, my only refuge, my school, was littered with people who hated me for simply having one card. It was enough to make one fed up with society." Kaze's eyes darkened for a brief moment as he reflected on the time long ago when these events happened.

"In a stupid attempt to make things normal once again, I took Brionac's card and threw it to the wind off of a bridge near my home. With the enchanted card gone, I went back to my former friends and summoned a monster, simply to show them that I was completely normal. They said that I could just control when my monsters became real. My closest friend, the one who had dueled with me not too long ago, went up and took my cards from me before throwing all forty, scattering them about. Not wanting to start a row, I simply went about collecting my cards. You'd think throwing some of my only possession away would be enough for them, but of course it wasn't. Their mocking and chants still ring clear in my head. Freak, monster, other names of the like. It made no sense to me at the time. How people could be so cruel, I mean. I had done nothing to them - in fact, I had tried to befriend them. I even threw my parents' card away... Only then did I see how stupid I was.

"Just as I was about to finish collecting my cards, the same 'friend' that threw them walked over to me and kicked them right back out of my hand. He said something after that, but I don't really recall it. I was too busy pulling my arm back for a swift blow to his face. At that moment, fear took hold of me. I never was a violent person, and regardless of what they'd done, it didn't seem quite right. The more I thought about it, the morrI reasoned it was more than alright. If they said I was a monster without proper reason, why shouldn't I just justify it by fighting back?"

This... this was what he was saying earlier, was it not? After our duel Kaze said something along those lines. If he's telling the truth now, and this is what he was saying earlier... does this mean…

"Clearly fighting back was what needed to be done, because as soon as the others realized I was more than willing to retaliate, they instantly ran away, leaving me to collect my cards once more in peace. I reckoned that while I was at it, with the whole fighting back plan that is, I might as well retrieve Brionac and use him to fight back as well. Thus, I left the school yard for the bridge where I had let Brionac go at. Finding his card was extremely difficult, and I probably never would have found him if I didn't discover my second talent besides dueling: The limited ability to hear duel spirits. I say limited because, as Brionac explained to me later, I could only hear them if they directed their focus to me. It actually isn't as much as a set back as you'd think. I only really need to hear my own Duel Monster's spirits anyway. Regardless, Brionac called out to me, and from there, I was able to retrieve his card by following his voice. After getting over the initial shock, of course. With all preparations aside, I began to make my way back to the school grounds.

"For the next few months, people tried to do as my old friends did - insult me, exclude me, anything that they figured would make me feel like the trash I was in their minds. I didn't really care to pay attention after a while though. I had been occupying myself with duels. How would I get duels if people were afraid of my 'powers', you may ask? It was quite simple, really. No one could say no when a large ice dragon was hovering over them, breathing out ice-cold air. I'd always summoned Brionac in duels as much as I could. After all, I couldn't use my so-called powers on my opponents if I didn't. Due to this fact, I never could honestly hurt anyone, which was probably for the best. If I did have actual powers like you do, Aki, the power to hurt them with all my monsters, I probably would have done something I would regret. Well, I shouldn't phrase it like that. There was one incident that I regret most of all." If I thought Kaze looked shaken up before, he was even more so now as he continued into the next part of his tale.

"A little girl came up to me one day after I had defeated her brother. She was probably no older than nine or ten, a newly started duelist. She told me that she wanted to duel me, and when I asked why, she said she thought I was a nice duelist - a person she'd like to be some day. I took this as mocking though, being as stupid as I was, and took her up on her challenge of a duel. I summoned Brionac, as the tradition had become for my duels, and attacked. Being one of my youngest opponents yet, Brionac's attack nearly killed her. That's when the guilt hit me the most. I could hurt teenagers and grown-ups who had looked down upon me, but hurting a little girl like that is what really opened my eyes. Her brother cussed me out with a rainbow of profanity, but I just remained frozen in my place. After a few months of terrorizing my home town, I had finally realized what I had become. Honestly, it scared me.

"With the built up DP I had earned, I cashed in to buy a Kaiba Corp hat, some new clothes, and some new cards for a spare deck if need be. I had no idea where I was going, truth be told, but I left regardless. A few towns over, I heard about the start of a new Duel Academy year. All you had to do to get in was pass the entrance exams. Given that I didn't use Brionac much, I'd be able to duel for as much DP as I needed for the necessities and I'd be able to start over with a new slate. That's how I got going to DA. Once I was there, I found that I didn't even fit in. It was my own fault though. After what I had done, I froze up. I hardly talked to anyone, and I always went out of my way to make sure everyone else was content. It made me a doormat of sorts, I suppose, but I didn't want to hurt anyone else. Not after seeing that innocent little girl nearly being frozen to the bone.."

"It was at DA that I met my friends, Rei, Judai, Sho, and all the others. I still was withdrawn, but when a group of Shadow Duelists come in and threaten to destroy everything, you learn that you need to take a stand. I suppose that's when things started going right. No one knew about what I did in the past, and I was happy with it being that way. I had friends again, and everything felt right in the world. With Brionac still in hand, however, I knew that if I ended up summoning him, everything could come crumbling back down. That's how I began practicing in secret to control Brionac. At first, whenever he appeared, a blizzard basically overtook the air. With some practice, though, I was able to calm down his summoning to some gusts of winds, which you saw during our duel. It was around the time when I reached that step that I was asked to transfer for a month to this academy, where I met you, someone who was just like me. Who felt the pain, the suffering, and the loneliness that I felt. I feel compelled to help you. I don't want you to feel the same pain that I felt when I hurt the little girl, and so I want to help you before it's too late."

As Kaze finished the long-awaited story, silence overtook us. In truth, he probably had all the right to be silent after that. I was the one who had to respond because I was the one who was accusing him. After that story, I wasn't sure what to reply with anymore. This story was true, his words were true, and it was highly likely that his motives were true. Did that change anything though? I told myself that I wouldn't open myself up to anyone, regardless of what they said. Here I was, getting all confused over a simple yes or no answer. It was simply whether I trust him or not.

Kaze easily read my silence as indecision and made his way to his feet, presumably leaving to let me think things through. "Kaze," his name came out of my mouth without any warning, causing him to pause at the door frame, "I... I'll see you in class tomorrow," I said. Kaze flashed a smile before continuing on his way back to his dorm, making sure to say farewell to the cashier as he did. This left me to my thoughts, which I had no idea what to do with. For the time being, I supposed I could return to my earlier thinking. I didn't have to hate him, nor did I have to accept him as a friend, just as a more neutral presence until I could get a more solid reading on who he really was.

Seeing how quite some time had passed since I had come to the store, a light hunger was taking a hold of my stomach. I reached into my pocket and pulled out the sandwich that Kaze had given me and began to unwrap it. Upon lifting the bun to see what kind of sandwich it was, a golden light met my eyes, which quickly widened. Without wasting a second, I darted out of the room after Kaze, who hadn't made it that far. "Kaze...! This is-" I started to explain the mistake.

"I know. I want you to have it," Kaze said without turning around to see what it was I had in my hands. Clearly, if he saw the Golden Eggwich, he'd change his mind. It wasn't something you just gave away to a near stranger.

"But-"

"Like I said, I want you to have it." That's all he said with a brief wave of his hand. Then, he was gone, off to the path to the Osiris Dorm, leaving me alone with one of the rarest things at Duel Academy.

Reviews:

Aoi Hyoudou: Rei will be making more appearances later on that have more importance, if it hasn't been implied enough. This is just dipping your feet in the water, I suppose.

Lucarai: I was actually considering that for a while, but if I'm going to follow the anime route, the manga sort of goes against it. It was an interesting thought, however.

Guest: Sorry, but I've only watched the show in the Japanese sub, so the Japanese names are more familiar with me. I can use the English card names from now on if that helps, but it feels wrong to use the English names for me.

Everyone else: Thank you all for the positive feedback, and I hope you continue to enjoy the story.