Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Throughout the weekend, Kaiba noticed more and more strange things. He assumed he was simply seeing things, but he kept seeing images for brief moments of things that weren't there. Usually they were simply blurs, but occasionally he could see them clearly enough that he could almost identify them.
When it was time to go to school he, despite not actually believing that it would do anything, grabbed the pendant he was given and put it on, almost without even being aware of it. For a moment he thought about removing it, but decided that he might be able to return it. Lisa was about his age, meaning that she would be going to school with him.
Once he arrived in class he saw Lisa clearly. She didn't look much different from the tent minus her annoyance at having to wear the school uniform. He couldn't try and return the pendant though as she was completely surrounded by fools who actually bought into her 'psychic' act and were begging for her to do a reading for them.
"Do a reading for me!"
"No, don't read for her, read for me!"
"I actually have cards on me. Read for me!"
"No, me!"
"Me!"
"I can read for everyone, just not at the same time," Lisa said. "But unfortunately I don't have any cards on me except for my own, and I only allow people to touch them when I'm exchanging decks for reading purposes."
"Then the only one here you can do a reading on is me!" One boy said triumphantly, stepping forward and placing his deck in front of Lisa.
"Why can't you read like you're supposed to?" One girl complained.
"If you mean why don't I use crystal balls, tea leaves, or read palms, that's not where my gift lies," Lisa said. "I did have a couple of friends who's skills lay there, but my skills have always lay in cards speaking to me."
"You said that you could read off of normal cards, too. I have playing cards."
"I can read them, but it's more difficult. And with the cards that do speak to me in such close proximity, it will disturb my focus even further," Lisa explained apologetically.
"Hey, Lisa!" Joey's voice came through the noise of the crowd. "I was wondering if the readings you get from people can change."
"Sometimes," Lisa said. "But it's rare. I can do a reading for you after I've done readings for the people who were here first." Seeing that the deck had been shuffled and placed in front of her, Lisa grabbed the top four cards and placed them face down. Grabbing the one on the left, she flipped it over, though she looked slightly distracted as she did so.
"Reinforcements. It means that you defend those close to you and count on them to defend you in turn." Flipping over the card next to it, she shook her head and resumed her reading.
"Castle Walls. You keep everything personal close to you and dislike letting anyone in." She flipped over the next card, shaking her head as if to clear it.
"I'm sorry, can everyone with duel cards please back off? All of these cards in such close proximity is making it extremely hard to focus on any one card."
"You were fine in that tent, and there were more cards than there are now," someone protested.
"The other cards were far enough away that I couldn't hear them when I tapped into my abilities," Lisa explained.
"You weren't hearing anything a minute ago," a different student said.
"I wasn't doing a reading a minute ago. I can only hear cards, with the exception of my own, when I'm tapped into my psychic abilities. Now can everyone please back up? I'm getting a migraine." Once everyone had backed off she looked at the card she had revealed a moment ago.
"Divine Dragon Ragnarok," she paused, looking thoughtful. "One of my rare glimpses into the future. It wasn't clear, but you have a great purpose in your future. The same way that this card's element is light, you will be a light to someone." She flipped over the last card and smiled.
"The Sixth Samurai – Zanji. Alone it tells me little, but cards rarely speak to me by themselves but in tandem with the other cards of the reading. When read alongside the Divine Dragon, the Samurai tells me that, as a Samurai defended his leader with all of his power, you will guide and be a light and protector to someone in your future." Returning the boy's cards, she stood up and walked towards the door, looking slightly ill.
Kaiba thought of stopping her, but since Lisa looked ill he took his seat instead. He would find a time to return his—no her pendant later.
As she was heading towards the door, Lisa stopped and looked at him, before shaking her head in resignation and, seeming to brace herself, walked over.
"I don't have to be psychic to tell that you're ticked at me," she said. "So tell me what it is now and you can stop making my headache worse that much sooner."
"I want to return this," he said simply.
"Sorry," Lisa said. "Ordinarily I allow returns on my pendants. But in the case of the ones I gave you and the others yesterday, it's necessary that you keep it." Seeing his annoyance, she tried a different tactic. "Look, humor me and keep it until the end of the week. If I haven't convinced you by then that you need to keep your pendant, I'll take it back and pay you for your troubles."
"Fine. But only to prove you wrong on everything. I'm not sure how you managed to tell all of that about me, but you've probably taken courses in psychology and were simply reading me."
After a moment's pause Lisa smiled.
"If I were making it all up, how could I know that you've been 'seeing things' as you've chalked it up to?"
"How do you know about that?" Kaiba demanded.
"I promise I'll explain everything at the end of the week," Lisa said. "Until then, bear with me and believe me when I tell you that you weren't imagining things."
"Prove it," Kaiba demanded.
"I can't truly prove anything yet, but this might help," she said, reaching into her pocket and pulling out her deck. Flipping over the top card, she put it in front of him. Kaiba instantly recognized it as the ghostly image he saw behind Lisa after she gave him the pendant.
"Wingweaver, my soul card," Lisa said quietly. "She told me that you saw her after the reading, and believe me I was shocked to hear it."
"Enough. This is some kind of trick, and I'm going to prove it," Kaiba said sharply. Lisa sighed and backed off.
"By the end of the week, everything will make a little more sense. I promise that much." After saying that she left to go to the restroom, hoping that she hadn't ruined everything.
"Kaiba's awakening much faster than I anticipated. I knew the pendant would do this, but it was supposed to be gradual, by this day he was only just supposed to be seeing these things. I just wish I knew if this was a good thing or a bad one."
As she walked into the restroom, she saw the mirror seem to warp. Sighing in annoyance, she walked over to it, waiting for the warping to finish. Instead of her own reflection, she saw a boy with similar features as her own.
"What do you want, Ray? Don't tell me you're still ticked that your kid sister has the psychic ability you wanted and you had to stay at the school."
"Yes, that still irks me, but that's not why I'm here," Ray said. "Anna saw something. She's not telling what, but all she's telling me is that the plan needs accelerating."
"I've already put all the pieces of your plan into play," Lisa said in annoyance. "But I can't accelerate them any more than I already have. Anna's just going to have to wait a week."
"That's not soon enough! We need all of the pieces on your end in two days."
"Not possible. It only happens so quickly and all my charms can do is accelerate things slightly. Tell Anna to be patient. She'll have her pieces in play by the end of the week."
"Despite the fair, you only gave out a handful of the charms out."
"Yes, and I gave out more pendants than I wanted to because of Anna. So tell her to get off my case." Lisa turned away from the mirror, signifying the end of the conversation.
Looking down at her pendant she sighed.
"I hope I didn't make a mistake. I'm sorry, Kaiba."
AN: The cards Lisa flips in her readings are cards that I myself own. I just put a meaning to them that she might get from them.