Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Over the week, the talk of the school was both Lisa and her psychic abilities and the fact that every day Seto Kaiba looked more and more haggard.
"I'm not kidding. The other day I said 'hi' to him and he jumped a foot."
"That's nothing. I asked him about his company and when the next duel disk would come out and he all but screamed at me to get away and not talk about the game."
"Weird. Wonder what's going on with him."
With every rumor Lisa heard she grew more and more concerned about the CEO. Then five days after she gave him the amulet, ironically one day after the time limit she was given to set things in motion, the unbelievable happened. Seto Kaiba, who was known for being perfect at everything, wasn't in school.
"Where's Rich Boy? I've never known him to miss a day of school," Joey asked.
"I don't know," Yugi said, concerned.
"You talking about Kaiba?" The boy Lisa did a reading for on her first day of school asked, walking over. "I heard that the stress of school, raising his brother, dueling, and running a company finally caught up to him and he snapped. Everyone says he's been seeing things and saying crazy stuff all week."
Happening to walk in just then, Lisa barely managed to contain a surprised and horrified yelp, and quickly spun out of the room and took off, not bothering to change her shoes on her way out. She ran as fast as she could until sense caught up to her and she hailed a cab.
When she arrived close to the Kaiba mansion she got out and ran as quickly as she could towards it, simply climbing the gate instead of waiting to be buzzed in. Pounding on the door, she let out a relieved breath when Mokuba answered it.
"Where's your brother? I need to talk to him now, it's an emergency."
"Seto's not feeling well and no one's allowed to see him," Mokuba said, starting to close the door when Lisa forced her way in.
"I need to talk to him now. I think I can help him," she demanded. Reluctantly, Mokuba told her which room was his, watching in surprise as Lisa started running even before he'd finished talking, pausing only long enough to remove her duel deck from her pocket.
"If I'm right about what's wrong, having my deck won't do either of us any good. Watch this for me and don't touch it." Quickly running up the stairs, she quickly opened the door and barged in, not bothering with any etiquette and waiting to be allowed in.
"Get out," Kaiba yelled, looking and sounding as if he was in pain.
Lisa carefully walked towards him, as if approaching a wounded animal, remembering only as a slow afterthought to remove her shoes. Seeing something glint on a side table near the door, she looked over and saw the pendant she had given him almost a week ago.
"So that's why everything's going horribly wrong. He's not wearing the pendant."
"Kaiba, listen to me, you-"
"No!" Kaiba yelled, cutting her off. "Get out. You'll just make everything worse. Every time someone comes near I see more things that shouldn't be there."
"Kaiba, listen to me. You're making the same mistake everyone makes when this happens and fighting this. The more you try and deny what you're seeing, the worse it will be for you. Now let me help you." Taking advantage of the fact that Kaiba, in an out of character move was curled up in a ball in the corner with his eyes closed and face covered, she quietly walked towards him, treading as if on thin ice.
"Walking on thin ice would be easier than this. The pendant accelerated the process that was already happening, but since he stopped wearing it, for whatever reason, he was left to his own devices on coping with it. If only he'd taken my advice and kept it on. We might not be in this position. It was supposed to make what's usually a rocky transition easier for his mind to bear. Especially when it's so closed off to everything that can't be quantified or isn't considered to be logical."
"Stay back!" Kaiba screamed.
"Kaiba, you have to let me help you," Lisa said quietly. Taking a deep breath, she tapped into the psychic plane. For a brief moment the world spun out of focus, and when everything became clear again she saw both the room as it had been a moment ago and also the part of the psychic plane that was open to her, that of duel monsters. Her eyes locked onto the shape of a Blue Eyes White Dragon who, as she already knew it would be, was behind Kaiba, ever the concerned protector.
"Can he hear your voice?"
"Yes, but every time I speak to him it makes things worse," the Blue Eyes answered in an old, and almost gravelly voice.
"But will he listen?"
"He might, but he rarely does. And it tends to make it worse for him. He usually screams at me to be silent."
"How long has he been able to clearly see and speak to you?" Lisa asked.
"He could hear my voice on the third day of you giving him that trinket you hold. He could respond soon after." Lisa nodded in concern and, abandoning her previous idea of asking the dragon to vouch for her and try to convince Kaiba to listen, she continued walking forward, stopping an arm's length away and crouching down.
"Kaiba, I can help you. And I can explain everything, but I need you to calm down for a moment and put on the pendant I gave you. It will help." She doubted he would believe her, but she was mainly talking to give him something to focus on other than the pain of his currently fracturing mind. If she could distract him long enough, she might be able to slip the pendant at least on his person, if not around his neck.
"I saidGET OUT!" Kaiba yelled, looking up and glaring at her. The second he did, Lisa's suspicions were confirmed. Whenever a psychic tapped into the psychic plane, there was a subtle physical sign. Depending on how deeply into the plane the psychic went, his or her eyes would change to a hazel shade and glow slightly, becoming closer to a whitish/silver in color and brightening the deeper the psychic went. To do a reading as she usually did only required sinking the first level into the plane, meaning the difference would be unnoticeable. To see the shadows of the monsters was a second plane skill, a plane that awakening psychics were usually at as they had no control over their gift. The change would be slightly more noticeable, but still something that most people would miss, aided by the fact that Kaiba's blue eyes would make the change even less noticeable. To hear the monsters speak was a third plane state. To be able to clearly see them was something that could only be done on the third plane, and to hear the monsters required the fourth plane. The fifth plane allowed you to respond. At the highest plane, the sixth, a psychic in the plane of duel monsters could tap into the powers of the card or monster he or she was bonded to, the 'soul card' she spoke of when she did a reading for Kaiba, and in some cases merge with it, and to a limited extent tap into the powers of other cards as long as there was some connection between psychic and card. Kaiba's eyes were almost completely silver, the same color she felt her own eyes were. The fifth plane.
"For him to be on the fifth plane almost constantly for three days, counting the day he reached this plane, is worrying. I hope I can save his mind from completely shattering," Lisa thought in concern.
Acting quickly, reflexes heightened by being tapped into the psychic plane, she quickly threw her arm out and put Kaiba's pendant around his neck. In relief, she watched as, slowly, his eyes faded until he was just in the first plane.
"Good. I can read him while he's there," Lisa thought. Despite the difficulty brought on by the distance from her deck, she called on a card in it, Psychic Kappa, and entered the sixth plane, an area of the psychic realm she rarely ventured into for it was the most dangerous. All of the cards in her deck called to her at once, offering her their power. The longer she was there, the greater the risk of her mind being overwhelmed. If it weren't for Wingweaver holding them back, she wouldn't even dare enter this plane.
Tapping into the Kappa's skills to enhance her own, she quickly scanned Kaiba, from the view of a psychic, a thing that was largely considered to be rude and not something she did lightly.
"Damaged but unbroken," Lisa thought with a sigh of relief, thanking the Kappa and releasing their bond and slowly and carefully descending back into the first plane.
"Kaiba, I need you to humor me and imagine yourself being on an elevator. Currently you're on the second floor, but you need to be on the first floor. So I need you to imagine it going down one more floor, and then picturing yourself leaving the elevator entirely." She felt silly explaining it like that, but Kaiba was already drained from being on such a high plane for so long, even the first plane could be too much for him. And imagining an elevator was the easiest explanation for ascending and descending to and from the psychic planes until he was trained enough to go to the level he wanted at will. It was a trick she was taught and it did help.
She patiently watched as Kaiba's eyes completely returned to their normal blue, and watched as he shook with pain, exhaustion, and exertion.
"You promised me an explanation?" He demanded, immediately all buisness.
"In a few minutes, Kaiba," Lisa said. "At the moment you're in no shape to do anything. I know what will help, wait here." She quickly walked down stairs and, after grabbing her deck, found her way to the kitchen.
"Mokuba, good. I managed to help your brother for the most part, but I could use your help in finding a few things I need to help him completely." She quickly listed the things she needed and, after Mokuba hurriedly showed her where everything was and gave her permission to use whatever she needed before rushing to his brother, started making something that was made for her when her psychic abilities awoke and again the first time she lost control and her mind nearly fractured.
Once it was done she headed upstairs and this time knocked on the door, assuming the short-tempered 'What?' was her permission to enter.
"Camomile tea, a sandwich, I could only find turkey, I'm afraid, Excedrin for your headache, and chocolate because it tastes good," she said, putting a plate of food in front of Kaiba and waiting for him to finish eating it. This also bought her time to explain everything to him in a way he'd understand and, hopefully, accept.
Once Kaiba had finished eating he looked at her expectantly and with more than a little impatience. Mokuba stood up to leave, but Lisa shook her head to tell him he could stay. Taking a deep and steadying breath, she said one simple thing.
"Cancel any plans you had for the day, Kaiba. Because we'll be here for a while."
AN: I'm using the American version of Yu-Gi-Oh (AKA, the dubbed anime), but I'm including some elements from the manga and actual Japan, hence the mention of the shoes. Most of you probably know this already, but in Japan there are indoor shoes and outdoor shoes, and it's considered rude to wear your shoes inside someone's house.