Disclaimer: I own nothing.
As Tom and Kaiba sat in silence during the teaching process, Lisa, having heard other telepaths complain about headaches after a telepathic teaching, had the foresight to grab a bottle of pain killers and two glasses of water and set it down next to them. Having done that, she grabbed a book and sat down to read.
An hour later, a grateful Kaiba and Tom took the pills and ate the food, the telepathic session finally over.
"I've done what I can. The rest I believe you can explain better than I can. Primary planes being the same might make it easier for you," Tom said. The telepathic undercurrent that he had slipped in expressing shock at how Kaiba could still be a skeptic after talking to someone, and being responded to, completely between minds. Seeing that Kaiba wasn't looking, Lisa rolled her eyes and shot back 'Welcome to my world.'
Tom quickly summarized everything that he hadn't been able to explain, and then wished her luck, teleporting out. Lisa quickly smothered a smirk at the knowledge that Tom specifically waited to teleport until he knew Kaiba was looking. They were both trying to prove, to the best of their abilities, that what they were talking about was real.
"Feel free to try and discover how we might have hoaxed that, Kaiba," Lisa said. "Particularly when it started when you were far away from this building." In response, Kaiba glared.
"I still haven't seen any proof of any of this madness," he answered. But Lisa noticed that he didn't sound as convinced as usual. She suspected his absolute refusal to accept this was something akin to fear. He didn't know what was going on, so he was clinging to normalcy as much as possible. She could understand that. Even after her famously fractured awakening, it took her a couple of months before she was willing to even look at a card, much less try and let it speak to her.
"I really wish I had the luxury of a few months to let him adjust," she thought regretfully. "I've thrown a lot at him and haven't really given him time to cope with it."
"Walk with me, Kaiba," she said, standing up. "I think for today, you've had enough of me trying to shove this down your throat. So if you'll allow me just one more demonstration, and by the end of it, you're not convinced, I promise you won't hear from me again until next week. She was gambling quite a bit, especially because with every day that passed, she could feel the veil weakening. But she also knew that she needed to prove things to Kaiba, and let him come to terms with what was happening.
They walked for several blocks, and then Kaiba saw what it was Lisa wanted to show him. There was another "psychic" trying the same scam that Lisa was using. The difference was, he was obviously going over the top.
"Kaiba, what I'm about to do is both immoral and unethical. It will also be a lot of fun," Lisa said, walking over to the boy.
"Ah! Lisa! My competitor. Come for a reading from a real psychic?"
"When you see a real psychic, let me know," Lisa said. "But actually, I thought we'd have a psychic duel. Since we're both convinced the other one is a sham, whoever wins will claim the other's business." Kaiba looked at her shocked. He knew that that business was all Lisa had. She must have been completely assured of her victory to gamble for such high stakes.
"Agreed," the boy, who's name was Aaron, said, standing up.
"Well, at my school, psychic duels had a very set form. We read each other's decks by holding them, let the other person shuffle, shuffle our own decks, and then, just to make sure that neither of us are cheating, let a person from the crowd shuffle our decks. How did it work at your school?"
"I wasn't trained. My talent is so great, that everything came naturally to me. So we'll go with your... school's method." Lisa was impressed. He did contempt for anything other than 'natural talent' perfectly.
Having agreed on the style of the way the duel started, they exchanged decks, both holding them for about half a minute, before rapidly shuffling, then returning the other's decks to them. Then a person chosen at random by a passerby shuffled their decks. Then they put their decks in their duel disks.
"Before we start, we're both sticking with the fourth plane, right? But, being the challenger, etiquette demands that you choose the plane."
"A schoolgirl like you is no match for my talent. So we'll stick with the lowest plane," Aaron said haughtily.
"Fourth it is, then. By the way, nice magic deck. I'm impressed. Though not so much by your sixth card. You might want to use your fourth card, Reload to get a new hand. None of your first six cards are going to be of any use except that one. What do you think of my hand?" The people watching were confused, as all of this had been said before either of them had drawn a single card. And everyone had watched closely. Lisa hadn't seen a single one of Aaron's cards.
"I never read before a card has been drawn. It's a courtesy, you see," Aaron said. Though he wasn't able to hide his shock at the fact that Lisa was dead on. Every card he'd drawn was useless, the sixth card especially. And his fourth card was, in fact, Reload.
As he reshuffled, Lisa had a distant look in her eyes, as if she was, in fact, listening to someone else speak.
"Ooh, bad luck, that. Your next hand is going to be even worse than what you've currently got, from the way you're shuffling."
"Shut up! Your tactic to psyche me out isn't going to work," Aaron spat. Though he was even more shocked when, again, Lisa was right. This was the second time she'd seemed to know his cards... before he'd drawn them. He couldn't figure it out. She couldn't be cheating because she was calling his hand before he'd drawn it. Except... except for that one lucky guess, she hadn't mentioned any card names. Just whether or not the hand would be any good.
"A real psychic would be able to do more than your pathetic attempts to psyche me out," Aaron spat, laying a card face-down in the magic and trap zone. But no more. This card will be the one that brings your defeat."
"On the contrary, all Emperor's Holiday does is make us unable to use equipment spells," Lisa said. "Personally, it won't hurt me much. I don't have that many equipment spells. Though considering the amount that you have, I'm surprised you're putting it down. Heck, I'm surprised you own it seeing as almost all of your magic cards are Equipment spells. Unless... you were trying to psyche me out. Did you not get a good enough read when you handled my deck?" Aaron was shocked. At Lisa's insistence, they had arranged themselves in blind spots so that no one could read their hands and so enable the other to cheat. There was no way she could have seen the card he'd laid down.
"All right! You win! I'm not really psychic!" Lisa sighed sadly.
"I don't like having to humiliate people, believe it or not," she said quietly. "But I dislike people taking my beautiful gift and perverting it as a way to make money even more."
"You're lying! If you hadn't wanted to humiliate me, you wouldn't have done this in front of everyone!"
"If I had wanted to humiliate you, I would have done this in front of more people, with the stakes being that we could not surrender. And then I would proceed to read your entire deck, from top to bottom, even going so far as to tell you what your strategy would be and how I'd counter it. That is how some of my classmates have humiliated frauds like yourself. But in case you forgot, I didn't draw or play a single card. I proved my point, and now I'm going to let you walk away with some modicum of pride left. You can even keep your business, though I doubt anyone will come to you for a reading."
"Impressive," Kaiba said as she walked back to where he was standing out of sight of everyone else. "I'm not sure how you did it, but I doubt it was your so-called 'gift.' You've convinced me of nothing."
"Very well," Lisa sighed. "I'm a person of my word. You won't hear from me for a week. You probably wouldn't have anyway. You're not strong enough to help me with what I'm going to be doing." That said, she walked away, sighing in regret. She could have used his help, if nothing else as a buffer. Someone to loan energy to when hers lowered too far.
Reaching into her pocket, she grabbed the first card there, knowing even before she did so what it would be.
"Wingweaver, my friend," she said, slipping into the fifth plane, resisting the temptation to go to the sixth and enjoy a more tangible connection with her soul-card, "we're about to face our toughest challenge yet. And we're having to do it alone."