Yami went to the playroom but was disappointed when neither kid was there. He didn't think they'd still be in school but decided to check it out. He found Maura there with Samantha. She was trying to teach her whom she should and shouldn't bow to. The rest of the time was spent talking.

Yami walked in. "Hi, Maura. What's going on?"

"Hi, Yami. Samantha was helping me, by trying to teach me to loosen up and to try to be a kid."

"I see."

Samantha walked over. "Seto had said that you wanted to break her bowing to everyone and that you wanted little Mokuba to learn what she knows. I volunteered to help. I thought Maura could teach Mokuba what she knows and that for now at least that should be enough till he's older. I know how scared Seto is of hiring someone, because of what's happened in the past."

"Oh, well I can see Maura here, likes you. I guess then it wouldn't hurt to try this for a while. If you want to continue this Maura."

"I do, Samantha is really nice and patient."

"Yes, and it seems your little one here is very smart, she's two grades above where she should be."

"That's great. How's Mokuba doing?"

"It's coming along slowly, but he really is a fast learner. I know he's upset that he's not where he should be but I keep telling him he has to be more patient and he'll get there."

Yami sighed. "I guess knowing Maura's not only above him but way ahead doesn't help matters any does it?"

"No, I'm afraid it doesn't do much for his confidence. I know, I can tell he's working hard, he wants to learn, he's upset that he's not catching up faster. One of us has to explain and try to make him understand the difference."

"What difference?" Maura asked.

"It's not important right now, Maura. I'll explain it to you some other time. Now you wait outside." Yami said, pushing her out the door and closing it.

'Why? Why can't he explain it now?' Maura wondered.

"Master Atemu, you really should explain to her the difference, that she had schooling and Mokuba didn't."

"No, not now. I want them to learn to get along. I don't want her to know his past just yet. I want her to learn to like him for him. I don't want her to like him or get along with him because she feels sorry for him."

"I don't know, I just think that this is going to end up hurting their relationship more than it would help. I think once she understands Mokuba better, understands why he doesn't know as much as she does, I just think it'd be better."

"I'll take it under advisement. But for now, you are to tell her nothing that you know of Mokuba's past."

Samantha didn't like it, but agreed. Her relationship with Seto might just give Yami cause to fire her as the teacher if she were to tell Maura against his wishes. So, as much as she despised his attitude and careless disregard for someone else's opinion on what could help the two kids' get along better, she had reluctantly agreed not to tell. She even had a feeling that if Maura did understand what was truly wrong with Mokuba that it would help and maybe she could help him with his reading. This way they could maybe get to know each other better and maybe Mokuba wouldn't feel quite so bad about her being more advanced than he is. She wanted to tell him this to help him understand why she feels Maura should know, but the look in his eyes told her that obviously he didn't care. She was already afraid that Maura probably thought of Mokuba as stupid for being so far behind in learning. But then you take someone like her that hasn't seen the harsh realities that Mokuba saw they wouldn't understand or relate without some form of knowledge. Someone who, well like Maura, her stepmother was an evil person and did occasionally beat on her; however it was far from anything that Mokuba suffered. Maura would probably be a lot more understanding and helpful if she knew the truth. Now people who did know would see her basically making fun of him and would be upset, of course she wouldn't understand why they were so mad since she had no way of understanding.

x-x-x-x-x-x-xx-x-x-x-x-x

Meanwhile Leichter was meeting up with the other two big five members.

"So how did it go?" Crump asked.

"Did you tell their little hit man where to get off?" Gansley asked.

"No, as a matter of fact I made a deal with them." Leichter said.

"You what!" The others said at the same time.

"For your information the hit man is a hit woman." Leichter said.

"A woman? Are you mad?" Crump asked.

"Why not? We hired two men and even tried ourselves to get rid of that brat. It always works for a short time. Then here that brat comes again."

"Just what are we supposed to pay them?" Gansley asked.

"I say not one dime! As you said everyone else has failed, what makes them so great that you feel they will succeed, where everyone else has failed?" Crump asked.

"I explained this to them, their only interest was in the girl." Leichter said.

"Who cares about the girl, the moment that boy is gone it wouldn't take much to find a way to either get the king to willingly give us the throne or kill him." Gansley said.

"What exactly did you tell them?" Crump asked.

"I told them of our little dilemma with the boy, they offered to take care of the problem for us. All we have to do is give them the chance to kill both kids!" Leichter said.

"And payment?" Gansley asked.

"I told them that once the job's done then we could discuss payment. Since her main mission is to kill the girl and the boy would only be secondary I figured that since they were asking us to stick out our necks in order to help accomplish this, I figured the second half of the payment we were holding for the last one, should be enough to satisfy them." Leichter said.

"And if it's not?" Crump asked.

"Well then, that would be their problem not ours wouldn't it." Leichter said.

x-x-x-x-x-x-xx-x-x-x-x-x

Mokuba ran to the barn and saw Ryo sitting on a bench resting. He walked over and threw his arms around his neck.

Ryo was a touch startled but seeing the long black hair, he rubbed the boy's arms. "What's up, kiddo? Don't you have speech class today?"

Mokuba sat up, "N-no that's tomorrow."

"Oh." Ryo said a little disappointed. He'd wanted the rest of the day to train.

Mokuba however was smarter than Ryo sometimes gave him credit for and quickly realized Ryo was busy and didn't want him around. He'd caught it other times too but since Ryo always gave him a job or mission to do he'd never minded before. He quickly withdrew his arms and started to walk away.

Feeling the boy pull away, he looked up to see him leaving and started cursing under his breath. He knew better than that. He knew that if he started to ignore him, that he would lose the boy's trust and the kid would never have anyone to go to when he felt bad. Though there were times like this, Ryo wanted to be away from him so that he could focus on his training. He also loved the boy and didn't like it when he was upset. He got up, walked over, grabbed the boy's arm and pulled him over behind a small shed so that they could talk without the prying eyes of the others listening in on their conversation and so that they could hear over the noise of training. Then he bent down next to him, "I'm sorry, Mokuba. I was just trying to concentrate on my training. I didn't mean to hurt your feelings."

Mokuba sniffed and rubbed his eyes, "I-It's okay b-big b-brother." He said in a teary voice, making Ryo's heart shatter.

"What was it you wanted?"

Mokuba sighed; his heart wasn't in it anymore knowing Ryo obviously would rather be training than to be with him right now. He just shook his head, "I-It's n-not im-p-por-t-tant."

Ryo growled slightly, 'Great, his stuttering is worse when he is trying to show he's not upset.' As much as he wanted to go back to training, it wasn't going to happen now. There'd be no way he could concentrate on it if he knew Mokuba was upset. So, even though Mokuba protested by trying to back away Ryo pulled him into a tight hug and picked him up. He decided the best thing to do now was to read to him and get him calm then if he was still awake which he doubted he'd get him to tell him what it was he wanted before he upset him.

Ryo was right Mokuba had fallen asleep by the time he finished the story. He had just closed the door to the boy's room when he ran into Bakura.

"Bakura what are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same question."

"Why?"

"I was told you were seen coming up here with Master Mokuba. I found it strange since I thought you'd be in town."

Ryo was confused, "Why would I be in town?"

Bakura then explained everything that happened between him and Seto and what Mokuba went to him for. Needless to say, this only upset Ryo more, knowing why the kid was so upset that he ignored him.