My mind drifted with the parts of the past and present. Rain pounding against my skin...wolves howling inside my thoughts....Gunshots.....My discussion with Gramps about my bracelet.
I looked at the golden eye gleaming at me from the bracelet. "What if someone else was wearing the bracelet before me?"
If someone before you had worn that bracelet; they have no hope of returning to a normal life. A piece of that wolf spirit will become angry; even evil. That piece of darkness will attach to that person forever and then the wolf will instantly go find their true person. In their own way it's a defense mechanism; they are helpless if no one is wearing them. Is that how you became one with the wolf? It's a she-wolf right—that's how it usually goes?"
"Yes; it's what started everything. My new world because she found me; my old world basically ditched...so yeah, basically everything. So whether or not I like this I'm in this till the end." I stated irritated. His looked at me with some remorse; and he placed his hand on my shoulder.
"It will be hard and you will have moments when you feel like the world does not want you to succeed; but you are our only one to do this. Not me, not even my son will be able to face what's ahead alone; Hope Young. Remember...you as a person cannot accomplish this feat alone; but as a wolf it can be done...
I woke heavily in the night, my hair fallen over my face. Where was I? I gasped as I raised my head too fast. I wasn't dead...but how? I was bleeding in the alleyway and everything....
A soft purr made my eyes flick to a soft pair of amber eyes locked on me. I was on something soft and comfortable. I gently raised my head from a pillow. I let my hands feel gently around for a light. I gripped the handle of a lamp as I flipped it on.
I was on a soft couch with a small kitten lying in my lap. My god...was I going freakin' insane, how did I end up from there to here? All my wounds were healed; the effect of dueling must have worn off. I sat the black kitten gently on the table next to the lamp as I stood up.
My body wavered immediately as my legs shuddered with effort and I ended up sitting back down as I felt the blood rush out of my head. I fell back onto the couch in exhaustion. That was too painful to have been a hallucination. I had been unconscious all day then? I wondered, asking the wolf spirit in my mind but was rewarded no answer.
I guess it didn't matter how long I had been out, at least I had survived...
I had greater desire except to figure out where I was, but it was the middle of the night, there was a good chance whoever found me was sleeping. I was in a living room with a small TV in front of me so in curiosity I flipped it on after searching everywhere on the couch for the remote. The kitten hopped on my lap once more as I watched the TV leaned forward intently to listen—I was too exhausted to go using my powers.
"In latest news Seto Kaiba and Yugi Moto were seen declaring a new tournament for any duelist tomorrow morning. Apparently they've been spreading this news about all day since about afternoon." The television screen showed Seto glaring into camera with Yugi standing next to him with his arms crossed and looking away from the camera...lost in thought.
"Our tournament is not for the faint of heart. We are finding the fiercest duelists to take them on!"
The reporter asked a light question, "Any particular duelist you're looking for Seto Kaiba—how about you Yugi Moto—King of Games?"
Yugi turned away; he wasn't much for cameras. Seto stared back into the camera. "They know who they are—and we will find them!"
The TV flipped to commercials—leaving me lost in my own thought. They assumed I was dead...the tournament was for the Oracalcos—Yugi and Seto were going to face them head on. They knew it was the only way they could take on the one who had started all of this—the one who had a piece of darkness attached to them from Entrez. I've seen Entrez's dark side,...I'd hate to see how evil they were.
I was cold. Very cold...the blanket had fell onto the floor as I had sat up. My eyes flicked to my duel disk sitting on the coffee table along with my jacket and my t-shirt that were freshly washed and clean. I was wearing my spaghetti strap tank-top—that's why I was freezing.
A new pair of dark blue jeans were next to them as well. I looked at my pants which were shredded and stained with my blood from the Shifter ripping most of my Lifepoints away.
I patted the cat calmly as I turned to get my clothes on being able to get dressed while sitting on the couch. I had switched pants that fit perfectly.
I went to move for my duel disk and I fell onto the ground. I winced picking myself up of the floor. I could barely hold myself up as I pulled myself onto the couch.
If I couldn't even walk across a room...I wasn't going anywhere. I laid down on the couch in defeat. So much before getting out before anyone noticed me. The kitten curled up next to me with a small yawn and dozed off.
I woke the next morning. My eyes fluttered opened lightly as I stared up at the white ceiling.
"Are you feeling better?" a soft innocent voice said. In pain I sat up, my brown hair falling lightly several inches below my shoulder which ached in pain from smashing into the trash can. I heard soft patting in front of me. It was a small child who was gently petting the kitten. She had soft purple eyes and light pink hair that was a pixie cut. She stared at me curiously.
"You think after a while you'd get used to it." I whispered softly.
"Used to what?" She questioned as the cat hopped off the nightstand next to me.
The pain—but it seems to get worse and worse. It gets harder to not go insane with it. You get a large cut and you think you can handle this...but then you have a broken arm and it feels much worse. You thought you could barely handle one thing—but then you're thrown into an even bigger pile to clean up, I thought tiredly. "Hurting from all the fights," I replied, not going into detail.
"Do you need medicine?" I heard a boy ask, he had black hair and half-moon glasses.
"I don't think it would help much." I said, my electric blue eyes flashing unintentionally and catching his purple eyed gaze.
"Whoa," he said staring at them in amazement. He was maybe Mokuba's age--probably younger.
Thinking of Mokuba reminded me of the television last night. "Hey when did they say that they were having a tournament sponsored by Kaiba Corp and Yugi Moto?" I asked standing up and putting on my jacket; placing my duel disk across my wrist. My legs ached and burned, but after sleeping most of the night I knew I was lucky for healing abilities, which only seemed to not work at its fullest during a duel. I knew I was also lucky to at least be alive. I grabbed my shirt from the night before and tossed it in the garbage. It was still stained with my blood—I could still smell it from where I had fallen in my own blood. I'd just wear my black tank top underneath.
"They said it was this morning why? Are you a Duelist?" He asked in awe.
"Something like that—" I said and grabbed my cards and began flipping though them. Now that I had experienced my first shadow duel with someone involving the Vicinity Items; it made sense to duel with them if I had to. I sat back down on the couch flipping though the cards as the little girl plopped next to me.
"Who are you? The little girl asked curiously.
"Who are you?" I asked in return as I heard a door open. I ignored it. My head pounded too much to go and worry about anything.
"Oh, I'm Sean and this is my lil' sis Jane." He said with a smile. He turned around to see a girl about my age walk in with a plate of breakfast with eggs sausage and toast.
"This is Serenity Wheeler—our babysitter. She takes care of us a lot while Mom and Dad are busy at work they get home later this afternoon from a trip." Sean claimed
"You're last name is Wheeler?" I asked. She caught my gaze and held it with her brown eyes. Her eyes looked just like Joey's.
"Are you related to Joey?" I asked
"Yeah he's my brother—why?" Serenity asked and then was astonished as I got up put on my jacket and headed to the door.
"You can't just leave—you're bleeding!" She said. It took an effort to keep myself standing as she reminded me how much blood I lost yesterday. She ran over to me.
"Actually I was bleeding—there's a difference." I said stiffly. "And if you were worried so much last night why didn't you take me to the hospital?" I asked in question.
She shook her head, "I-I don't know, I just had this feeling that it wasn't the right thing to do." She said, "Haven't you ever just did something because you knew you just had to?"
"Yeah," I answered, turning to leave and she grabbed my jacket. She turned pale when she saw the initials KC on it—as if she had seen a ghost. She had to at least know that Kaiba Corp had taken me into their organization. I wasn't sure why she was so appalled by it, perhaps it was because her brother had such a bad relationship with Seto.
"At least stay for breakfast—" She whispered.
"Listen that would be nice, but—" My eyes flicked to the eggs. Oh god, I hadn't eaten since when? A single roll to eat...yesterday?
"Is that sausage?" I said—my stomach rumbling in agony.
She smiled brightly, realizing if I was working for Kaiba Corp—I had a brighter personality than she had thought. "Yes, at least stay for breakfast." It was all too tempting as I gave into the delicious meal.
I thanked her after a second helping. "Thanks for all this—and for finding me. How did you do it anyways?"
"We heard the sound of trash cans outside—we thought it was a dog." Jane answered.
You weren't far off...I thought coolly. I saw the outline of Entrez's spirit wandering around me, I was the only one who could see her. Her transparent figure was pacing anxiously, her eyes locked on me on occasion, she was ready to leave.
"Are you sure you don't want me to change your bandages—?" Serenity asked.
"No, I'll be fine." I said hastily—knowing all my injuries were healed, besides my exhaustion from the previous day. That still hadn't caught up with me; I just didn't know it yet. "Where's the tournament being held?" I asked.
"At Kaiba Corp;" Sean said. I nodded my thanks to him.
"Thank you everyone;" I said and stood up and I turned to leave, then I stopped in my tracks. I had almost forgotten something.
"Serenity—don't let anybody know about me being here." I said and walked out into the hall closing the door behind me without once looking back. "I need to help Yugi and Seto take care of some things and it wouldn't be a good idea for anyone to know I was okay, even them."
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All around Kaiba Corp thousands cheered joyfully. They were calling it the Torture Tournament—since duelers had to try and get to Battle City within 24 hours notice for the tournament.
"Are you sure this will work?" Tristan asked hastily they were all in Kaiba Corp waiting till four o'clock to make their day view; observing the crowds from above.
"Why wouldn't it work?" Joey said placing his own duel disk across his wrist. "We're the best duelist's in this city!" No one had broke it to him that he actually wouldn't be participating in the tournament.
"It may not work because they already got what they came for—" Yugi said quietly, staring out into the sunrise past the glass window.
As this was said, Seto walked angrily across the room and from Yugi. He had said nothing since they got back from spreading the word about the tournament.
He still had his little brother, but he had lost one of the few people he actually cared about.
He felt it was his fault—he shouldn't have gotten caught by the Shifter. Now she was gone—and it was hard to say if the Shifter walked alive or if Hope took down his points before she left.
"They will pay for what she had done just so we could live." Seto said—speaking the first time all day.
Tea nodded slowly. "The only way to bring Hope and Gramps back is to win...we've done it before, Yugi." He nodded calmly.
"Yes, even you've been brought back from the Shadow Realm, Kaiba." The King of Games reminded him.
"I was not bleeding to death when I was sent to the Shadow Realm." Seto said and turned away and walked out of the room.
"Where are you going rich boy?" Joey demanded.
His cold, blue eyes narrowed, "To think, Wheeler;" He said and slammed the door behind him.
"He's taking it harshly—isn't he?" Tea said softly after Mokuba followed his brother.
"He's blaming himself for it—" Tristan observed and Yugi nodded calmly.
"I don't remember much about it..." He began, "but when I wasn't unconscious I seen Kaiba being pinned down with a knife, the Shapeshifter would only let go of him if she dueled him." He looked down guiltily before he continued on.
"She kept the Shifter distracted so we could escape. We heard her scream not much longer after we had left. Kaiba was going to turn back—but I threw him into the wall and told him I wasn't going to have her sacrifice herself just for him to go get us killed. She made us promise to leave."
"He was going to turn back?" Joey said; amazed.
"That's not our usual Kaiba behavior—" Tristan added.
"He must really care..." Tea said and tears began to fill her eyes, "that's so sad; one of the people he actually likes is...is..." She began to cry and she leaned against Yugi for comfort. He was surprised, but he didn't pull back.
"Oh don't be like that, Tea," Joey said and he began to tear up as well. "I—I have something in my eye."
"Me too," Tristan lied looking away. Yugi too wiped his eyes clean with his free hand as he held Tea tighter. His friend and his grandfather was gone, it was up to him and his friends to save the world.
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Seto stood outside on the roof. He stared at his city as the sun gently beat warmth against his face as he remembered when the moon was full and the stars had shined brightly against the sky...
" Can we go up on the roof from here?"
"Yes, why?" Seto asked.
"Because it's so nice outside—don't tell me you spend all of your days in here," The way she had said that confirmed his earlier suspicions about her, she hated being stuck indoors.
He led her to the door where they had walked outside peacefully. Seto stared around at the brick roof where he saw only cement and leaves blown there by the wind. "What is it you find so enchanting here? It's the roof."
"Not what's on the roof Seto—what's above it." Hope said; then awed the sky. The world was glazed in stars, and the moon a giant sphere upon the world. He remembered talking to her about the lights...but that had really faded.
"I'm sorry for calling you Seto all the time, I didn't know you preferred being called Kaiba."
"That's alright," He said.
"So I can keep calling you Seto?"
Not many people called him that in all honesty. He felt Kaiba was more of an intimidation name, but with this girl, he had respected her. She had taken on two thugs with not even a gun. Granted she had torn them to shreds with a type of power he had never seen before. It impressed him, and if anyone should not be intimidated by Seto Kaiba, it was her.
"Go for it." He said, pretending not to care, "You've saved my brother so I think you're allowed some privileges."
He had realized how cold he sounded when he had said it, but she pretended not to notice. It was odd...she was acting so normal. Like an average person. To that note she had hugged him and he had not known what to do. He hugged her back, that's what you usually did when you received a hug right?
She went to pull away but then her body began to shake, her eyes closing. He held her before she dropped to one knee, shuddering like she had moments before. He remembered how suddenly his feelings had come towards her—and yet they were so strong.
He didn't know why, but Seto didn't want this girl, this wolf to fall. She had pushed herself to her limits, and he didn't know why, but it made him smile to know even she had limits. "Looks like you're not getting to bed on your own," he had replied and hefted her up into his arms.
He shouldn't have left her side the next morning, he had left early to go get his stitches tended to...Then she wouldn't have overslept and ran off to find Yugi when she found out he was attempting to find Oracalcos by himself.
Mokuba opened the door and walked out next to his brother.
"Are you going to be okay, Seto?" He asked. Kaiba shook his head, "I don't know Mokuba—not yet."
"I think she won;" Mokuba said. Seto turned away.
You didn't hear the screams, he thought to himself. The only chance Kaiba had of getting her back, getting to know her, was to finish this. It was up to him.
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