Le Mort d' Shounen

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Minato blinked. Wait, Kisara? Hadn't he run into a girl who looked like her at the store before? "Did you say Kisara? I saw a girl at the store who looked like she could be Kisara. She said her name was Shiroi Kisa."

"Oh yeah, when we took you and Teddie there to look for jobs, I remember her," Kanji remembered. "She sounded like she really liked that Kaiba guy. Can't imagine why..."

"...I've run into her before," Souji said, suddenly remembering. "More than once, too. First time was after I thought I threw off my other self, and most of the others were at the coffee shop. I helped her confront Kaiba once." And made an ass of myself in the process, he added in his head. "She carries around a Blue Eyes card, too."

"...A girl who looks like Kisara, likes Kaiba, and has a Blue Eyes card?" Atsuro said to himself. "That's way too much to be mere coincidence."

[mugenginga]

There was a long pause as the group recounted the tales of running into Kisa. Atem's right hand was twitching, it looked like he was trying not to facepalm. Yuugi, Jounouchi, and Honda all looked at each other. They remembered that girl from Atem's memory world, and so would Anzu once she got back. Atem took in a deep breath and spoke rather deliberately.

"No one considered this important to say at any point?" Atem looked at Minato, "Minato-kun, you recognized her from that anime you keep mentioning, right? And you knew she had a connection to Kaiba...?"

"Atem, everyone was really busy with the coming Fall then, right? Anyways, I don't think they exchanged notes..."

Atem sighed and then seemed to remember something, "....wait, I remember back shortly after he arrived. Kaiba couldn't summon his Blue Eyes, White Dragon. Given the evidence, Atsuro is right. This may be a bigger issue than we realized."

[Firebreath Fishslap]

"It slipped my mind," Minato said. "I was concerned with..." He glanced toward Ryoji for a moment. "...other things at the time."

"He couldn't summon his Blue Eyes?" Atsuro asked. "...Ka are spirits, and you've been summoning them using the cards. If she's who we think she is, I think summoning Blue Eyes would have killed her."

Souji nodded. He'd come upon that idea of her being related to Blue Eyes when he'd come across her collapsed in front of Chill Out Coffee that one time.

"...This is definitely going to be a problem," Atsuro said. "What should we do?"

[mugenginga]

Ryoji gave Minato a puzzled look as he looked at him. It turned to a confused smile before he looked at the group. Atem looked up as Atsuro talked and nodded.

"It's tied to life force, or Ba. The Millenium Items can allow the Ba to stretch far further. What it comes down to is that if someone tried to summon someone else's Ba, it would be the equivalent of ripping out their life..." Atem looked confused, "But I'm concerned he couldn't do it. If Kisara has been reborn, I'm puzzled about the times when Blue Eyes reacted as more than a simple hologram in the past. Puzzled and worried."

Everyone was paying attention at this point, "Back in the early days of the Puzzle being solved, I ran a Dark Game with Kaiba where we came out at a draw. This Dark Game functioned far closer to the original Ka via the power of the Puzzle. He got a lucky draw, but Blue Eyes refused to attack out of attachment to Jiichan. After Death-T and the resulting coma, Kaiba seemed to get his issues under control. Blue Eyes began to react negatively to anything that wasn't in Kaiba's interests."

Atem shook his head, "The fact that it isn't working now, if Kisara has been around in a form other than Blue Eyes, greatly concerns me. It might mean we have more to worry about with Kaiba then I initially realized."

Honda's eyes widened, "Mokuba! Yuugi, didn't he give you a worried look when Kaiba refused to take the Items?"

Yuugi shook his head, "I refuse to accept Kaiba-kun would have fallen back into that! There has to be another explanation!"

"I'm ba... what's wrong...?" Anzu said. She was holding two to-go boxes.

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Atsuro said nothing through Atem's explanation. He gave a nod as Atem said that they might have something to worry about with Kaiba.

"Yuugi, I'm not seeing any other explanation," Atsuro said. "I mean, it could be blamed on the fact that there was a whole dimension separating Blue Eyes and him before, but I'm thinking that's not the case here."

Souji turned toward Anzu as she walked up again. "There's a possibility Kaiba's up to something again."

"There's a girl on the island we believe is the reincarnation of Kisara, and that Kaiba's Blue Eyes is possibly acting up again because of something he's doing," Naoto added.

[mugenginga]

Yuugi gave a small frown at Atsuro's comment. That Kaiba would have killed them out of spite, that Kaiba tried to kill them out of spite. Anzu's eyes widened as Souji explained the situation, but she looked at Naoto with confusion. Jounouchi noted it and spoke up in response.

"Kisara's apparently the name of that white haired girl from Ancient Egypt," Jounouchi said.

"She's been reincarnated too?!"

"Anzu-chan, mind giving us the boxes?" Ryoji said.

"Oh, sorry!" She handed the boxes over to Ryoji and Minato before pulling out a black leather folder from a pocket in her uniform. She set it on the table, "That's the bill, guys. I've still got fifteen minutes left on my shift. You have to tell me more about what's going on next time we run into each other!"

"Hey, does anybody even know where Kaiba's staying now?" Honda asked.

There was a pause. A pause when everyone realized they didn't know. Atem looked at Yuugi and then at the group at large again.

"No, oddly enough he didn't deign to forward the information to me or Partner. If he's been involved in business, it's understandable, but that leaves our hands tied. Knowing Kaiba, he wouldn't have moved anywhere but up..." Atem shook his head, "We can only hope he'll come out of the woodwork and that we're not wrong in assuming he has a connection to what has happened with the cards."

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Minato nodded, and then got to work scooping his food into one box, letting Ryoji take care of the other.

Atsuro took a quick look at the bill, and suddenly became glad he wasn't paying. Even for how much business this place got, that was still a pretty high price, at least compared to the meager amounts Atsuro had been paying for his meals since coming to the island. Though, the fact he didn't eat much probably had something to do with that.

At the very least, the conversation (and meal) was definitely over.