Chapter 7 - A trip to the Kaiba Mansion

A trip to the Kaiba Mansion



Kaede ran all the way to the swimming pool near her house, where she worked. As she ran through the door, her boss, who was behind the reception desk, gasped in mock shock at her coming in. `Why, Kaede,' she yelped in fake astonishment. `We thought something awful had happened to you, where have you been?'

`Sorry, Kyoko,' Kaede said quickly, running behind the desk to get her bag. `It won't ever happen again.'

`Let's hope not,' Kyoko said, watching her run into the staff changing rooms. She emerged wearing blue shorts and a red polo shirt with the swimming pool logo on it. Quickly, she checked her timetable and saw to her delight she was overseeing the fun swim. She walked quickly to the staff pool entrance and beside the pool up to the lifeguard chair. She climbed into it and sat down, gazing below her.

As she watched the children on the giant inflatable sea serpent and heard the din of laughter and chat, the lights reflection on the water sent her into a sort of haze, and her ears blocked out the world around her. Images flashed through her mind, her friends at school, her grandparents, her family in Egypt, all of them. She was just imagining Ana's face when she had ripped up her cigarette when another face flashed across her eyes. It was Seto Kaiba, but he wasn't smirking or looking at her evilly, he was laughing and smiling at her. Kaede couldn't quite understand it.

Get out of my head, she thought to herself. Get out and stay out. I don't want you in there, Kaiba.

Suddenly she heard three blasts of the whistle. She was awaken from her trance in a second and looked around. At the bottom of the slide of the Monster Island, in the water, was a little boy, who was waving his arms about and had a look of sheer terror on his face. Kaede leaped of her chair, ran across to the edge of the pool and dived in. She surfaced and swam across to the boy. When she reached him, she put her arm around his waist and swam with him over to the side, where another of the lifeguards, a 19 year old guy called Hitomi, pulled him out of the water and laid him on the ground.

When he was out of the water, the boy began coughing up water and the Hitomi patted him on the back as he did so. Kaede climbed out of the water and went to the changing rooms.

She changed out of her sopping when clothes but by the time she got back to the pool her sift had ended. Wondering how much time she had spent daydreaming, Kaede left the pool, saying goodbye to Kyoko as she went.

Walking in the dark had never really bothered Kaede, so instead of ringing her grandfather to tell him to come and pick her up, she set of down the street.

As she went past a dark alleyway, Kaede looked down it and saw a large gang sitting, smoking in the dark. She didn't want to get caught up in anything, so she walked on quickly. But she heard a shout behind her. `Whoa, slow down there girl, come hang with us.'

Kaede looked around and saw they had begun to follow her. She walked slightly faster, but they quickened their pace as well. She started jogging, but so did they.

They began all shouting out to her, and one of them broke into a run and caught up with her and grabbed her arm. She screamed and spun around and slapped him, but the rest of them had caught up with her and were now trying to drag her back to their alleyway whilst one had taken her bag and was opening it. She screamed again, and suddenly the dark street they were on was flooded with light.

Her attackers turned around and saw two car headlights pointed towards them. They let go of her and ran, and the one who had her bag let that go as well. All of them were running as fast as they could away from there, whilst Kaede dropped to her knees and shock from head to toe.

`Oh my god,' she said to herself. `I was just attacked.' She hadn't thought of it that way when it was happening, but now she felt so afraid.

She heard a car door open and close, then there were footsteps heading in her direction. She stood up and picked up her bag, then turned to meet her saviour.

`Thank you so much, I don't know what you have happened if you hadn't-' she stopped, took in the height, the shape and the clothes of her saviour and wished that the ground would open and swallow her up.

Right in front of her stood Seto Kaiba, his arms folded, looking down with a bewildered but amused look on his face. He was sort of half smirking, but the other half was worry, so Kaede didn't know whether to be grateful or to hit him.

`Um, what are you doing her,' Kaede said after an awkward silence.

`Driving,' Seto said quickly. `And it is a good thing I was too, otherwise who knows what would have happened.'

Kaede shook her head, more to herself than to him and hugged her bag close to her chest. There was another awkward pause, and then she said, `I have to get going, bye,' and began walking off.

`Wait,' Kaiba jogged to catch up with her. `Maybe you shouldn't walk home, it is too dangerous. I could give you a lift.'

`Why would you do that?' Kaede asked, amazed.

`Do I need a reason,' as he said this he nearly laughed, and Kaede nearly smiled. `Come on, I'll take you home, I have to give some things to your grandfather anyway.'

Kaede almost smiled again, then got into the passenger seat of the car. As they drove, Kaiba began hunting through a bag by his feet, and then swore. `Damn, I left it at home.'

`Left what at home?' Kaede wondered out loud. She didn't expect him to answer, and was surprised when he did.

`The documents I was meant to be giving to your grandfather,' Kaiba smacked his forehand with his hand. `I have to go back to the house and get them.'

`Dropping me off first though, right?' Kaede asked, but instead of carrying on in the direction of her house, Kaiba swung the car around and headed in to opposite direction.

`Whoa whoa whoa, stop the car! Stop the car right now!' Kaede shouted. Kaiba stopped and she turned around to face him.

`My home is that way,' she gestured behind them. `I have to get home right now otherwise my grandparents will be worried. We have to go there now.'

`No way,' Kaiba shook his head. `My house is closer at the moment, so we go there first. That way, I will only have to go to your house once.'

`But I need to get home now,' Kaede protested, but her protests fell on deaf ears. Kaiba carried on in the direction of his house, completely ignoring Kaede.

Soon they arrived at the wrought iron gates and Kaede stared down the long driveway to see an HUGE house. No, it wasn't a house; it was as big as a castle.

`You live HERE?' Kaede rounded on Kaiba, who had a weird smug look on his face.

`Yeah, like it?' Kaiba said smugly. He pressed a button in the car and the gates opened up automatically. They drove down the driveway, and when they got to the house Kaede almost choked. It looked even bigger close than it had done from the road, stretching far in both directions.

They got out of the car and Kaede stood, stunned, gazing up at the monstrosity in front of her.

Kaiba walked up the front steps of his home and opened the door. Kaede ran up the steps after him, not wanting to be left alone, preferring to be with him than out in his creepy garden at night.

As they walked along the corridor, from either side servants began to appear. They bowed their heads as Kaiba passed and stared at Kaede as she jogged after him.

Kaiba lead her through the labyrinth of corridors to a well furnished room at the end of one of the corridors. Inside were several bookshelves strewn around the edges of the room, and mini bar covered in bottles of this and that (mostly non-alcoholic) and in one corner was a desk on which sat a computer and a large pile of paper.

Kaede went over to the desk and sat down on the swivel chair. Kaiba stared at her. `Fine, just make yourself right at home.'

`Don't worry Kaiba, I'm never going to get used to this kind of luxury, so let me enjoy it whilst it is there to enjoy,' she said, putting her feet up on his desk and rummaging through the drawers of the desk.

Seto began flicking through a gigantic folder that had been on one of the many bookshelves in the room.

Kaede felt a slight chill of cold air around her and looked around. It was a very well heated room, but one of the doors on the other end was slightly ajar. Kaede went to it and opened it fully, to reveal a young boy with a shock of black hair and around his neck was a locket shaped like a duel monsters card. Kaede had seen him before at the ball. This was Kaiba's little brother Mokuba.

Kaiba turned around and saw Mokuba cowering in the shadows of the doorway. `Mokuba, what are you doing here? It is late, why aren't you asleep?'

`I was wondering where you were big brother,' Mokuba said. He certainty sounded tired, and was wearing pyjamas; blue with white dragons on (Kaiba's favourite duel monsters card, the blue eyes white dragon). `I woke up and you hadn't come home yet. I haven't seen you all day.'

Seto strode over and knelt down next to Mokuba, putting his arm around his little brother's shoulders. Looking at them together, Kaede couldn't help but feel touched, however much she hated Kaiba. He obviously cared so much for Mokuba, even if he was a creep.

`Go to bed, Mokuba,' Kaiba said quietly to Mokuba. `I'll be back as soon as I can; I'm just going to take Miss Mishua home.'

Okay, see you later big brother. Good bye,' he said warily to Kaede. She smiled at him and followed Kaiba out of the room through the door that they had entered by. Kaiba carried the huge folder under his arm, making Kaede wonder just how much of that her grandfather was going to have to examine by the next day. Often her grandfather stayed up late into the night working, not stopping for hours. Sometimes the workload made him sick, but he would never change jobs. Long had he worked for Kaiba Corp, and it was their that his loyalties lay.

She followed Kaiba back to the waiting car, and as they drove to her house she found herself glancing at Kaiba. She seemed to have learnt so much about him in less than a day, but new that to really get to know him, she was going to have to spend more time with him, but that was the last thing she wanted to do.

They arrived at her house and Kaede grabbed her bag and got out of the car. As they walked up to the house together, the lights turned on inside the house and her grandparents came running out to greet them.

`Oh Kaede, we were so worried,' her grandmother grabbed her and hugged her tightly. `Where have you been? We called the pool an hour ago and they said you have left just after your shift ended. What happened to you?'

Her grandmother held her at arms length and looked at her clothes. Her previously pristine shirt had dirt covering it, her trousers had a tear on the back of the thigh and her arms were covered in red marks. `What happened to you?' Her grandmother cried, the pitch of her voice rising.

`It's okay Grandma,' Kaede said quickly. `Nothing happened. Kaiba saved me.'

Her grandmother made a little noise as if she was clearing her throat, and looked at Kaede as if she was angry. `What?' Kaede asked, rising her hands to protect herself. `What have I done now?'

`Kaede, it isn't nice to call people by their last name,' he grandmother hissed at her.

`Oh come on, it isn't like-' Kaede began but the look on her grandmother's face stopped her.

`Thank you so much, Mr Kaiba,' her grandfather said, shaking Kaiba's hand. `If you hadn't found her Lord knows what would have happened.'

`That's quite alright,' Kaiba said, as if he were a saint. `I'm just glad nothing bad happened to her.'

Kaede looked at Kaiba astounded. Surely he didn't mean that. But perhaps he was just saying it because he was in front of her grandparents. That would explain a lot of things.

`Well, this is for you,' he handed Kaede's grandfather the folder, which had been under his arm the whole time. `Just look over it, there are quite a few things concerning the new Kaiba Corp project. Bring it to the board meeting in two days time. I hope you will have had enough time to study the contents by then.'

Kaede was dumbfounded. Usually Kaiba gave her grandfather a folder twice that size and told him to read it and know exactly what it contained but the next morning without fail. Her grandfather looked puzzled as well, but relieved.

`Thank you again, Mr Kaiba, for taking care of our granddaughter. I assure you that your kindness won't be forgotten.'

`Please, say nothing of it,' Kaiba said, before turning to walk away. Then he stopped and turned around to face Kaede.

`Maybe, there is one small thing she can do for me,' Kaiba smirked. Kaede gulped. If she knew Kaiba, this wasn't going to be pleasant.

`What is that, Kaiba?' Kaede folder her arms across her chest as he walked back to her. He bent down and whispered in her ear, `Another duel like last night.'

Kaede pushed him away from her and half-ran back to her house. She heard her grandparents asking Kaiba what he had said, but she blocked out his answer. No doubt it would be a lie.

She stuffed her wet life guard's uniform into the washer and ran upstairs. She quickly got changed for bed and jumped under the duvet before her grandparents could grill her about what Kaiba had said. She switched off the light and breathed in the smell of her newly changed sheets. Her grandmother must have noticed the tear stains on the ones that were on the night before, and Kaede was grateful. She rolled over onto her stomach and closed her eyes.

She couldn't remember the next day, but her last thoughts before she fell asleep, were of Seto Kaiba.

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