The morning was annoyingly bright and completely dissonant with the inner state of three people that approached History classroom in united stride. From their faces it showed that the last few days had been spent without proper sleep. Mira Night's eyes were unusually dark and tired and even the emergency make-up couldn't shade down the weariness, but she had collected herself enough to attend school. Bakura had his clothes rumpled and a cold mask on his face, eyes showing threatening darkness. However his inner violence was not outwardly pronounced and for a casual onlooker nothing would look amiss about him. The worst for wear was Malik Ishtar though. He looked like gone through hell and back, his communication with the other two confining itself with mumbled monosyllabic words.
They had skipped the last two days and now many curious eyes closely followed their appearance. There was no such person that hadn't heard about the psychology lesson the twelfth B had gone through and whispers fled through corridors like startled bumblebees. Ryou was not with them and that made everyone wonder. Apparently no one had heard the latest news yet.
"What's the frickin' problem with everyone?" Mira slouched against a wall opposite the classroom door and closed her eyes with a tormented sigh. The attention was too pronounced like they'd be strange animals in zoo or something.
"Ignore 'em," Bakura muttered under his breath, leaning next to her and sent a dark glare all over the place. Bastard Touzoku-oh was wandering hell knows where and in a way the darker of Britons felt relieved. Mira with her analytic business mind had taken over everything that mattered the burial and for that he was grateful, in a way. Her calmness and self-control was worth admiration and she never got too touchy-feely discussing coffins, ceremonies and whatever else was needed in such situations. She just got over it in stoic peace.
The bell went off right above their heads with volume few decibels too high to be legal, but no one ever complained, anyway. The teacher was late as per usual, and Mira sent a disdainful glance over everyone gathered except Kaiba. Reaching him, her gaze faltered for a second and then darted away, skipping the rest and concentrating on the nearest imperfection on the white door. The teacher, an elderly lady, was half an hour late and the class got seventeen pages to write down the explicit summary about the theme World War II, and everyone thanked the bell for going off.
"Night."
Mira turned in her seat to glance at Bakura. Currently they were in Physics and she was trying to force her tired brains to solve a seemingly simple problem about the line of least resistance, which was proving to be trickier than it appeared. Not for Seto Kaiba, though, she noted with certain annoyance.
"Did you get it?"
She instantly knew that he wasn't talking about the physics problem.
"Yes. In the free period, northern stairs."
"Mira. What's the result?" suddenly came the teacher's harsh voice.
The dark-haired girl cursed inwardly. She'd forgotten that this teacher was taking her lessons seriously and allowed no chats when they worked and if you got caught, you could get called to solve some complex problem on the blackboard, which was dark green in this room.
"Er, 36?"
"35,78," Kaiba corrected her coldly.
Mira stared at the back of his head in disbelief. Hell, she'd just made the result out of the blue and in some way it'd matched? Well now. The odds of that! And damned she'd be if she weren't going to use it. "I approximated it, Kaiba. Or wasn't that obvious?"
"You don't approximate in physics, because it's an exact science," he turned to glance at her with badly masked disdain. "Or didn't you know that?"
"Science my ass," she silently hissed back and turned to her notebook, pretending to solve the next problem. Now that she knew the result it was a piece of cake to solve the task in reverse and get the correct process of calculation in case the teacher got the insurmountable wish to send her to the blackboard.
Next in line was a double free period and the class scattered throughout the building. When Malik reached the northern stairs, the other two were already there. Mira looked half-asleep in that uncomfortable pose she was sitting in, but Bakura didn't show any signs of being tired. It was their personal spot on the last floor in the alcove beneath the staircase, closed for students because it was full of dust and old broken frames, torn books and damaged chairs. No one ever came there save for the terror team and they had turned it in their little breakaway spot.
"Finally," the Briton growled. "What took you so damn long?"
"Teacher wanted to check my work," the Egyptian snorted, tossing his backpack in a corner. He dropped on a broken bench opposite Mira, who didn't show any signs of having noticed his appearance.
"Where's Marik?"
Malik shrugged. "What's with her?"
Bakura glanced at the girl whose head was resting on a backpack, her long hair brushing against the dusty ground. "Finally getting some sleep."
Fifteen minutes later Marik came. He wasn't looking very pleased with something. "So you finally show up."
"You've never been Mr Sunshine, but this hits the border," Malik noted with a tiny snort, dark amethysts blazing towards him like killer bees.
"Had some unlimited fun, I bet," the darker of Egyptians ranted on, his hair perking up wilder from the holy anger within him.
Before anyone could answer, Mira did it without even raising her head from the backpack and that made the words slightly mulled what with all the tiredness in her voice. "Unless you call fun watching Ryou die."
Deafening silence. It was so quiet that water could be heard running through pipes.
She'd done it.
She'd stated it out loud, made it true. Neither Malik nor Bakura had dared to voice it out before, fearing that it would change something although everything had already changed at the moment Ryou's body had lost contact with the bridge.
"Is this a joke?"
Mira Night raised her head to glance at him.
"Ryou... died?"
No one said a word. This fact had just been made real. Irreversible. They'd been to the morgue to identify him and even then it hadn't seemed true - the atmosphere in that sterile and gloomy death-stinking place had been somewhat surreal. Nothing but a mirage. But now, at this moment it had been finally embodied.
"The burial's next Saturday," she spoke in an empty, dry voice. "There will be no speech saying in the ceremony. Ryou doesn't need such theatrics where people, who never even knew him, come to say something overly good about him without meaning it."
Malik gave an approving nod. In his homeland there were no such tradition. No one ever turned something as personal and intimate as burial in a spectacle, but Bakura was almost ready to flame about it and Mira noticed it.
"Don't tell me you're ready to live through all the crap some hypocrites will spill!" she was damn ready for a fight.
"Ryou deserves it."
"Bakura," intense, but tired eyes bore into him. "Ryou doesn't need cheap theatrics and hypocrisy. No one really knew him so spare it. Instead it will be a simple and short ceremony without miles long and worthless rants about nothing. And that's my final word."
Malik stepped in, reasoning with the both of them that this was a very silly thing to fight about, plus, it hadn't even been the reason why they'd gathered. And it helped. The lighter Ishtar had become a borderline between Bakura and Mira's strifes, capable to put out any and every argument that was about to go off. Right now he brought some elementary discipline among themwhile they discussed the true reasons for gathering.
"We can sue her," Mira assured. "I did a bit of research and none of the cards mean what she said. Hence it could be considered either an attempted murder or propelling for a suicide, or whatever do you call it in lawyer terminology."
"Are you sure about this?" Marik frowned, not quite familiar with the legal ways of getting someone back.
"Positive. Tarot cards are not used for dealing out diseases, and such charlatans can and do affect people. It's called suggestion and for that you can put a person to trial."
"Can we pull it off?"
"I think yes, but we will need someone's help."
Bakura raised a brow at her. "And that might be?"
"You won't like it."
The look in Mira's eyes reassured it even before she'd pronounced the word and she was not mistaken. Her idea was welcomed with as much joy as, say, finding a dead mouse beneath your bed.
"You want us to work together with him?"
"Night, you're crossing borders!"
Bakura allowed for both Ishtars to yell at the tired and annoyed girl before stating the most obvious fact ever. "He won't agree."
"He will," she shot back, a bit thankful that the two Egyptians had finally shut up. "You just need to find the right approach and facts he can't deny."
"Can I say it?" Malik glanced over at Bakura before shooting out one victorious sentence, "He won't even listen to you!"
The girl shrugged, determination in her raised chin. "Then I'll make him."
And that was the reason why they approached Kaiba short before the end of the free period when he had another one free. They'd skipped so many lessons that one more wouldn't even matter.
"Kaiba," Mira stopped a good few feet away from him and patiently waited for the taller brunette to turn his attention towards her. "I need your help. We need your help," she corrected after receiving a slight nudge in her side.
The arrogant CEO just raised one cynical brow, letting her know that she had his attention. But not for long. She could talk smoothly and he did listen for the biggest part, but upon hearing the word "lawsuit", held up his hand to silence her. Cerulean eyes met indigo.
"No," and with that any further conversation was done.
However, the dark-haired youth was not going to give up so easily. She slipped in front of him, blocking his way and crossed her arms. "I require an explanation as to why you refuse."
"Isn't it obvious?" he glanced down at her with mildly hidden disdain. "It's bound to lose fifteen seconds after starting."
"And just what makes you think so?"
He crossed his arms in return, shifting to take a more impressive and overbearing stance. "First off, do you have any willing witnesses? Most of the people present in that lesson won't testify without being paid."
"You think you can buy everything, don't you?" Mira spoke with disgust. "There are others that will agree without payment."
"And who might those be?" now there was way too much sarcasm in Kaiba's voice. "Touzoku-oh Bakura? He'd gone through several trials already. Amelda? He was part of a specific organization with criminal tendencies. Ishtars? Do I even have to name it?"
Mira grit her teeth. The blow was painful, but well deserved. Kaiba was right; she could see it. She hadn't taken those facts into account being too centred on one thing and had lost the ability to think rationally.
"And even if so. I cannot use my lawyers and you know why, but if you would help us, there's no way the trial could fail."
"Forget it. I'm not wasting my time on this."
He attempted to walk past her, but she didn't back away. All of the stress and pressure from the last two days finally got to her and she nearly exploded. There was no trace of tiredness when her eyes smouldered in protest and she more spat than spoke out the words.
"Have you ever seen anyone die, Kaiba? I have. And this sight will haunt me forever. I won't let the one who's responsible for Ryou's death to live on like nothing's happened! She must pay for what she's done and I'm ready to bet that Ryou Bakura wasn't her only victim! And if you don't help, then fine. I'll find someone else not so goddamn self-centred and arrogant."
"Night," Bakura laid a hand on her shoulder to hold her back. "Lay off. This bastard won't help us. Ryou wouldn't want it, anyway."
Mira took a deep and heavy breath through her nose, glaring as Kaiba slipped past them in all his white glory and left. She felt like murdering him on the spot, but Bakura was right. That wouldn't help, and Ryou wouldn't want it.
"What now?" Malik frowned at the wall, being considerate enough not to look at Mira, giving her the time to pull herself together.
Marik, however, held onto Kaiba's words and Mira's own possibilities. "What about your lawyers?"
The girl shook her head. "Forget it. Paradius' fame outruns their skill and no judge in his sane mind will let them within a near reach of a court. It's bound to fail even before the beginning of a lawsuit. With Kaiba we'd have at least a chance."
"Well, he dead on refused. Just the way I said it."
Mira knew that Bakura was right. He'd been right from the very beginning, but somehow she'd refused to think about a possible failure as an option. Hell, the rest hadn't though about it as well. Somehow they'd maintained a belief about pulling this off, no matter how crazy it might have appeared at first. Even Bakura himself had had a slight hope of success, but Kaiba had momentarily crushed it.
"So that's that," Mira pulled herself together and straightened her back with noticeable pride. "It's over before even starting properly. I'll see you all next Saturday."
"Yeah, see ya'. Hey wait!" Malik frowned, but she was already gone. "Is she going to skip a whole week?"
Bakura's smirk had a sour note to it as he glanced down the empty corridor. "She took Kaiba's refusal too personally. What else do you expect?"
"She should loosen up quite a bit."
This Marik's statement was met with two pairs of sarcastically raised eyebrows.
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May your day treat you fair!
