In Safe Hands (PuzzleShipping)

Chapter 20

The following day was slightly better than the last. Yugi and Yami returned to work afterwards. Over time, the sadness that they were engulfed in slid away and today was a new day.

Yugi walked up to the front desk where Mana, once again, sat on the phone, slightly tired from the night she had had.

She rubbed her eyes, just putting down the phone after what seemed to be a pretty long conversation. She put her head on her hand, propped up on her elbow.

"Hello..." She yawned, her eyes drooping.

Yugi tapped her on the nose to wake her up and it worked. Her eyes opened back up slightly.

"Oh. Hey Yugi!" She said, trying to shove the tiredness she felt to the back of her mind.

Yugi tilted his head.

"Mana? You alright?" He asked her with a concerned expression on his face, "You...don't seem too into the day at the moment..."

Mana shook her head in response to his question.

"My morning was extremely stressful...and heartbreaking...and just flat out tiring..." She muttered, looking down, "It was my shift last night..."

Yugi walked around the desk and met her side.

"Well, what happened to make it so 'stressful, heartbreaking, and tiring'?" He asked, resting a hand upon her shoulder.

"Well...there was a young girl who came in...12 at the oldest..." She said, sighing, "She was...in a carpentry accident not to far from here...when I saw her...my heart sunk..."

Yugi tilted his head silently and gripped her shoulder. He thought long and hard about the story she was telling him.

"Her...body...was entirely covered with...hundreds of splinters and wooden shards...they impaled her arms and legs..." She said, her voice full of sorrow but her eyes too numb to show any emotion, "Her chest was scarred and larger splinters impaled the flesh and some had even entered the front and stuck out the back..."

She looked down.

"It was terrifying...a girl at such an age..."

Yugi was stunned. He could only imagine the pain of having to witness such a patient. A 12 year old adolescence...with wood throughout her whole body...

Mana looked down silently. Yugi patted her back and shook his head.

"I'm sorry, Mana..." He said, "How is she?"

"...currently comatose..." She muttered, "Half her body was treated...the other half is pending...we were able to remove all splinters...but we aren't sure if we skipped any..."

Yugi sighed and looked down the hall to where an open door sat at the end with a certain someone's coat tip showing through the door ever so slightly.

"Where's Yami?" He asked.

"Visiting her..." Mana replied, "He...said he felt some connection to her...and then left."

Yugi raised an eyebrow and let go of her coat. He turned and looked over at her over his shoulder.

"Well, if it's alright, I might just join him." He simply said, "We need to begin the next day of training soon..."

Mana nodded at him and turned back to the computer, slightly yawning and typing. She waved at him over her shoulder without looking back.

Yugi left and walked down the hallway toward the room, hearing nothing but the heart rate monitor that beeped along with the others in the rooms he passed. He entered the room and saw Yami gently looking down on a young girl.

Her eyes were closed and her hair was long and full of waves. Her skin was a healthy tan color and was dotted with scars from where the splinters were located. Her whole visible body was covered head to toe in bandages and a cast that kept her from moving until her next operation.

Yami held her hand and slowly caressed it silently. He gripped her limp hand slightly tighter and tilted his head, looking at her gently.

He sighed sadly.

"Yugi..." He said without looking up at him, "...How much more can someone take?"

Yugi met his side and shook his head. He didn't know what to say to his mentor.

"She's so young...so beautiful." Yami whispered, moving a strand of hair behind her ear gently, "So innocent. So...undeserving."

Yugi looked at him. Yami looked at her and then to him, a faraway look within his gaze.

"Yugi...I don't entirely know this girl, but..." He paused before continuing, "She...looks like my step sister..."