Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Family Secrets ❯ Confidants ( Chapter 3 )

AN:

Sugarpony: I just realized I should probably tell you the ages, as they will have some relevance in the future. Fairly soon, actually. So here they are.

Ages:

Yugi: 12

Seto: 16

Mokuba: 13

Ryou: 15

Key:

“Speech”

“Te lephone”

Thoughts

Standard Disclaimer: Sugarpony does not own Yugioh! (and sadly never will).

---

Family Secrets

Chapter Three

Confidants

---

Seto Kaiba awoke on top of his computer. The bright morning light filtered in through the window behind him. He groggily sat up, blinking the sleep out of his eyes. He sighed and shook his head. Kuso, I did it again. Too often lately had he stayed up late working and then fallen asleep mid-keystroke. Somehow, he never seemed to be able to finish anything anymore; he was always interrupted, be it by an annoying employee or a crazy Egyptian. Seeing he would not finish his report before a cup of coffee, the CEO closed his laptop and stood, heading to the kitchen.

Barely a foot out of the door, however, he was bowled over by a hyperactive thirteen year old. Seto picked himself off of the floor, taking his brother with him.

“Mokuba,” he began, “who gave you sugar this early?”

“I did, Seto! I did! I did! I did! I did! I did!!!!!!!!”

The corporate giant sighed once again; he seemed to be doing an awful lot of that lately. “Mokuba, what have I told you about eating sugar before I’ve had my coffee?”

The raven haired boy paused a moment. “Uuuuuuuh.... Don’t?”

“That’s right. Now please go to your room until I get back.”

“But Seto-”

Twitch.

“Ah... heheh! Right away, nii-san!” The younger brother knew his senior well enough to not argue when it came. Whenever Seto’s eye twitched, bad things were about to happen. Most of Kaiba’s employees that still had their jobs knew this as well; at work, those who witnessed his meetings were lucky enough to have some bit of a warning. They leaned quickly enough that whenever the boss’s eye twitched, at least one person was either going to be fired or made a fool of and stripped of everything he owned. As Mokuba was no fool, he went straight to his bedroom.

As he closed his door, the young teenager ran over to his computer. Quickly booting it up, he waited for a specific program to load.

“What too you so long?!” The agitated voice came, surprisingly enough, from the laptop.

“Sorry, nii-san. I couldn’t wake up so I ate a bunch of sugar while Seto was still asleep.” The boy sheepishly laughed as the icon shook its head.

“Mokuba, you’ll never learn. I take it you ran into Seto before long, though.”

“Yeah,” he sighed. “Literally. Noa, you have no idea how lucky you are to not have been around him when it came.”

The blue-haired program chuckled. “From what I’ve heard, that twitch of his is actually a good thing.”

Mokuba was puzzled. He gave his adopted brother a questioning glance and asked, “How do you figure that, Noa?”

“Think of it this way,” he replied. “If Seto didn’t have his twitch, I doubt any one at Kaiba Corp. would last more than a few hours.”

The younger boy laughed. “I guess you’re probably right!” He stopped and shivered at the sudden thought. “That would be really scary.”

The deceivingly older brother smirked. “Of course I’m right. I’m three years older than you.”

The younger frowned. “Maybe so, but I’m still bigger than you!”

“I don’t know, Mokuba. I was a couple inches taller than you in my virtual world.”

“That doesn’t count! You could be whatever size you wanted!”

“Yes, but I was still taller!”

“No way!”

“Yes way!”

“No!”

“Yes!”

“No!”

“Yes!”

“No!”
“No!”

“Yes!... I mean no! Grr.... No fair! You tricked me!”

---

Yugi stared at the telephone. The game shop had no customers at the moment, but he was still stuck watching the counter until his grandpa got back from his doctor’s appointment. Currently, he was contemplating who to call- Kaiba or Haruna.

Haruna, of course, was the logical answer. She was, after all, his psychologist. However, she was also practically a stranger to him. Sure, they talked during his sessions, but that didn’t mean anything. Yugi had never told the woman anything about his past, and he wasn’t sure if he really wanted to.

Kaiba, however, was actually very tempting. Ever since the Battle City Tournament, Yugi had come to relate with the coldhearted man. After all, their childhoods were very similar. Kaiba knew what it was like to lose his family. Kaiba knew what it was like to not trust anyone. Kaiba knew what it was like... to have someone mistreat you.

But Kaiba had Mokuba the entire time, and that made all the difference. Kaiba could depend on Mokuba to be there for him. Yugi had had no one but himself to depend on- himself and whoever he was living with at the time, which wasn’t saying much. Kaiba could trust Mokuba with everything. Yugi could trust no one. Kaiba had Mokuba to live and to fight for. Yugi.... Yugi had nothing.

And so he stood at a crossroads. Maybe I won’t call anyone, he thought. I’ll just go to the arcade with Jounouchi when Jii-san gets home, and I’ll forget all about it. But.... He chewed on his lip. ....But I feel like if I keep it inside anymore, I’ll explode! I can’t tell Yami. It would only burden him. I know it’s Haruna-san’s job to listen, but I hardly know her.... But Kaiba already knows the basics, and he seems to want to know the whole story. Maybe I should call him....

He took the business card he had been handed the other day and set it by the number to Haruna’s office. Eeny meeny miny moe.... He haphazardly pointed back and forth between the two cards. He then abruptly stopped, blinking. Oh, this is ridiculous!

He spun around on the stool and leaned back onto the counter. He fingered his chest; he always felt naked with the Sennen Puzzle. He knew that, now, he always had Yami to trust and depend upon. Whenever he did serious thinking like this without him to keep him sane, he was paranoid after five minutes. And as it had been an hour he sat mulling this over in his mind, he was ready to jump at his own shadow.

And jump he did. When the chime of the bell on the door signaled a customer, he leaped out of his seat, slipped on a fallen magazine, slid across the room, and crashed into a tower of boxes filled with merchandise. The pile teetered dangerously for a few moments before tumbling down to the ground, burying the game king beneath it.

Before long, however, he felt the weight of the boxes gradually lifting. After a few pain staking minutes, he was sitting up, panting as he attempted to catch his breath. Once he had found his second wind, he bit out a harsh laugh. “So much for Yugioh, King of Games.”

As soon as those words left his mouth, he instantly regretted them; his savior was a girl about three years older than him, and she was apparently a fan of Duel Monsters. He clutched his ears, wincing in pain as she let out a shrill squeal. After the noise stopped, the girl began a long string of words too fast to follow. A couple minutes into her ramblings, Yugi finally had enough. He reached up and put a finger on the girl’s lips, effectively silencing her.

“Onegei, just calm down. Take a deep breath and talk slowly. Now, how can I help you?”

The young lady did as told and said, “I-I-I came to get some booster packs. Do you have any of the new ones? Well, duh, of course you have all the new ones! I mean, you are, like, the world champion and all! And you’re only twelve, and you’re already in high school! You must be, like, a child prodigy or something! I mean, like, it’s crazy! Your family must have been, like, rocket scientists or something. I mean, like-”

“-Hai, we have the new booster packs. They’re over there, by the front counter. If you’ll excuse me, I have to take care of something. I should only be a minute or two.” Yugi pointed her to the correct shelf and then walked through the back door, grabbing a phone number on the way out. He paused in front of the telephone, a sad look in his eyes. Amazingly enough, the fan girl had just helped him decide whom to call.

She had reminded him of his family- or lack thereof- that was the reason he was so brilliant.

He picked up the receiver and dialed the number.

---

Seto’s eye twitched.

Currently, he was stuck at Kaiba Corp. in a meeting with one of Gozaburo’s old ‘buddies.’ In other words, he was being given a presentation about how this man’s weapons of mass destruction would benefit his company.

His eye twitched again at the thought.

The pompous man’s voice droned on and on and on like a broken record. “....a massive benefit to Kaiba Corporations because the technology is at such an advanced stage that it would be and immense benefit to the research and development department, which in turn will be a benefit to....”

How many times can this ahou use the word benefit in one sentence? Seto absentmindedly drummed his fingers on the desktop as the representative gave his report. Before long, however, the monotony was broken by the ringing of a cell phone.

The CEO answered his phone, everyone else stopping whatever they were doing- be it speaking, nodding off to sleep, or nervously watching the boss’s twitch- in order to stare.

“What is it?”

“Ah.... Gomen for disturbing you, Kaiba-san, demo... ah, you said it would be alright if I called you....”

Seto sat up even straighter. “What do you need, Yugi?”

The representative, however, was apparently flabbergasted at being interrupted for a personal call, and he would take no more. “Now you listen here, Kaiba,” he said. “I am one of the officials from Balthazar Industries, and my superiors will not take kindly to being mistreated this way! This is a professional propositional meeting, so you can take your little social call from you little teenage friend and shove it up your ass!”

“Kaiba-san, are you in a meeting?! Gomen, gomen, gomen nasai! I can call back later, it’s really not that important, this must be a bad time-”

“Yugi, it’s not a bad time. Let me get out of here and I’ll be at the game shop in five minutes.”

And he hung up before the boy could protest.

By now, of course, everyone in the room was sitting at full attention. The CEO’s twitch had become a full-blown throb: Definitely not good.

Seto calmly folded his hands and laid his chin upon them, resting his elbows on the table. When he spoke, it was in such a cold, calculating voice that it would give even the bravest of men shivers, although there was no malice in it.

“Takanaka,” he began, “this is my company. And to be blatantly honest, I don’t give a damn about your company, let alone your offers. If your ‘superiors’ are insulted, that’s not my problem.

“Whatever relations you had with this organization in the past disappeared the moment Gozaburo died. This is a gaming company now. I have no time and very little patience for your silly little weaponry designs. I am not going to fund your research now, and I never will.

“If you or anyone else from Balthazar Industries ever attempts to contact myself or my company again, I assure you, there will be hell to pay. Now, I am giving you two minutes to get your sorry little ass off my property before I get it off myself.”

Of course, the poor little fool scampered out the door right then and there. As soon as the... um... scary businessman saw him drive away in his car, he stalked out the door towards his limo. In three minutes flat, he was at the Kame game shop.

---

Yugi nervously paced behind the counter. After he heard the dial tone, he hurriedly shuffled the customer out the door (with five new booster packs in her purse) and closed the shop. He would most definitely get grounded for calling it a day this early in the morning, but it was too late now. Now, all he could do was wait for Kaiba to arrive.

I should have known better! He runs a multi billion dollar company, of course he would have a bunch of meetings every day! He said he would be by later today, I should’ve just waited! Oh, I bet I interrupted him in some major super important meeting or something!

His thoughts were cut off mid-rant, however, as the object of them knocked on the front door. He immediately stopped pacing and ran to let him inside.

After another minute, the two were sitting in the living room, Yugi on the couch, Kaiba in the recliner. There was an awkward silence between them until Yugi finally broke, voicing his concerns. “Kaiba-san, gomen nasai! I should have known you were in a meeting, and you did say that you would be by later, and-”

“Yugi, hush.”

“Demo, Kaiba-san, I shouldn’t have interrupted you when you were at your company, I just didn’t think-”

“Yugi, hush. It’s nothing. I’m glad you interrupted me for more than one reason.”

The younger boy blinked owlishly. “You are? So... you’re not mad, then?”

The elder sighed. “Of course not! Rather grateful, to tell the truth. For one thing, I’m glad that you’re talking to anyone when it’s clear that you’ve been keeping this a secret from everyone.”

Yugi looked confused for a moment. “Demo... how could you tell that?”

“You’re not wearing your puzzle. That signals to me that you’re keeping your... ‘other half’... in the dark about this. And if you can’t even tell him, then you obviously haven’t told anyone else.

“The second reason I’m glad you called is that this means you trust me to some extent. This means that you at least trust someone enough that you can share whatever you’re going tell me with him.

“And finally, I’m extremely thankful you called at that particular moment because....”

He paused, taking his time to lean back and put an amused look on his face. “Because if that idiot who was giving the presentation was to go on for another ten seconds, I do believe that I would have thrown him out the window instead of simply kicking him to the curb.” He chuckled, remembering the caught-in-the-headlights look of the poor pitiful man when he was threatened and thrown out of the building.

Yugi sat in an uncomfortable silence. He nervously shifted in his seat, doubting not for the first time his decision to call the CEO. “Ah... Kaiba-san... gomen, demo... maybe I shouldn’t have called. I mean, it’s not really that important, and-”

Once again, he was interrupted. “-Yugi, it’s okay. If you don’t want to talk, just say so. I have some questions about this whole ancient Egyptian spirit thing I wanted to ask, anyway.”

Feeling at least a small bit of relief from the pressure, Yugi gladly accepted the change in topic. “What would you like to know?”

“For starters,” Kaiba began, “where did these ‘Sennen Items’ come from?”

Yugi looked down sheepishly. “Gomen, demo the first question you asked me is one I don’t know the answer to. All we really know is that they were created three thousand years ago to stop some terrible thing from happening.” He guiltily grimaced. “I wish I could tell you more. Bakura probably could, but I wouldn’t recommend asking him.”

The elder boy merely continued down his mental list. “What does Bakura have to do with all of this?”

Grateful that he could answer this question, the young duelist immediately responded. “Well, for starters, he has the Sennen Ring. The Ring houses the spirit of a tomb robber, just as the Puzzle houses Yami. The Ring has the power to locate other Sennen Items- and probably other things, too- summon the Shadow Realm, and (Here, he shivered.) trap souls into objects.”

“Like the Eye Pegasus had?”

“Exactly.”

“I’ve heard a lot about this ‘Shadow Realm.’ What the hell is it?”

“Well, I guess it’s just as its name suggests- a realm of shadows.” Yugi thoughtfully scratched his chin, not really knowing how to relate the Shadow Realm to Kaiba. “People’s souls can be trapped there- like in the Battle City Tournament.”

“What happens to the souls?”

“Trust me, it’s not pleasant. I’ve only really experienced it once, when Pegasus trapped me there. Even if you’re not being kept there as a prisoner, it’s extremely tiring. It takes a lot of magical energies just to keep yourself from getting absorbed by the shadows, not to mention the monsters.” He shuddered at the memories.

Kaiba, on the other hand, asked another question. “Yugi,” he began, “I do believe I’ve been keeping a very open mind during this little question and answer session. But-” He grimaced, almost afraid to ask what was on his mind. “-monsters?”

“Hai,” Yugi looked up and answered. “The Duel Monsters live in the Shadow Realm.”

“....And I’m guessing that your Puzzle can summon the real things even when not playing the game?”

“Hai. So can most of the other Items.”

Kaiba heaved a sigh and rubbed his temples, attempting to delay another twitch. “What, exactly,” he bit out as politely as possible, “can the rest of these Items do?”

The pharaoh reincarnate leaned back, attempting to remember all the various abilities of the banes of his existence. “Well,” he said, “for one thing, they all can summon the Shadow Realm-”

“-Wait,” Kaiba interrupted. “That- that- that thing can be summoned like the monsters?”

“Hai,” he explained. “Sadly, it’s happened in the majority of the duel I’ve been in- and other times, as well.”

The CEO grumbled a bit before muttering, “Go on.”

“Well, they can all summon the Shadow Realm. I know that the Puzzle, Ring, Rod, and Eye can all summon monsters.

“As I said before, the Ring can trap souls in objects, and it can locate just about anything.

“The Eye can let the owner read minds, but you have to actually replace one of your real eyes with it in order for it to work. Oh, and of course it can trap souls in things, too.

“The Rod lets the wielder control other people’s minds, trap minds in the Shadow Realm, and-” he rolled his eyes- “it can turn into a nifty little dagger, too!

“I don’t know much about the Tauk, Ankh, and Scales, but I’ll tell you what I do. The Tauk basically only sees the past and the future. The Ankh lets the owner into another person’s soul room-”

“-A what now?”

“A soul room. It’s a place in everyone’s mind that reflects what kind of person he truly is. Anyway, the Ankh can also let the owner change that soul room and make the person his puppet. The Scales apparently come with the Feather of Ma’at. Together, they can judge a person’s soul. If a person has a good heart, he isn’t hurt. But if he has an evil heart, he’s fed to Ammit.

“And finally, there’s the Puzzle. I’m not really sure what all it can do. I do know that it allows the holder to create Shadow Games, as do all the others. If a person loses a Shadow Game, he faces a Penalty Game. I do believe you remember what that is.

“I know it can house more than one soul. The inside is like a giant maze with a million and one doors. It’s easy to get lost in, I know.

“I think it has the powers of most of the other Items, too. And I definitely know it can free souls from the Shadow Realm and Penalty Games, but that’s about it.”

The next few minutes were spent in silence. Kaiba broke it. “So that’s basically it?”

“Well, that and the whole reincarnation stuff, but yeah.”

Yugi became interested in the floor for the next few moments. Kaiba merely stared at the boy in front of him. “Yugi,” he said, “while I’m here, I’m going to open the field.”

“Huh?” The younger suddenly snapped to attention.

“I’m going to tell you about my childhood. You, unfortunately, already know a great deal of it. I’ll start at the beginning and then move from there.”

Taking Yugi’s silence as the cue to begin, he awkwardly started his life story.

“Believe it or not, I was actually happy once. Mokuba and I lived with our parents until I was ten and he was seven. Then, they were killed in a car crash. Mokuba and I were shipped of to our relatives, who simply used up the inheritance and put us in an orphanage.

We stayed there for a little while. People always wanted to adopt me, but I wouldn’t go without my brother. Then, one day, who would happen to come along but none other than Kaiba Gozaburo? I challenged his to a game of chess. If I won, he would adopt both Mokuba and I. Obviously,” he broke into a self-satisfied smirk, “I won.

“And then came Gozaburo’s ‘training.’ He wanted me to be the perfect heir to Kaiba Corp., which at that time was a war industry. Yugi,” he said, “Mokuba doesn’t know about what I’m going to tell you. I trust you’ll keep it this way.”

He waited to continue until he received a nod from the boy.

“Very well. Gozaburo was a tyrant, Yugi. He forced me to study nonstop. Believe it or not, I can actually play the piano, violin, and picolo, and I can fluently speak over twenty different languages- I’m not going to waist time naming them all.

“Whenever he felt like I was slacking off, he would take me into his room and beat me. I’m not going into detail, but he changed me. That’s why I’m always a cold and sarcastic bastard; I learned not to trust anyone but Mokuba very early on.

“Gozaburo eventually died, and I took over Kaiba Corp. and changed it into a gaming company. You know the rest from there.

“Yugi, I’m not telling you this to make you feel awkward. It’s just the opposite, actually. I want you to have some leverage over me. I trust you, and I want you to trust me. If I ever tell a soul anything you don’t want me to, feel free to go to the press, print it on the Internet, do whatever you want with this information.

“I’m done talking for now, so do whatever you want.”

Yugi mulled things over in his mind for a long time. He had been given plenty of new information, and it would take a while to process. Kaiba as a confidant? It was simply unbelievable. Perhaps he would take advantage of this newfound trust. Maybe it really was time to let everything out, if only to one person. Kaiba would most certainly understand, right?

Unfortunately, his thoughts were, once again, interrupted, this time by the ring of the shop bell. “Yugi?” Sugoroku called. “Why is the shop closed?”

“I’ll take this as my curtain call,” Kaiba said as he stood, stretching his long legs. “Yugi, don’t ever hesitate to call. Who knows?” He gave a rare smile. “You may save some poor ignorant fool from being tossed out a window.” And with that, he glided across the room and out the back door.

“Yugi?” Sugoroku made his way into the living room. “Is everything all right?”

The boy stared at the back door for a few moments before turning to his grandfather and smiling. “Hai, jii-san,” he said. “I wasn’t feeling too well, but everything’s fine now.”

Sugoroku smiled and gestured for him to leave. “Go on, then,” he said. “Go enjoy your vacation with your friends. Just be back before dark.”

Yugi stood and walked towards the door. He silently doubled back, however, and gave the old man a gigantic hug.

The senior smiled and tears came to his eyes as he watched the boy leave. “I’m so glad you’re finally opening up and being happy, Yugi.”

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Sugarpony: Ugh! What a sucky ending! Why do I always ruin things with sappiness? Anyway, please review!