Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Final Distance ❯ Mausoleum for Memories ( Chapter 3 )

Disclaimers: As much as I would like to, I don't own YuGiOh. I don't own Toudo Naoya, for that matter (he belongs to Persona, but this is not a crossover fic, to say the truth. He's here for medical reasons, not for subplot reasons. Don't worry). Also, for those who are looking for the updates of this fic on FF.net, I'm sorry but I screwed up and got a citation along with an account lockdown until Christmas Eve^^;　 Thanks to those who have reviewed! It means so very much to me (that's why I'm updating faster than I said I would) ^^

Chapter 3-Mausoleum for Memories

"Humph, such monsters cannot even entertain the pharaoh…"

Where am I? It feels like my head is onfire…

Kaiba Seto looked about him, at the ancient palace he mysteriously was placed in, standing amongst a crowd that consisted of six people standing in a half circle around a kneeling man and three who held the criminal down.

"Would you like me to seal this monster away, Pharaoh?" the tallest man of the six spoke, his voice deep and icy, like his blue eyes. It was then that Kaiba realized that this man, this man donned in royal purple robes and gold, looked so much like him…

"Proceed, Seth," the teen on the throne gave the approval. His eyes were that of fire-spat rubies, matching his unusual dark magenta, black and gold hair that spiked towards the sky. He held a regal stature that almost didn't fit his slim boyish figure, and yet all but "Seth" bowed to him, not daring to look at even his face.

Yami?! Why am I here? What is going on?!

"Will someone tell me what in the world is going on here?!" Kaiba shouted, whirling around, gesturing at the six standing figures as they watched the criminal was dragged out after a monster was extracted from his body and sealed into a stone tablet. Desperate, Kaiba advanced towards the High Priest who ordered the stone tablet to be stored away.

As his hand passed through the man and an explainable strange sensation shot through Kaiba so strongly it nearly knocked him off his feet, if he were standing on solid ground at all. The force of the blow ripped the fiery burn from his skull as it though it was nothing but a gossamer web hovering over him.

Suddenly dragged into the sky, Kaiba saw lapses of time flash through his eyes as needles of icy coldness that seemed to mix with the heat of the sun hurled itself at him, dragging whatever physical sensation from his mind until he screamed, his cries deafening him.

"Seth, I…" The same man from before was running towards him again like something from a infinitely rewinding tape, a tape with no end for the man never seemed to advance close enough towards him. The same outstretched hand reached towards him, he who was now clad in the same white cloak.

I can't hear you…What do you want to tell me?

"I…"

He turned now to face the man, letting the cloak slip off, stopping at the elbows of his bent arms, hands folded neatly in front of his chest. The man stopped, features undecipherable save for a mouth that seemed to speak an unknown language.

"Seth…"

How I detest you.

A single tear slid down Kaiba Seto's eye and his cobalt eyes flew open, his body jolting out of REM like someone had defribbed him and jolted him back from death. Next to him, a small form stirred and he identified it as Mokuba from the unkempt black hair that seemed to just jut everywhere. Sleepy gray eyes rose and connected with Kaiba's blue ones, and they both blinked at the same time before the former widened substantially more vertical and the owner hollered at the top of his lungs.

"DOCTOR!! COME QUICK HE'S UP!!"

As soon as the ringing in Kaiba's ears subsided, he saw a young man with blue-black hair and gold eyes dressed in the usual doctor's white coat come running into the room, his expression a mix between concern, happiness, and…sympathy? Behind that plain façade, those gold eyes were hard to read.

"How are you feeling, Kaiba-san?" the doctor asked, pulling one of the metal chairs there for visitors up to the bed and sitting down.

"Where am I?" Kaiba asked, trying to scan his surroundings but noticed that turning his head made him horribly dizzy.

"The hospital, my name is Toudo Naoya," Toudo responded, "You were brought here on the ambulance on account that you had fainted in your own house. I was your surgeon during the emergency operation." He took a look at the small squirms that Kaiba was making with his neck in an attempt to move his head and snapped his fingers, stopping the young CEO with the sudden noise. "I wouldn't suggest you doing that. You've been in REM for almost a week and a half now and you're still groggy."

A week and a half…? Fainted…? That's right…I had a horrible headache and…And then what…?

Grunting a bit of thanks, Kaiba's eyes rolled to the left where he caught a glimpse of his brother's form from the corner of his eye. "Who are you calling?" he asked, noticing the blinking light of Mokuba's cell phone antenna.

"Yugi…" Mokuba admitted shyly, knowing that the amount of fondness he held for Yugi and Yami was completely opposite of his older brother's. "They took care of me when you were out, so they have right to know that you're up…"

Scoffing, Kaiba responded with only "Call my secretary when you're done and tell them to FIRE my personal physician. I want him gone within the hour." Then he allowed his eyes to travel back to its original position where he stared at the ceiling and the sickly, faded green curtains of his bed barrier as well as wisps of Toudo's blue-black hair that intruded the corner of his eye.

"What you still doing here?" Kaiba asked, annoyed that a complete stranger was sitting there for a time span of over 40 seconds and not speaking at all. It made him uncomfortable, as though someone was observing him as a scientist would a rat.

"I have to inform you of your condition, Kaiba-san," Toudo explained, patting a manila folder that rested on his lap.

"What condition? Wasn't it just a migraine?" Kaiba asked, trying to turn his head again to give this young (and most likely incompetent) doctor the death glare of his life. It was hard to do when you can only do it by sliding your eyes so far they're only showing a bit of blue and most of the bloodshot white.

"I'm afraid not," Toudo explained, his expression grim. "You see…you had a viral infection in your hippocampus, it's a…"

"I know what a hippocampus is, get on with it," came the impatient snarl.

"All right. See, what happened was that the virus that infected you ate away at your hippocampus, causing your headaches. When you came in on the ambulance, the X-rays showed that if we did not extract your hippocampus, the other parts of you brain will be afflicted as well…so we had to remove it. I'm very sorry. If only your physician had diagnosed it correctly or sooner, then we would have been able to save it, but…" Toudo went silent and lowered his head, taking the shame of Kaiba's physician's failure as his own. He looked at Kaiba, who has now turned his head completely towards Mokuba, the impact of the news knocking him out from his grogginess.

"Mokuba, call my secretary and tell her to fire my personal physician. I want him gone within the hour."

Toudo squeezed his eyes shut and bit his lip, his head lowering even more as his hands clutched on his lap.

Mokuba stared at his brother, the cell phone in his hand. "Nii-sama, you just told me to do that three minutes ago…"

Hearing those words, Kaiba turned back around and gawked incredulously at Toudo, his expression of disbelief soon melting down, or rather, burning up, into one of anger.

"Get out."

"Kaiba-san…"

"GET OUT, BOTH OF YOU!!" he screamed, trying to sit up but the screaming and the motion driving his mind and vision in dizzy circles.

They could do nothing but comply.

To be continued…

Okay, this chapter may be a bit confusing, but it'll be explained more in the later chapters, I hope. This fic will sometimes seem very repetitive later on because of the fact that Kaiba now needs to have everything repeated to him or he repeats things a lot, but that's for the effect of the condition, cuz it's there and it's very real. Also, I got parts of the beginning of this chapter from the recent serializations of YuGiOh in the Japanese version of the Weekly JUMP. It's coming out weekly, not fast enough for the plot to really proceed anywhere, so I'm molding it to suit my own needs, since I don't really have a way of getting Weekly JUMP here. I got mine from a friend.