Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Final Distance ❯ Rivalry without Roots ( Chapter 7 )

Disclaimer: I don't own YuGiOh, and neither do I own characters from Persona. I am not making money off of these stories, either.

Chapter 7-Rivalry without Roots

"Here, Seth!" exclaimed a voice as two darkly tanned hands shoved a large clay bowl towards a paler boy. Seth, the paler of the two, put down his papyrus scrolls and glanced at the brown powder in the bowl and then at the one who presented it to him. "What is that?" he questioned, bending down a bit to sniff at the powder-it had a nice smell, not like spices, but a bit strange. The darker boy smiled, sitting back and putting the bowl down between the two of them. The light pouring in a grand shower of gold from behind him made it hard to see his features, but Seth knew who this was, and being near him made him feel warm for some reason; warmer than the sun could make him.

"It's chocolate!" shouted the darker boy, his smile just about the only thing that Seth can make out clearly.

Who are you…?

"Chocolate?" Seth repeated, dumbfounded. The other, darker, shorter boy nodded and dipped one finger into the bowl, covering his index finger with the brown powder and sticking it into his mouth. Following his example, Seth also put his finger into the bowl and placed the brown powder-coated thing into his lips. He grimaced, turning his head violently to the side, spitting. "It tastes horrible!"

A clear, full voice laughed as the boy with the unreadable features nearly rolled on the floor with amusement. "No," he explained, taking out a jar and setting it next to the bowl, "You have to dip your finger in this first and then put it into the powder." Seth glanced at his friend with quizzical suspicion, pouting slightly. "How do I know that's not something that's as bitter as this chocolate that you gave me?" The other boy returned the pout and sighed, opening the jar. "Here," he said, handing the jar to Seth. "It's just honey, something from the Mediterranean. It's sweet. It'll cover the bitterness of the chocolate."

A pale hand reached out for the jar and sank a delicate finger into it before trying the dark powder again. This time a smile rewarded the darker boy.

"See? Better, isn't it?"

I…

I detest you.

Kaiba awoke to the sound of pots and pans clattering downstairs. He sat up on his large canopy bed and sighed, rubbing his temples. "Isn't today Wednesday?" he whispered under his breath. Glancing at the alarm clock next to his bed, he saw that that red letters spelled that it was Saturday. Brows furrowing, Kaiba slid off the bed and got dressed before going downstairs.

"What in god's name are you doing down here?" Kaiba asked as he stepped into the large pantry room. Mokuba was crouched on books that were piled on a chair, trying to reach the highest shelf in the pantry. Apparently he's either lost his balance or his wits and was shaking, his hands gripping the shelf. "Nii-sama…" he whimpered helplessly, his eyes almost teary. With a sigh, Kaiba ran his fingers through his silky brown locks of hair before walking over to his little brother and rescuing him from the small, unstable mountain his brother had compiled over the chair. "What are you doing and what were you looking for?"

"Me and Yuugi…"

"Yuugi and I," corrected Kaiba as he pulled the large encyclopedias off the chair.

"Yuugi and I are baking some Dutch Cocoa cookies," Mokuba explained, "I was trying to get the cocoa powder." Hearing the desired ingredient, Kaiba reached his long arm out and pulled the bag of cocoa powder from the shelf and set it down on the counter. "If he wanted to bake something so badly," muttered Kaiba as he opened the bag to check if the powder was still fresh or had gone moldy from its lack of use, "He should have come in and gotten it himself. What is he doing here anyway?"

"He doesn't know where everything is," Mokuba said with a hint of protest in his voice. He watched his brother, waiting for him to say that the powder was fine, but the young CEO just stood there, watching the powder. Yuugi, hearing that Kaiba was up, came into the pantry closet to see what was going on.

"You eat it this way…"

As though in a daze, Kaiba's hand reached up again and grabbed for the jar of honey that he had bought recently to sweeten his tea with and set it down on the counter, next to the bag of chocolate powder. He opened the jar wordlessly, seemingly oblivious to the others in the room now, and put a finger into the honey jar.

"Nii-sama?" Mokuba asked, surprised at his brother's actions. Seto has never liked sweets.

Not answering, or rather, not hearing the question at all, Kaiba then put his honey-covered index finger into the bag of cocoa powder and placed the coated finger into his lips. A small sound, very much a sigh of content, escaped from Kaiba's throat as he moved his hand to repeat the process.

"Kaiba?" Yami inquired. As much as he has forgotten about his past in Egypt, he remembered that he had once eaten the earliest forms of chocolate this way, hidden away in the room of someone. And right now, the image of Kaiba coating his finger with honey and chocolate imprinted a face of a boy who had looked so much like him 3000 years ago; a boy who had blue eyes, and who had shared many things with him as a child in Egypt.

A boy who grew up and…

Yami's thoughts were interrupted like the way he had intervened Kaiba's own little trance as he heard the tall brunette make a sound very much like a muffled cry of disgust. Kaiba covered his mouth, finally realizing what he had done, feeling the explosion of sweetness on his tongue. He ran to the refrigerator and pulled out a can of black coffee, quickly opening it and downing it, washing away the sticky taste that threatened to linger inside his mouth.

"Gack!" was the first sound he let out, his mind still blurry from the daze he was in moments ago. He felt something lunge inside him and he gulped like mad, his body jolting slightly. What overtook me to do that?!He spluttered for a brief moment before turning around and seeing Yami standing there with a half amused and half surprised look on his face. "What are you doing here?"

Stifling a small laugh, Yami looked at Kaiba, tired of having to go through this again. He figured that maybe a new excuse would be better; besides, Maki had told him to try and keep fresh things inside Kaiba's mind to see if there was any improvement to him. Apparently there was no improvement yet, but Yami wanted to try something out.

"Here to challenge you to a simple duel," Yami answered, throwing the old "help on homework" excuse aside for a change. "No stakes, just a small match. How about it?" His challenge was returned with an incredulous look, and Yami heard something that he thought he would never hear from Kaiba's lips, not even in this state.

"Duel Monsters?" Kaiba asked, wiping his mouth (the taste was staying there for some time). "I know that I own a company for those things, but… I've never held a card before in my life. Never even played. Maybe Mokuba is a better candidate for that." With that, he opened the refrigerator again and took out another can of coffee.

Yami's brows knitted and he advanced towards Kaiba. "What do you mean you've never played before?" he asked, feeling something that seemed to be anger welling up inside him. "You loved that game…" Kaiba studied the shorter teen and took another sip of his coffee before answering. "You know, for an educated Pharaoh, you don't understand things very well," Kaiba said.

"Excuse me?" Yami asked. He'd never expected Kaiba to believe the whole thing about the Egyptian past, having always heard the proud CEO call it "unscientific," but now this very person is addressing him as "Pharaoh?" What was this spelling out, anyway? But before Yami could question him more, Kaiba was walking up the stairs to his study, and Yami made a grab for the thin arm, stopping Kaiba in his tracks.

"Just one duel. Even if you don't know the rules."

A heavy sigh and the blue eyes narrowed. "Fine. Just so you know, I do know the rules…but I've never played." The former Pharaoh nodded and guided the two of them to the living room, sitting down opposite of the CEO. Mokuba followed, bringing Kaiba his precious but now forgotten deck. The two shuffled each other's decks before setting them down on their respective sides. "Duel," murmured both voices.

"First move," Yami announced, pulling a card from his hand. "I play the Feral Imp in defense mode, and I lay this card face down. End turn." Kaiba narrowed his eyes in disinterest as his deck, but when he went to draw his first hand, a pair of soft, experienced hands seemed to caress his own, moving them as though he were a mere marionette for their bidding. A sudden coldness washed over him, and his eyes clouded before he made his first move as well. For the next hour, Yami was thrown into confusion; not only by the idea that Kaiba could have forgotten a game that almost meant as much as life to him, but also at the play that was being handled. Kaiba played with most expertise, something that Yami expected from his best rival, but not from a man who had just said "I've never held a card in my life." By the way his opponent was playing; Yami could have sworn that Kaiba had been playing for millennia on end. Kaiba was slapping down tactical yet harsh moves that ate away at Yami's life points, and Yami was too deep in thought to really counter them effectively. His rival had not spoken a word after the initiation of the duel except for his moves, which sounded monotone and lifeless, and his movements were mechanically swift, like he was doing something as routine as breathing.

"Blue Eyes White Dragon, attack mode. Attack Dark Magician," Kaiba declared, tearing Yami away from his observations. Yami made a small grunt of defeat as his life points were completely depleted. "Good game, Kaiba," Yami said, a faint smile crossing his lips. He set his deck down onto the table for now and got up to go and bake those cookies he had planned to do an hour ago before his attention was drawn back to the seated duelist, who was now shuddering.

"Kaiba?"

Pale, delicate hands released their grip on the duel deck, letting the cards scatter onto the table, and the owner of those hands did not answer the call. Instead, he arched his back, his hands hugging his shoulders, and then sliding down to his arms, tightening so much that his knuckles turned a sickly white. Yami ran to Kaiba's side as the brunette's breaths became irregular and he made a strange sound-something like a heavy gulp, inside his throat. It would have been fine if he had made the sound just once, but they continued at an alarming rate, and with each gulping hiccup, Kaiba's body jolted upwards, his head thrown back, and then swinging forward to hang lifelessly again, chin on chest, before repeating again.

"Kaiba!" Yami shouted, his hands gripping Kaiba's shoulders. White, rolled back eyes glared at him as Kaiba turned his head and shoved him away violently, hands now gripping the edge of the table as the convulsions continued. "KAIBA!" Yami screamed, completely at a loss at what he should do. He whirled around quickly, looking at a horrified Mokuba. "Go and call Maki, quickly!" Mokuba nodded and ran the opposite direction, into the kitchen.

"Kaiba!" Yami cried again, trying to summon Kaiba from whatever was making him do this. Then, as though hearing him this time, Kaiba's convulsions stopped as suddenly as they came. His eyes rolled back to reveal the glassy blue irises again and a long hiss escaped his pale, still trembling lips. He released a small groan before he fell over on his side, taking the chair with him onto the ground. Alarmed, Yami crouched down, cursing at his delayed reflexes for not being fast enough to break the other teen's fall. He hoisted Kaiba up from the floor, letting the tall yet surprisingly light form rest his back on his one leg as Yami crouched in something like a genuflect. A hand reached for Kaiba's forehead and tensed as he felt a burning fever.

In his panic, Yami neglected to hear the small, unintelligible words that sprang from Kaiba's quivering lips.

"You betrayed me…"

To be continued…

Meh. This chapter is inspired by the video I saw of where Clive, a very talented musician/conductor, said to his wife "I've never seen a sheet of music before in my life" when she told him that he played the piano very well. But when she seated him in front of the piano, he played beautifully as though he had been doing it for his whole life (which he has, he's just forgotten). And when he was done, the same thing happened to him where he went into a convulsion for about a minute. My version is a bit harsher, though. Sorry Kaiba.

As I read before, the Egyptians were the first to have discovered chocolate, but they flavored it with pepper… Seeing as that's too…gross…I made them use honey in here.^^;