Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ I Guess It was in the Cards ❯ Searching for Seto Kaiba ( Chapter 2 )

PLEASE READ AND REVIEW. I would love to know if you like it, how you think it's going, and if everyone is staying in character.

CHARACTER DIFFERENCES: Tea from the cartoon is annoying enough that I can sympathize with the many efforts to kill her off. But Anzu from the manga, is a different person. When the situation gets tense, she is often the person who does what needs to be done, or says what needs to be said, whether it's clobbering a zombie professor to save Jou's life, or getting Mokuba to open up to the group.

MANGA NOTES: The story also relies on the manga version of Yami Yugi and Seto Kaiba's history - after all, eventually this is a romance. (Not that their first meetings were romantic!) If you're familiar with the manga, please skip to the story. Otherwise bear with me. When they first meet, Kaiba steals the BEWD from Sugoroku (Yugi's grandfather). To teach him a lesson, Yami plays a shadow game with him, where the monsters come to life. Kaiba loses when the BEWD destroys itself rather than attack Yugi. Kaiba ends up in the Duel Monster world, presumably about to be killed by its inhabitants.

At this point Kaiba has become a replica of Gozaburo. He's driven only by a desire to win, and he wants revenge on Yugi. Interestingly, he's the first person to realize that there are two of them in there. Anyway, Kaiba forces Yugi and his friends to compete in this Death-T virtual reality tournament that could really kill them. Mokuba insists on being one of Yugi's challengers, and when Yugi beats him, Kaiba forces Mokuba to go through the "death simulation chamber" that he had prepared for Yugi. Yugi hears Mokuba screaming and rescues him. He then beats Kaiba, and "shatters" his heart. Kaiba is in a coma until he can put the puzzle pieces of his heart back together.

CHAPTER 2: SEARCHING FOR SETO KAIBA

YAMI'S NARRATIVE

"What was the nightmare about?" Anzu asked. Mokuba looked down the hallway, torn between chasing after his Nisama, and answering, but the temptation of being able to exonerate his brother was too strong. Also he was used to confiding in Anzu. She always listened as though she really cared, and not too many people did that when Seto Kaiba was the subject.

I don't know how it started," he said, "but when I came in he was screaming about that Death T Tournament."

"I guess having your heart shattered is enough to give anyone nightmares," my aibou had said softly.

"No, that wasn't it. He thought I was stuck in the Death Simulation chamber. He kept screaming that he'd killed me. He dreams that a lot."

"Mokuba, what did you make him promise?" Anzu asked even more gently. Mokuba hesitated. Finally he whispered, "He was so guilty. He couldn't tell what was real and what wasn't. I got scared, so I made him promise not to hurt himself."

"So the bastard used me to do it for him," Jounouchi said, luckily too quietly for Mokuba to hear.

I wasn't sure why I was the one who ended up going Kaiba's office to find him, but I felt a need to make sure that the other boy was all right - a need that surprised me. I've always found Kaiba compelling and infuriating, in almost equal measures. In our first two encounters I had even planned to kill him, only to reluctantly discover something worth saving.

In our first duel, I had been disturbed by his unbridled glee at the thought that it might end in his death. I had made the monsters come alive to frighten him, but I had found myself attracted instead by his almost child-like joy in the creatures. And so I had not been able to kill him in the end. Oh, I kept my promise after a fashion - he had indeed "experienced death" at the hands of his own duel monsters. But I made sure that the boy knew that it was only an illusion. I tried to awaken an understanding of the cards in his heart, but only succeeded in stirring his ever-present desire for revenge.

I had planned to kill him after we had finally run the gauntlet of the Death T Tournament. I expected to see only unredeemed evil when I faced him. Instead I saw a boy (and Kaiba could seem surprisingly young at times) who was in so much pain that he lashed out at anyone or anything around him. So I stayed my hand and gave him a painful second chance to rebuild his life and his heart.

Thinking about Kaiba was like looking through a kaleidoscope where the fragments never seemed to fit. There was the twisted boy whose heart I deliberately shattered; the young man who returned, telling no one of his journey, keeping the world at a distance, seemingly moved only by his love for his little brother. There was the duelist who was consumed with anger and hate every time he touched his deck; the warrior who defeated destiny -- proudly proclaiming as he did so, that what was in men's hearts could surpass even God. Finally there was the brother who flew off to America to reclaim what Mokuba always insisted was his true dream. It seemed like too many people to answer to a one-word name.

"Kaiba!" I called.