Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Purple ❯ Inari Takezo speaking.... Wait, who?! ( Chapter 3 )

Hello again^^ I finally figured out why the editing of my chapters always screwed up while I was uploading them. *shakes head* It was so simple actually… I´m also writing this story on ff.net (same author name, same story title) whith which I´m a little bit more experienced, so it´ll be updated there a little bit sooner. Also, a great thanks to Future_Shaman_King and Rowan Girl for reviewing as well as Relinqished for helping me figure out what I´ve done wrong. Thanks a lot! You guys rock!!^___^

(PS: #Rowan Girl- What were they talking about where? *looks confused*)

Disclaimer: This is the work of a fan with no actual claims on the show. Damn…^.~;

PS: Alright, this is pretty stupid, but does anyone know the real name of Yami no Malik? I´ve found so far Yami Malik, Marik, Yami Marik, Yami no jingaku no Malik, Mariku, Ishtal and Ishtar. Does anyone know which one of them´s right? If yes, pretty, pretty please tell me!

~~Inari Takezo speaking - Chapter 4~~

To break the good news first, we reached Kaiba's mansion without any further problems. Since if there's good news, there almost always has to be bad news as well, which I, nice as I am, am going to tell you. In our case it is the simple fact that we are soaked. Not just wet, Kaiba and I are soaked. As in drenched, soaked, dripping… you get the picture. We are simply wet.

I absolutely hate the weather, did I already mention that? I think I did. All that rain is going to give me the feeling that I'm stuck in a giant washing machine. Not that I ever was. But if, then it must be just that feeling. It makes a nice background noise if I think about it though, now that we are inside where it's actually dry. How did I get inside in the first place? Honestly, some questions are better left unanswered. (Insert here a face as innocent as possible. I don't think Kaiba will be very happy with me when he finds out…) Anyway, we are both inside Kaiba's mansion, I dripping wet and the unconscious bundle named Seto in my arms not faring any better.

After finding our way to Seto's room (or at least what I assumed to be his), I simply dropped him onto his bed. It didn't turn out quite as gentle as I would have liked it, but considering my lack of experience with this, I couldn't be picky, could I? Stifling a low sigh, I looked over my handiwork.

Kaiba is lying almost bonelessly sprawled out on his sheets (definitely expensive, if the comfy way they look like means anything), his dark brown hair sticking in wet strands onto his face, his features having softened in his sleep into near-angelic relaxation. Strange, I have never seen him look that young before. On the other hand, I've never seen him any other time than wide-awake and ready to fight. One could not actually claim that we have ever shown any interest in each other -besides our God Cards, that is. Which is probably a good thing when I think about it, since Kaiba tends to be quite some trouble when he wants to.

Can you say stubborn as hell?

Seeing him lie here like that makes one wonder how old Kaiba actually is. The way he leads Kaiba Corp. surely makes everyone who hasn't met him assume that ´Seto Kaiba´ would be an impressive business man of some sort. Few would think of him as a teen. I, for my part, had been rather surprised to find out that he was not only still going to school, but a classmate of the very Yugi Motou, the pharaoh's other self. Wait… Yugi is, what? Sixteen? Seventeen? It's so difficult telling his age, he's such a midget… Just like the pharaoh. Grrr, must not think about that one, it'll only make me want to break something again. Instead I eye the sleeping teen with mild awe, resisting the urge to shake my head at the absurdity of the thought that he and the spiky-head are supposed to be the same age. Especially considering that he and I am about the same height.

Arrgh, I'm digressing again! Stupid sanity and too many things coming to my head…! And no, I'm not going crazy, thanks for asking. Actually, I'm heavily suffering from the results of un-craziness. Is that even a word, "un-craziness," or did I just invent something new? Oh, Kaiba's starting to drip on the blankets… (Once again, we are both wet! Thanks to a certain circumstance of water falling from the heavens which I won't get into ranting about again right now.)

I wonder if I'm supposed to do something against it. Sleeping in a wet bed couldn't be nice, could it? I guess not. Now, for everyone who might think that it´d be easy to get a hold of a dry towel in a house like this one(House? This place is a palace! I've seen tombs that were smaller than this ´house´ is!), I must say, they are wrong. There are so many rooms. Guest rooms, living rooms, bureau offices (what the hell are doing those here?), tech labs, at least two huge libraries… rooms I don't even want to think of what they might be good for…. kitchen, broom closets, dining rooms, another kitchen…but no bathroom! Is that luck or what?

Once again, I hate my life…

If you can call that a life anyway. I'm not too sure about it, since I was at first only a second persona of a split personality (that doesn't exactly count as being ´alive´, does it?) and now I'm one of the infamous millennium items spirits. I don't think I'd theoretically be qualified as a living being. Technically, I very well am, though.

Dwelling on this and other equally world-shaking thoughts, I finally got fed up with searching for the stupid bathroom. (I know there is at least one of them in this huge mansion. There just has to be! Bet I'll find each and every one of them after I've finally given up looking.) I decided to take the next best substitute if I couldn't get one within the next three doors I'd open. Guess what? Of course there were no bathrooms behind them. Just another bureau/office thing, a room that looked like it belongs to a child of some sort (maybe Kaiba's little brother's?) and… another spare guest room. Honestly, were they planning on making a hotel and then had just simply decided to change it into a manor while building the house? Why did they need so many darn guest rooms? Surely not because Kaiba's such a sociable person.

"This sucks…" I told nobody in particular as I let myself in. After a short search (a very short search), I concluded that there was nothing better for me to use than the sheets on the bed. Without further hesitation I grabbed them and went on my way back through the labyrinth otherwise known as the Kaiba manor and to Seto's room. Hmm, guess getting used to call him Seto couldn't harm anyone if I'm planning to pull my little plan through anyway.

Having reached the right room, I juggle the mass of blankets within my arms and, with a little bit of tactical use of my elbows, succeed in letting myself in without dropping anything (or making an unnecessary amount of noise). Turning around, I feel my breath hitch in my neck. Kaiba has shifted a little, twisting himself more into the sheets and the wetness from the rain has moved from his clothes to the surrounding blankets, making it look like a full-body halo of water or, as a more twisted part of my mind supplied, like a colourless puddle of blood in the moment of death. His face is still unnaturally relaxed.

Beautifully broken…

Broken beautiful one.

As the sheets nearly slip through my numb fingers, I can barely find one coherent thought in my head. Damn. Now I slowly get what the pharaoh sees in him… Shaking these thoughts out of my head, I went about the task of drying the brunette off. Too bad that it includes having to undress him, as all of his clothes are wet as well.

It turned out that this extra little fact resulted in a bigger source of distraction than I expected.

Giving Seto's unconscious body an appraising look after having stripped him down to his shorts, I couldn't help it as my tongue darted out to give my lips a little, appreciating lick. Suddenly they seemed to have become very dry. Kaiba's skin was really pale. A soft, milky way of paleness, not like the tomb robber's, which made him look like something that had just crawled out of the lightless bottoms of the underworld or his other self's, which held a fragile quality that made one immediately fear of breaking him by just looking at him the wrong way. Seto's was healthier, not quite as pale as the duo's, yet radiating a gentle aura of calm vulnerability in his unconscious state that caught the eye.

Like a river of milky white that waited to embrace your body and its caresses… You better run away, somebody's getting poetic here.-.-; Smirking at the silliness of my own thoughts, I continue with the task of getting the young CEO dry. Just as I was drying his left arm, something caught my eye. Cocking my head a bit (and being fully aware that that particular gesture gave me a bit of the image of a oversized monster-cat on crack), I looked closer. Yes, I could still trust my eyes. There really are scar-marks on his arm. Three fine lines adorn the inside of Kaiba's left upper arm, just over the bent of the elbow. I crane my head a bit more, twisting the limb to the side so that I would get a better look.

I feel my eyes widen in disbelieve. Then, a dryly amused chuckle forms on my lips. "Huhuhu… Really, Kaiba. Even on your skin your dragons are still with you." I could practically feel a bit of my old madness sparkle into life and dance in my eyes at the offered sight. A dragon. Twisting his arm like that and holding your head like this, you could recognize the three faint marks making the image of a lizard - or a Chinese-style dragon… against the rest of his barely darker-toned skin. Yeah, definitely a dragon. The longer, lightly jagged, vertical line with its slight enlargement at the end being head, torso and tail in one while both other shorter lines criss-crossed it in some distance to each other to form the legs. Really amazing. The scars were so faint that even I (self-proclaimed expert with scars and other torture marks… -What, you don't believe me? Shall I give you a sample of my knowledge? No? Thought so.) nearly wouldn't have recognized them as what they were.

I wonder if they were intentional…? Leaning a bit closer, I frowned, a thought suddenly crossing my head. What if Kaiba -Seto-, would suddenly choose just this very moment to wake up? Wouldn't that be just cheesy? Knowing my luck (or recent lack thereof), I quickly jerk back, already half expecting to meet a set of extremely pissed off icy blue eyes.

Surprisingly enough, the brunette doesn't awake. Frowning, I retreat a few steps, just to be ready in case the CEO decided to break his faked slumber and draw some hidden gun from somewhere and perform some aiming practices on me. What?! I wouldn't put it past the guy! I wait for some moments in that stance. Then I wait a few minutes more, just to be sure. (You can never know…) When still nothing came, I finally relax. Strange, why should I fear getting shot anyway? I have experienced worse practically every time I participate in a shadow game and I like those. So why…? I shrug the thought away. No sense making your head ache over something you couldn't come up with a solution for. Back at the matter at hand, I allow myself to relax, seeing that the sleeping Kaiba was really doing just that. Sleeping.

Or being comatose, I don't know.

"RRRIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNGGG!!!!!!"

-only to nearly jump out of my skin and into the room's ceiling at the (extremely) shrill sound of a phone going off. It's really a very shrill and annoying sound, I might add. You know, one of those which grates on your bare nerves like long nails on a chalkboard and makes you want to rip out the caller's heart for just giving it a reason to? Yes, just that sound. Nice to see that you understand me.

…I really ought to keep an eye on that annoying habit of mine to talk to myself as if there were other people listening. It might grow out into some sort of mental disease otherwise.

"RRRIIIIIIINNNGG!!!!!"

Again the phone calls. I flinch at the awful sound. The sound of the psychotic tomb robber's cackling I could stand. I also have no problems with dealing with the ´I'm so high-and-mighty´ pharaoh's rants or any of the sometimes deafening sounds emitted by the various creatures of the shadow realm. All no problem. Heck, I can even drone out my (sort-of) older sister's ´I see the future´ speeches! -But that terrible phone's screeches are really getting to me.

So I stomp out, forgetting all about what little talent of subtlety I have anyway and start the search for the offending machinery. I'm ready for the kill when it goes off for the third time. Rounding the corner I finally find myself in front of the doomed telephone.

"RRRIIINNGG!!!"

I growled. Stretching a hand out to seal the fate of the misfortunate device, I realize to my surprise that it was less because the awful sound, but rather the fact that it very well could wake up my slumbering blue-eyed CEO that I disliked the noise. (No, I'm not possessive in the least, what would you ever bring you to that absurd idea?)

Finding myself that interested with Seto's unconscious state has something disturbing in it.

The phone is still demanding my attention. (And getting me to the firm belief that it also secretly had a rather strong death wish.) Looking down, I notice that it has one of those caller-ID displays. Fine. Now I know at least whose neck I have to break for interrupting my Seto-studying. ´MOKUBA´ didn't give up. I'm tempted to simply smash the phone, but decide against it. Mokuba… Isn't Mokuba the name of that little brother of Kaiba's? Yeah, I think it is.

So instead of tearing the phone into two, I answer the call. Uhh, what was that Japanese ´phone-answering´ phrase again? Oh yes…!

"Moshi-moshi?"

"….."

I sweatdropped. Maybe it wasn't the right words after all. Who knows, with all those weird spelling and grammar rules?

I tried again.

"Kaiba residence?"

"…You're not niisama." Well, duh. What a world-shaking bit of information.

"…"

"Who are you?" Not good, that sounds suspicious.

"May I first know with whom I'm speaking, sir?"

"…It's Kaiba Mokuba." The ability to growl and sound calm at the same time has definitely got to be a family trait.

"Ah! Kaiba-sama´s younger brother?"

"Yes. Yet it's your turn. Who are you? And where's my big brother? He didn't answer his cell phone…"

Oops, I knew I'd forgotten something at his office.

"My name's Inari Takezo, Kaiba-kun. I work at Kayla-san´s office. Your brother had a breakdown from exhaustion back at his office a little while ago this evening. Since I was the only other one still working, I figured it would be the best to bring him home. …I hope that is all right with you."

"…."

The boy is obviously trying to figure out if he could trust my words or not. I smirk silently. Of course, I haven't been a fool enough to forget masking my voice before answering. Who knows, it might be of my advantage when nobody knows that I'm here. Mokuba (Wooden horse? What kind of name was that? Though, I guess I shouldn't be the one talking. After all, my own name means ´Master´ in Arabic.) still hasn't answered. So slowly I'm getting impatient.

"…Sir?"

"-a breakdown, you say?"

"Yes sir, a breakdown. From exhaustion, I believe. When I entered his office to hand in some last-minute reports I found him slumped over his desk, seemingly asleep. When I tried to wake him up and he didn't react, I grew worried."

A little pause.

"Can you describe me the symptoms?"

"It looks like he's asleep, pale skin (though I'm not sure if that's normal with him or not), no reactions to any attempts of waking him up…"

"Breathing?"

"Low, but calm and even."

"Pulse?"

"Even."

"Heightened eye-activity?"

"…Sir?"

A sigh. "Did you see if his eyes were moving rapidly under his eyelids? As if he would be trying to look around with his eyes closed."

"No. Everything's normal. He just doesn't wakes up."

"…Any other things you noticed?"

"Well… I think he did try to insult me after I accidentally nearly dropped him once. He was mumbling something."

"Sounds just like Niisama…-.-"

A new pause ensues. I grinned; he's taken the bait, but before long, the victorious feel turns into a frown as I consider the overly collected, businesslike tone the boy had used. Sounds like Kaiba has had such breakdowns before.

"…Inari-san?"

Jerking out of my thoughts, I glare at the phone. Did he have to ask that loud? I'm slowly getting a headache. Not to mention the stronger growing urge to cough from having to disguise my voice for that long. But the younger Kaiba wouldn't give up, and I have to say something, right? Back to switching voices…

"Sir?"

"What's wrong, Inari-san? Did you blank out or something? I was asking how nii-sama is doing now?"

I blink. How Kai-Seto is doing now? Why would you ask me, I'd like to know. Oh yes, because I am the only one here. Right. "Gomen Kaiba-kun. Your brother's doing fine. He's in his room and resting. I figured it would be the best…"

A short sigh comes from the other end of the line. "Fine. Good then, Inari-san, thank you. You can go home now, your family will probably be waiting. If I know nii-sama right, he just needs to catch up on lost sleep. He'll probably be up and back on his feet already by tomorrow. But… Just in the case he isn't, could you please go and check up on him again?"

I smirk. "No problem, Kaiba-kun. It'll be an honour. Though, I hope that it won't be necessary."

"All right. Just in case, I'll give you the number of my cell phone." I grin evilly as I acted as if I was noting down the numbers. There is no way in hell I am going to call him, yet I'm not about to tell him that. If Mokuba is anything like his brother, such a stupid slip-up could very well end up breaking my neck. And this plan was far too entertaining and pleasure-promising to let it end so soon.

A few minutes later, the call is ended, and I'm back on my way to Seto's room. Amazingly enough he's still lying in the exact same pose as when I left him. I didn't think anybody alive could sleep through that infernal racket poised by that phone. Well, one never ceases to learn new things in life, right?

A few minutes later the older Kaiba brother is dried off and, after a few moments of consideration (-After all I've never taken care of anybody before, remember? I'm underprivileged here.), tucked into bed. He's sleeping, right? And sleeping is something you do best when lying in a bed. Under the blankets, not on them. Perfectly logical conclusion, in my opinion. Though considering that my interpretation of things making sense tends to be somewhat a little bit divided from those of the rest of the world, it could just as well be complete nonsense. See if I care. He's there in bed, and he stays there. End of discussion.

Absentmindedly I wonder how big the chances are that I would manage to see the end of this affair without losing my nerves and being sent to the shadow realm again.

***

Mokuba stared blankly at the receiver of the phone. What was he supposed to do? The mechanic device in his hand seemed to be silently screaming for his attention. Mokuba grimaced.

To do or not to do it, that's the question.

If he did, Seto wouldn't be all too glad with him. If he didn't… Who knew what could be brewing up again. He really didn't want to experience a second duellist's kingdom or such. So… Uttering a resigned sigh, the black-haired boy dialed one particular number before pushing the ´call´ button.

One beep, a second, third...

Involuntary Mokuba started to relax. Maybe they weren't there. Silently he found himself wishing they weren't. Then he could just say that he'd tried and be fine with it. Seto wouldn't want their help anyway. Yet… Leaving his brother with this Inari-person wasn't something he wanted to consider. He hadn't shown it during that call, but deep down the voice of that guy had sent shivers down his spine. It had sounded… he didn't know, just somehow fake. Not what he'd said or the tone, just simply… Mokuba had the feeling that he couldn't trust that voice or the person behind it. It had had that chill - just like every time one of the millennium spirits had possessed somebody. Even Yami no Yugi had it. That strange ring that immediately told you that you were close with messing with something you shouldn't. However, that crazed out one who had appeared during his brother's Battle City had been by far the worst. His mere presence had given the younger boy the shivers and had been a very good reason for Mokuba not to move from his big brother's side during all of the tournament. Though being a Kaiba, Mokuba would never admit to that, of course.

Mokuba shook his head. No use painting the devil on the wall. He'd just call them later again. Just as the pre-teen boy was about to hang up, a very tired-sounding voice answered the phone.

"Moshi-moshi?"

Mokuba nearly dropped the phone in surprise, but caught himself quickly. Forcing a fake happy tone into his voice, he asked. "Mutou-san?" A stifled yawn.

"Yes, speaking. Who's there?" Another yawn.

"It's me, Mokuba." A pause followed that statement.

"Kaiba-kun´s younger brother?"

"Yes, I know it's late, but could you get Yugi on the phone? It's important…"

"Important? What's it? Did your big brother get himself stuck in problems again?"

Mokuba smiled slightly. He could stand Yugi´s grandfather the very well, even though he and his older brother couldn't get along. Mokuba liked the elderly Mutou though, the old man treated him nearly as well as his own grandson.

"Not really, it's just a feeling. Can you get Yugi please?"

Now it was Soguroku´s turn to sigh. "All right. Just wait a moment, alright?" A few moments later Yugi´s worried voice answered the phone. "Mokuba-kun? What's wrong?"

Taking a deep breath, Mokuba started talking.

---End chapter---

I'd like to apologize for the lack of things happening in this chapter. ^^; First, I'd planned a lot of other stuff to still happen, but then this chapter´d go on forever and ever, so I've simply decided to put it into the next one. Seto´ll be awake again in it and ´kicking´ as you so nicely put it. Poor Yami no Malik…

Please leave a review and et me know what you think of this story!^__^