Summary – It's not Kaiba's fault uninvited guests crash the VR event Kaiba Corporation is hosting for some of the most disadvantaged children. Or, is it? No pairings, brotherly fluff.

Disclaimer – Kazuki Takahashi is the creator of Yu-Gi-Oh! This story was written to show my appreciation for the world, situations, and characters he has given us, and in no way makes any claim on his right to his work.

Trick or Treat

Chapter One

Kaiba checked all the settings again. He keyed the command that displayed the power system chart, that graphed the current and projected power use, and rated the energy quality. He reached to the console to key in yet another command, only to have his hand stopped by Mokuba.

"It's fine, Big Brother!" Mokuba's eyes smiled up at him, shiny and happy.

"I'm not sure that I trust this system," Kaiba admitted.

"You went over it with a fine-toothed comb, Seto. You even disassembled and rebuilt every single bit of the hardware. Yes, Seto, every single bit. There's not any of the Big Five's handiwork left in the system," Mokuba told him. "This will work -- just as you programmed it to, Seto."

Kaiba stopped fussing then. At least, overtly, where Mokuba could see. Instead, he traced every bit of circuitry, every program cluster, every power converter, mentally, and hoped that it would indeed work as he programmed it to.

His VR game had been co-opted and turned into a weapon against him by the Big Five, the executives of his own company who wanted to overthrow him, seize control of Kaiba Corp., and hand it over to Pegasus. After rescuing Mokuba from Pegasus' very clutches (no, Kaiba admitted to himself, after being rescued himself along with Mokuba by Yugi from Pegasus' very clutches -- he was scrupulously honest with himself) and returning home, he'd been informed that the Big Five had directed that one of his pet projects be completed in his absence.

He knew it was a trap. It had to be. But, he had created the VR simulator, and the program, and there was no way those pin-headed executives could out-program or out-play him. Or so he thought. They'd screwed up his program. They'd gotten into the source code and completely mucked it up. Most disturbing of all to Kaiba was the way they changed Prince Eden, the character Kaiba had based upon Mokuba. They'd made him female, and then they had the audacity to make her wimpy and ineffective. The only reason to have done that was to upset him. It had not affected the VR story, or ultimately the trap that had captured Kaiba in the Big Five's version of that story. Kaiba had seethed when he ran into that perversion of his programming and hoped that Mokuba would never know what had been done. He had been quite dismayed that Mokuba had run into 'Princess Edenia' and hoped that Mokuba didn't think that was how Kaiba thought of him.

Yugi had saved him, yet again. Kaiba seethed over that. He was -- grateful -- for the rescue, but annoyed that it had been needed. He was highly annoyed that in order to put paid to the Big Five and their monstrous communal 'Mythic Dragon', he had to put his dragon at Yugi's command and control. Still, if there was one person he would trust with that sort of command, it was Yugi. Damn him.

He sighed.

"It will work, Seto! Just as you programmed, and those kids will have a fun night to take their minds off of..."

Kaiba reached out to tousle Mokuba's hair. His little brother, despite all the weird things, some of them quite bad, that had happened to him, had the biggest heart. Kaiba knew he was wrapped around Mokuba's little finger, but he didn't mind. His little brother would never abuse the power that gave him.

Like this. Mokuba had begged Kaiba to repair the VR simulator. Kaiba hadn't wanted to -- he thought he'd ordered it destroyed after the Big Five had ruined it for him. Mokuba had quietly countermanded that order, but ordered it powered down, and any components that weren't in Kaiba's original schematics to be removed.

At Mokuba's insistence, he and Kaiba had spent nearly every waking moment that wasn't taken up with school, work, dueling, and other such important activities, for the past six months writing a new program for the simulator, and making certain that it was restored to the condition and shape Kaiba wanted -- not the Big Five's version.

Mokuba had handled the PR aspects of selecting the very few, but very special 'VR Explorers' who would have access to the repaired VR system. They were fifteen children, who, through either accident or genetics, were partially or fully immobilized in hospitals, long-term care facilities, or their own family homes. Mokuba had vetted hundreds of such children in the range of Kaiba's VR simulator, making sure that this initial group of VR Explorers were the right blend of intelligent and imaginative enough to use the system, mentally balanced enough to not wish to lose themselves in the VR experience, and otherwise what he called 'worthy'. When Kaiba had asked him about that last one, and how Mokuba had quantified it, his little brother had replied, "You know, just, worthy. They got paralyzed through no fault of their own. They didn't do something stupid to wind up in their situations. Maybe for other VR Explorers, eventually, because even stupid people deserve a chance to be happy, but not the first ones. They have to be -- good."

Given the challenge that some of the 'worthy' ones Mokuba selected were in such nearly complete states of paralysis that it wasn't feasible to bring them to the VR suite at Kaiba Corporation headquarters, and he was an electronics genius after all, Kaiba had made the VR helmets self-contained. This had required a highly protected satellite up-link, of course, but he had his experiences with the Kaiba Corp. dueling computers and disks to draw upon. He reminded himself of all of this, and tried to convince himself that nothing would go wrong. He managed to not reach forward and fidget with calling up new commands on the console in front of him, displaying a slightly bored, outward sense of calm, but inside, he worried. And fidgeted.

"It's dusk, Big Brother!" Mokuba reported happily from the window.

Okay, Kaiba reminded himself. Mokuba wants this to work -- work it will! He pulled the control helmet, that would put him in contact with all sixteen VR Explorers, over his head and adjusted the microphone properly next to his mouth. Mokuba climbed into the only one of the original VR pods there was in use this night, now situated in the same room next to Kaiba's control console. Kaiba would monitor Mokuba's situation directly, and he wanted no distance between them. Kaiba flipped the switches that would give him the real-time information from the dedicated and secured Kaiba Corp. satellite that would be in use, and the equally dedicated and secured redundant satellite he reserved as a back-up, just in case.

"Kaiba Corporation's VR Halloween Event commences, now," he stated in the microphone in a calm voice. His voice carried to each of the fifteen selected VR Explorers through both the internal and external speakers in their helmets. "Place the VR helmet over your head." He waited a few moments, knowing that some of the more profoundly paralyzed children would require caretakers to help with this step. He'd carefully designed the helmets to work with all sorts of apparatus that assisted with breathing, not wishing any of the children soon to be in his care to be harmed in any way. He keyed the command that would slowly polarize the faceplates of each helmet, creating an artificial dusk before each child's eyes.

"Relax and remain calm. You will remain in your beds, safe and cared for the entire time while the helmet on your head helps your mind to wander. You were each asked to decide what costume you wanted to wear for Halloween this year. Close your eyes, and imagine it, now."

Five sub-windows popped up immediately. Kaiba glanced at each one, to make certain they were of children wearing costumes, and not of children imagining themselves as superheroes, monsters, or other fantastic beings. The psychologist he'd brought in to consult with about this project had been quite clear about that. He keyed the commands that would add a little something extra to each child's costume, 'lock' this view the children held of themselves, and sent those minds to the waiting area in the game. In the few seconds he was working with that seven other windows popped up one by one. Each of these costumes was acceptable, too, so he enhanced and locked the images and routed the children's minds into the VR simulator.

"Jeremy, are you having trouble imagining it?" Kaiba flipped the private communication switch and asked one of the four hold-outs carefully. Jeremy's sub-screen flickered nervously.

"I can't decide." The child's voice was light in his ear.

"Would you like some help?" Kaiba asked softly.

"Yes, please."

"Imagine each one for me, slowly." Kaiba watched as a boy in a t-shirt, but no costume appeared. Clearly not acceptable. He was replaced by the same boy in the same outfit but wearing a scary mask. Better, but not good enough. Finally, the same boy in an extravagant pirate costume, complete with an eye-patch, parrot on his shoulder, and 'real' wooden peg-leg. Kaiba called up the medical information on Jeremy in yet another sub-window. Sure enough, Jeremy had lost his leg to an amputation that staved off a life-threatening infection in the limb. "The pirate one looks to be the most fun, to me, Jeremy," Kaiba said. "But, I'm going to modify it for you slightly." He turned off the communication connection just as he got the child's tentative agreement.

"O-okay..."

Kaiba keyed the commands swiftly – to give the boy a sound and normal leg instead of a wooden one, and to animate his parrot. He'd be able to keep a closer eye on the boy through the parrot. The psychologist had impressed upon him most strongly that for this VR adventure, the children much be unhampered by their true physical conditions. He emailed a transcript of the exchange to the professional, so that the man could make certain that Kaiba's seat-of-the-pants psychological instincts hadn't harmed the boy as he shunted Jeremy's mind into the game. While he was doing that, a fairy princess and a miniature duelist who bore more than a passing resemblance to Yugi in his dueling outfit, complete with outrageous wig, appeared in their own windows. Kaiba added a special continuous sparkle effect to the princess's wand and gown, and eliminated the wig of the other child, directly changing the boy's VR hair into Yugi's distinctively weird style.

He added the screens up, after closing all extraneous ones. He knew that the children, in the waiting area of the game, were waiting, probably not patiently at all, for the VR 'parents' to open the door and let them go trick-or-treating. While they were waiting, the doorbell was ringing at random intervals, and other completely VR trick-or-treaters were getting their treats from the VR parents. There were sixteen sub-windows, but the number was off, since one of them was the spy-parrot he'd added. Who was missing? He turned and glared at Mokuba. His little brother grinned at him, and his screen finally popped up. A Blue-Eyes White Dragon roared defiantly at Kaiba. Kaiba smiled at that, but turned to face his little brother again.

"You know I can't let you have that as your costume, Mokuba. Maybe later, but not now. Not with these kids."

"Yeah, but I wanted you to know that was my first choice."

"Okay, now I know. Your second choice? Make sure it's one that will work, Mokuba."

At Kaiba's no-nonsense tone, Mokuba complied. Kaiba's lips twitched again, even as he enhanced and locked the image and sent Mokuba's mind into the waiting area. Mokuba appeared in the waiting room, his hair combed down in a ruthlessly neat style he could never achieve in real life, complete with a white trench coat that gleamed with KC logos at the lapels. A very detailed Duel Disk, that Kaiba had considerately made lighter weight than they really were, but whimsically decided would actually work, was strapped to his left arm. Despite his lack of the proper height, Mokuba spread his legs into the stance Kaiba most often affected when he was dueling, and crossly demanded to know what the hold-up was.

Knowing that Mokuba's mind was elsewhere, Kaiba allowed himself to laugh at his little brother's antics. It was going to be fun for him to watch as Mokuba pretended to be "Seto Kaiba" for his trick-or-treat costume. Kaiba smirked knowing that he had managed to sneak in a few enhancements that Mokuba didn't know about. If his little brother was bold enough to trick him, he deserved a few VR tricks back, in return.

"Dad," Mokuba pulled on 'Dad's' jacket insistently. "Can we go now?" That was the VR cue for the parents to supply the children with bags to collect candy in, and release them for their trick-or-treat portion of the night's festivities. While the kids were out trick-or-treating in Mokuba's company and under his supervision, Kaiba would trigger the sequence that turned the waiting area 'house' into a haunted house for the VR party.

The psychologist had been most insistent that the children's self-images be confined to what was real (minus their individual handicaps, of course) but permitted Kaiba to populate the VR world with whatever he wished. Each child was well aware that this was a VR simulation, so the psychologist saw no harm in it. Therefore, the VR world the children trick-or-treated in was filled with what appeared to be 'real' monsters, both Halloween and Duel Monsters in origin, along with other virtual trick-or-treaters. The VR Explorers leisurely wound their way through the neighborhoods, ringing bells, getting candy, and otherwise enjoying an activity that some of them had only ever heard about, but never done. Kaiba kept a close eye on Jeremy with his spy-parrot, but he seemed to be acting the same way the other children were.

It was while Kaiba was checking the power-flow consumption, up-link security, and program status when everything fell apart. His mind was abruptly pulled away from his master console, and unceremoniously shoved into that of the spy-parrot. Shocked by the sudden change, blacking out from it for some reason, he blinked up and saw the VR Dark Magician looking directly into his eyes, smirking at him, and wagging a finger.

"But, I never programmed that!" His thoughts protested as he lost consciousness.

– – – – –
Author's note –

I hadn't expected to write a Halloween fic this year, as I didn't have any inspiration. Normally my Halloween stories are in the Vampire Hunter D fandom, as well. I'm trying to get ready for NaNoWriMo this year, and post another chapter to 'The Remedy' before November. So, of course, Dragonboy has to slam me with a new plotbunny. This isn't even that plotbunny either. This is an entirely new one he concocted for just for Halloween – well, this chapter is his idea anyway. (The other four chapters are my revenge on him for making me write this.) It's entirely his fault the direction this story took.

Next chapter teaser – Seto want a cracker?