I'm back!
You would think I'd have more Darker than Black fics out there considering how much I love the anime. There are a few announcements at the end. Please enjoy the fic!
November 11 had always appreciated swank surroundings. Admittedly, this particular office wasn't gilded or encrusted with precious gems, but November wouldn't mind if it were his own. The dark blue walls and black leather couches with chrome accents were particularly to his taste. There was even a closet in the corner behind the desk that he could use to store extra changes of suits in.
"Did you call me here for a reason, or are you just going to have me stand here for you to admire? And please don't think me rude for asking, but I'm on a bit of a tight schedule," November 11 tacked on. In truth, there was nothing else he had waiting for him. Well, July was in the car, but he wouldn't mind… normally. Actually, the boy could very well be grinding his teeth to the nubbins at the moment. Even with the wall of windows facing out to the city of Domino, there was something about this gorgeous office that kept the Doll from seeing in, and November and MI-6 found that very interesting.
Seto Kaiba, the most well-known and influential CEO in the world, evaluated November from behind his desk. Jack had always been surprised that a gaming company could gain such power for its owner, but after the appearance of Hell's Gate several years ago, Kaiba Corporation had been taking an interesting turn back to what it had been under Gozaburo's rule. At least, that was the case behind the scenes according to intelligence. For all the public world knew or cared, Kaiba Corp. was still just a fairyland of holograms and card games.
"How close are your connections with MI-6?" Kaiba finally asked.
Straight to the point, then. November 11 took a seat across from Kaiba without being invited and tipped it back after setting the bottle of water he had asked for on arrival on the desk. "What makes you think that I have any such connections in the first place?"
"You're not denying that you do," Kaiba pointed out.
"That's true, I suppose," November conceded. "What an adorable little rock garden you have. Very Zen, I should think." Complete with a little rake, the rather large container of sand with a few decorative stones stood out from the rest of the streamlined and impersonal cold, dark tones and shapes of the rest of the room. Excepting the closet. The contents of that would no doubt be highly personal.
Kaiba carried on, "I need a favor done by someone with special talents, if you follow my meaning."
"If you follow my meaning, why don't you just take care of it yourself?" November countered. He picked up the rake and began drawing patterns in Kaiba's garden. There was sand everywhere.
Seto Kaiba's lips might have tightened and his eyelids may just have lowered in the slightest, but he showed no other sign of being put off by November's own insinuations against him.
"I have a lot of eyes on me, wherever I go. I like it that way. It protects me from people and organizations like you and MI-6." Kaiba smirked. November had to acknowledge that at least he was at odds with someone who knew the game and how to play. "But it means that there are certain places I cannot go and people I cannot be seen with."
"What kind of places and people?"
"You won't know unless you take the job."
November laughed and continued drawing circles in the sand with the rake. "Is the mystery surrounding the job supposed to tempt me into it? I'm afraid my sense of self-preservation is indeed stronger than my curiosity. Nice try, though."
Kaiba leaned his chin against his fist and his smirk grew. "Spoken like any Contractor."
November flipped the little rake out of his hand. I guess we're done beating around the bush, then. I wonder how many others of us Contractors you've caught for your machinations with that bluntness.
He stood up and walked around the desk to peer out Kaiba's very special windows, taking his water with him. He was willing to bet that the glass was more than a little molecularly different from regular windows. He laid a hand on the surface. It felt as if it were humming. Was it organic?
"We seem to be at an impasse, DZ-862. Did you know that was your Messier Code? Of course you did; you have connections," November carried on, not bothering to wait for a confirmation or denial. He scratched a nail against the glass. Nothing came away except a slight screech.
"We had a rather hard time tracking you, you know. We've been curious about the actions of your star for quite a while now, but even when we narrowed it down to having something to do with someone in your inner circle, the Contractor's identity evaded us for months simply because we couldn't believe it was you. You're right that your public identity protected you, and not to mention that you have a great number of fans in our organization."
Kaiba said nothing, but he was watching November out of the corner of his eye. Even so, those blue eyes revealed nothing but glassy reflections of November's movements.
November smiled to himself. "One of the other reasons that you weren't even a blip on our radar was that your behavior didn't change between the time that Heaven's Gate appeared and now. You've always been a cold, unfeeling bastard who carried on with no thoughts to anything but your own self-preservation. You've never not behaved like a Contractor, so when you became one, who could tell? It's almost like the question of the chicken or the egg," Jack carried on after a moment, seeming to drift into thought. "Which came first? Are you and I Contractors because we were such cold bastards before? Or was it just a random coincidence?"
Finally something showed in Kaiba's eyes. The red glow of the synchotron radiation didn't match him and his environment nearly so well as the blue rim surrounding him. He had the fingertips of one hand playing in the sand of the miniature garden, sifting through the gritty particles, building up a mound of it beneath his palm.
"Let's not turn this into a pissing contest, Mr. Kaiba." November let his own halo of radiation encompass him and froze the glass beneath his hand, leaving an imprint and stopping the vibration in the focused area. He pulled his hand back and knocked a knuckle against the ice-cold panel.
"I must say, one of my partners, a Doll, he'd be really interested in your windows, and any other pieces of glasswork you own."
"I don't give a damn about what any Doll wants," Kaiba snapped.
November raised an eyebrow. "Really? You know, no one's seen or heard from your brother in a while—"
Kaiba stood up, a portion of sand grasped in his hand. Thin streams of it poured through the gaps in his clenched fist and onto the floor. November tightened his grip on his bottle of water, but he pushed, "Would you kindly like to tell me what's in your closet?"
He took a step forward, and Kaiba kicked his desk chair so that it bounced off the windows and came to rest blocking November's path.
"I'm guessing you don't want to share just now," November said.
"I've never wanted to share anything in my entire life," Kaiba corrected. "Never. Nor will I."
"Now even about the little terrorist activity you have going on the side? I guess you wouldn't want to share about that. I wouldn't, either."
Kaiba's head cocked to the side and his eyes narrowed. "No, you don't share your terrorist activities. Yet, I found out about them, and that's why I summoned you here."
"So you're not denying that you are affiliated with terrorists?" As Kaiba's face twisted, November felt a deep sense of satisfaction. "I realize that you were indeed the one that summoned me here, but I would like to make a couple things clear: In answer to your previous question, I am deeply involved in MI-6, and that involvement is the cause of the so-called terrorist activities that attracted you to me in the first place.
"Second, the reason that I am actually here is that, speaking for MI-6, we would greatly appreciate it if you would remove yourself from the public eye so that we can deal with you quietly, but I personally rather doubt you're going to make it easy for us to take you in hand, especially considering how proud you seem to be of your set-up."
November's eyes drifted back over to closet door, and felt Kaiba tense further. How he would love to push DZ-862 over the edge and see how far this particular Contract extended. But that was precisely the reason he decided it would be imprudent to throw caution to the wind at this time. November knew precisely how dangerous the bottle of water was in his hands. The lethality of the sand in Kaiba's hand was an unknown.
"With all of that said," November continued, "I will in fact take you up on your job offer, if it's still on the table."
"It's not."
November sighed. "And it sounded so interesting, too. I feel so deprived." Knowing Kaiba's reputation and the circumstances of his adoptive father's death, November was careful not to turn his back entirely as he backed down from the imminent collision. He even dropped his water bottle in the trash on his careful way to the door.
"I guess I'll just take my leave, then. It's been very interesting doing business with you, Kaiba. I can't wait until we meet again."
"You won't enjoy it when we do," Kaiba promised.
November just smiled as he pushed backwards out through the office doors. He tried to ignore the feeling that he was running away with his tail between his legs.
April was flirting with the stone-faced security Kaiba had stationed outside of his office. She was telling one of November's jokes. "A preacher was talking about temperance to his congregation, and…"
November went to thank Kaiba's two secretaries to give April's audience the chance to relish his humor. "I quite appreciated the water earlier—"
"Please leave your visitor badges at the front desk where they were issued to you before you leave," one of them interrupted him. Neither looked up from their respective work on screen and paper.
"And so gracious, too. Just what I'd expect from a Kaiba Corp. employee." They completely ignored him.
"…and for the final hymn, the preacher has them all sing, 'Shall We Gather at the River.' Get it! Ah, I could use a drink."
"I'll buy you one," November offered to April as he went over to collect her. "I could use a belt myself after that fruitful conversation."
April grinned and took November's arm as they walked away. "Do tell."
Seto waited until his secretaries and security confirmed the MI-6 agents were in the elevator and heading for the exit before he went to the closet. He made sure to divest his hands of the sand into the reservoir on his desk.
The ice Contractor, aka November 11, aka Jack Simon, aka a dozen other aliases that Kaiba had researched and found token bits of information about, knew more than Seto could account for. But there might be someone who could.
Seto ripped open the closet door. The Doll inside didn't so much as blink at the sudden intrusion of light and Kaiba. Mokuba hadn't responded to much after the appearance of Hell's Gate.
After starring at what had been his brother for several seconds, Seto knelt down beside the body crouched on the floor. With his hands on his shoulders, Seto set the boy to face him. Experimentally, Seto slapped him across the face, seeing if this would finally be the time that Mokuba reacted to the violence. His head rolled with the blow. No expression of fear, pain, or surprise crossed Mokuba's face. There was no indication that he was aware of the assault.
Pulling him forward, Seto laid his forehead down on his brother's. "They're not going to use you against me," he stated, starring into Mokuba's vacant eyes. "You, of all people, will not betray me. You will understand that, somehow."
Dropping the boy, Seto stood and allowed the boy to slump down.
He'd nearly closed the door on him again when he heard a rare sound: Mokuba's voice.
"Sha…dows. I see… shadows."
Seto turned back to look at the form of his younger brother. Again, he kneeled down next to him. "Shadows?"
"Shadows," the Doll repeated, his head lifting. "I… see shadows… Far away… shadows."
"How far away, Mokuba?" Seto gently pushed. The boy had been helpful in discovering the MI-6 agent, as well as some other facts and people, but his returns were far between. Much too far if he had been the one responsible for the leak of information to said agent.
"Far… away. Oceans… away," was the obscure answer.
"You're no use if you can't tell me what you see," Seto prodded, no emotion in his voice.
The Doll's blank purple eyes looked up, meeting Seto's stare straight-on. For a moment, Seto swore he saw a spark of life in Mokuba's eyes. The boy opened his mouth and made a faint noise, like one of protest, before dropping his head and becoming nothing but a Doll again.
After a moment of waiting for another reaction or emotion, of any sort, from the Doll, Seto turned away from the shell and went to his windows, leaving the closet door open for the moment.
He glared at the windows he'd crafted and was caught by his own reflection. Tears were flowing down his cheeks and dripping off his chin.
Looking away from the image, Seto caught sight of November 11's frozen handprint, melting and leaving streaks similar to those pouring down his own face.
He put one hand to his glass. And destroyed it.
November 11 looked up as he stepped out onto the sidewalk and smiled as the glass of Kaiba's office windows exploded.
Everyone else on the ground screamed and took cover as Jack merely sidled up to the open back window of his car and peeked in. "See anything in that instant, July?"
The Doll was curled in the fetal position in the shadows of the backseat, limp except for one hand planted on the window above him, leaving impressions of his hand through his sweat.
"The closet," July replied. "He keeps his Doll in the closet. It is his brother."
November nodded, having had an inkling. This was all the confirmation that MI-6 needed. They'd move in on the brothers soon, before Seto could get his own organization of Contractors up and running.
"I knew he was in there," July murmured to himself. "I knew the Doll was there."
"You did," November agreed. He shook a cigarette out of the pack forever in his inner breast pocket. He was beginning to feel antsy after frosting Kaiba's window. "How, though? Seto's affinity for glass made it impossible for you to see anything in there. Even our cameras would fizzle out when we aimed their lenses at his windows."
July weakly tapped a finger against the shaded car window. "The brother, he called for me. Through the shadows. They're his element."
"Hardly anywhere you can't see when you can look through shadows. Thank god he contacted us," November said. "I don't suppose he told you why."
"…He wants help for his brother."
November lit his cigarette and felt relief fill him along with the nicotine rush. "No helping that one, I'm afraid. A more stereotypical Contractor is nowhere to be found. It almost makes me like him." A few shards were still raining down. April came out of the Kaiba Corps. building, having stayed to turn in their badges. She caught November looking at her, nodded back, and started collecting some of the glass around the edges of the debris field in an evidence bag from her pocket. Some of it had regressed into sand.
November looked into the car again when he heard July murmur something to himself.
"What? You see something else?"
"Seto Kaiba's Obeisance."
November raised his eyebrows in interest.
"He has to cry."
Thanks for reading!
I've been absent from this site for a while, and I do feel bad about that. The excuses I have are all timed-out by this point, so I'll just say that I'm sorry it's taken so long for me to get back in pace of things, and I hope to become much more productive in the future. Finishing The One Friend of Seto Kaiba will be my main concern, but there might be a couple more oneshots in the meantime. Encouragement is appreciated, but just getting this out there has carried me away on a rush of motivation in itself. Let's hope the momentum keeps me going for a while.