Zie: Happy New Year, everyone! I'm ringing in 2009 with another fic, this one far better planned than the others. With this story, I'd like to introduce someone to you...my yami, Cerah. She'll be helping me from now on, so she may as well introduce herself a bit.

Cerah: Hell no. I'm an orphan and nineteen years old, a little older than my hikari. I guess it's so I can guide her through her younger years in life. Damn. That was an introduction, wasn't it? Anyway, as I'm helping out, I'll say this first--Kazuki Takahashi owns Yu-Gi-Oh!, not Zie. She does own this story, though, so whatever she wants to happen happens and you can deal with it or not read. Got it?

Zie: Cerah! Don't scare them off!

Cerah: Just sayin'.

Chapter One

Money Isn't Going to Fix Everything

Four years have passed since Battle City. It's hard to say if they passed quickly or slowly. A little of both, I guess. A lot's changed since then, but some things haven't. Those never will. Take my big brother for instance: he's still out to get Yugi. I don't think he'll ever get over it. I really wish he would, though. It can't be good for him, harboring that kind of bitterness. Sometimes it makes me want to get Yugi, too, just to make Seto happy...er. I don't think he'll ever truly be happy, but he could at least be nicer. I think he's fired five guys within the past month. Nobody knows why. I guess--

"Mr. Kaiba, it's time for school. Your brother will be upset if you're late again. Hurry up!"

More later.

I placed the journal I'd gotten yesterday--I'd told Seto I wanted to write, which was halfway true--under my mattress. Hopefully nobody could find it there. I quickly grabbed up my jacket and backpack before hurrying into the elevator, where Winan--a new employee, the replacement for my old, uh, bodyguard, that's how I'll put it--stood, impatiently tapping his foot. He'd barely been with us for a week, but I could tell he'd be okay once he got over his irrational fear of my brother. The elevator reached the ground floor and Winan all but dragged me out to the limousine. "Why? Why can't I just ride the bus?"

"Your brother's orders, Mr. Kaiba."

"Just call me Mokuba, Winan. Really, Seto may want to be called 'Mr. Kaiba', but I don't."

"Uh, ri-right Mr.--"

"Just Mokuba."

"I-if you wish, M-Mokuba." I guess the guy was still scared of me. Probably thought I'd sic Seto on him if he made the slightest hint of a wrong move. He was going to take longer to loosen up than some of the others. Winan opened the door of the limousine and climbed in after me. It was a silent ride to school, and I could have sworn that Winan was fidgeting the entire time.

Even as the chauffeur was coming to a stop, I was opening the door on my side in order to get out before I attracted too much attention. Not like everyone didn't know I was the younger Kaiba, filthy rich. But the less contempt I showed, the better. With a single swift motion from me, the limousine sped off, leaving me to enter Domino High School with my head down so as not to draw notice--I had recently grown several inches, and it was apparent I was going to be as tall as my brother someday. Just my luck. My newfound height--though not too too much, only five five as of that point--made it much harder to escape the curious stares of my classmates. I made my way toward my locker through the teeming hallways. I think the population of the high school had grown since Seto graduated, because he never complained about having troubles getting around. Then again, it wasn't unlikely that his classmates cleared the way for him. He'd never had any problem with letting people know he was rich, knew it, and would exploit his advantage to the fullest. I really wished he hadn't. My seniors were his freshman; they enjoyed taking revenge on my brother by torturing me. Though that had been quashed for the most part after Seto had seen me come home with a black eye, there were still some brave enough to pick on me every now and then. Today was one of those now-and-thens. As I began to twist the dial on my locker, I got shoved up against it. My struggling was to no avail: it only encouraged laughter from my attacker.

"Lookie here, 'Mr. Kaiba' thinks he can break free! Let's see if you can get out of this." A hand grabbed the back of my head and pulled it back far enough for me to see the guy's face. It wasn't a senior at all. This guy was only a sophomore, whose name eluded my memory.

"What the hell is your problem?!" I yelled. "You don't even know my brother!"

The guy growled. "I don't need to. Kaiba fired my dad. I think you're pretty familiar with him. Greg Hans?"

Damn. Greg had been my bodyguard up until last month. Seto had fired him because I was late one too many times and had to serve detention. Or at least that was the public reason. Seto had never liked Greg much to begin with. Everyone at Kaiba Corp. figured he had been searching for an excuse to get rid of him, and had finally found one.

"Your being a dumb freshman got him fired! We can't get any money from anywhere! Dad can't find a job! Damned Kaiba!" The guy--Jeffrey, I now recalled--made to bash my head against my locker, but never finished. Since he still had a pretty good grip on the back of my head, he and I were both pulled back by the gym teacher, who pulled Jeffrey off me and proceeded to drag him away by the arm toward the office.

I was left sitting in the middle of the hall, unable to move due to shock. The close call had shaken me enough that I sat there for several minutes, trying to regain myself. Eventually, I was able to stand. I hurried to get my stuff together for my first class and took off. I had barely dropped into my seat when the bell rang.

---

The day did not go well. Word of that morning traveled fast, and by the end of first class, whispers and glances followed me wherever I went. I was almost glad to be crawling into the limousine that pulled up in front of the school, almost not caring that people stared at what I got around in. I thought that, as I rode home, the worst of my day was over, and I could go up to my room and do whatever. Man, was I ever wrong. That was easy to see as soon as we got close enough to the building to see it.

There was Seto, waiting. It was never a good sign for my brother to be out of his office during business hours. Something was up, and I had a fairly good idea of what that was. "Mokuba, I need to talk to you in my office."

They called him, I thought resentfully. Why couldn't they ever leave Seto out of it? He had enough to worry about without having to deal with my bullying situation. I followed him with a frown, not even bothering to try and talk him out of it. If he 'd been waiting for me, he wanted to talk and that was that. In his office, I sat in the chair he motioned to with a sigh. "What is it?" I asked as he sat down behind his desk.

"I think you know, Mokuba. I received a call from the school this morning. I had to reschedule a meeting for it. The principal told me that the gym teacher dragged a boy into his office before first class. The boy had been caught just before he hit your head against your locker. His name was Jeffrey Hans. I inquired about the discipline he would receive, but they had yet to inform Greg. You wouldn't happen to know why Jeffrey attacked you?"

"I'm not hurt, Seto."

"That's not the point!" he yelled, slamming his hands on the desk and half-rising from his chair. My brother lowered himself and continued in a lower--but no less agitated--voice. "You could have been seriously injured. Mokuba, you are fifteen years old and this simply cannot continue."

"You're talking like I've been getting into fights, Seto! It's not like I've done anything to encourage them!"

His voice rose again. "Have you ever done anything to discourage them?"

"Do you want me to get myself suspended?!" I yelled right back.

"You wouldn't! It's self-defense!"

"Try convincing the school board of that!"

"That wouldn't be a problem!"

I completely snapped and began screaming at the top of my lungs. "MONEY ISN'T GOING TO FIX EVERYTHING!!! SO FAR IT'S ONLY MADE THINGS WORSE!!! KEEP OUT OF MY LIFE!!!" With that I ran out of his office, trying desperately to hold back tears of fury.

Seto didn't respond until I was in the elevator, waiting for the doors to close; I think that was how long it took him to realize I'd just up and run without his consent. "Mokuba, get back here!" he shouted. I saw him dash out of his office through the elevator doors just before I was shuttled downward toward my room.

Cerah: As you can see, this is from Mokuba Kaiba's point of view, four years after Battle City, and he's fifteen.

Zie: Just to note, I'm crossing dub names with Japanese ages. I'm also taking up from where Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie ended. Well, years-wise. It's been one year since that happened. And yes, this chapter was kinda short. Deal with it.

Cerah: Now review. If you liked it and want to see more, tell your friends and/or readers to R&R as well.

Zie: I won't update until I have at least five reviews. And the next chapter is nearly halfway done, so if I get the reviews it shouldn't take more than three days to get chapter two up.

Zie&Cerah: SO REVIEW!

Cerah: Flamers can go to hell and burn in the flames they've sent.

Zie: Flame and you will end up as a badly-treated OC.

Zie&Cerah: SO DON'T FLAME!