It's a Kaiba Thing
So, here I am again, at the beginning of the YGO fanfiction contest. For those of you who don't know, we basically write a pairing once every two weeks of our sadistic host(s)'s choosing and scramble furiously to write it within that single week. This week's was Siblingshipping. Therefore... enjoy? To the fellow contestants, please don't kill me for making such a long one! And of course, good luck to you all.
... And I apologise. I meant to sneak yaoi into this, not bludgeon readers over the head with it. Ah well. Just something else to look forward to. Also, I apologise for how cracky it became.
Notes: Mokuba isn't that much younger than Shizuka – only about a year or two. Since Shizuka doesn't have an official birthday, the year difference is about a year and a half. This takes place approximately a year after the ceremonial duel, if anyone is interested... which you're not. Alright then.
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters that appear in this fic. However, I own the characters that don't! For example, Ryou, Yami no Bakura, Thief King Bakura, Malik, Yami no Malik – (is brick'd)
Tabloids all over Japan had at one point or another dwelled upon – as thoughtfully as any gossip rag could – the similarities and differences of the Kaiba brothers. One said that while Seto Kaiba's eyes were "sharp blue, cold and dark like a stormy ocean", Mokuba Kaiba's were as "light, bright and cheerful as a windy autumn afternoon". Others speculated on the large difference in hair colour while even more still predicted that Mokuba would grow and inherit the 'Kaiba frame' which was rumoured, underneath the many layers of clothing, to be a "long, mean sex machine – Girls, eat your hearts out!"
In fact, the only thing they all agreed on was that they both had a fiery passion for games, though this was normally hidden under such claims as, "we can only imagine what a man with such a drive would be like in the bedroom!"
There was one important thing that the Kaibas shared, however. It was this that had Seto chasing Yugi and his alter ego for years, and it was what led Mokuba to storm his brother's office one late Monday afternoon.
Pride. And they were so full of it that it was coming out of their ears.
"SETO!" Mokuba hollered, ignoring the distressed cries of the secretary behind him. "Seto, I need you to do something for me now. It's an emergency!"
"What, Mokuba?" Seto groaned, for once sounding like the disgruntled teenager he was instead of the stoic businessman he was supposed to be. He slammed a button on his desk intercom and snapped, "Miss Takana, if you do not want to lose your job by the end of the week, return to your desk immediately."
Mokuba shut the doors behind him just in time to see poor secretary Takana rush back to her seat and said wryly, "Every year, the annual review comes around and every time you insist on looking at all of the employees' files yourself. Every time I tell you to delegate the work to some managers or even just to me, every time you ignore me, and then every – single – time, you end up like this. Do you not see something wrong with this picture?"
Seto's eyes were back on the pile of folders in front of him. He scribbled something furiously in his feared red ink pen and muttered venomously under his breath.
"Seto. Don't ignore me."
"Mokuba," Seto said slowly, his hand dancing across the folder, "I have standards much higher than anyone else in this company. Because I am the only one that is unwilling to stand for the rampant incompetence one finds in other large corporations, I am also the only one suited for this job. Perhaps if there was one other person that possessed the right qualities and capabilities and judgement, I would let him look through them. But there isn't."
Mokuba winced internally. Atemu had rejected another of Seto's job offers. That explained his bad mood. In that case, there was no point in dwelling on the matter. Besides, he had a much more pressing concern...
"Seto, I need you to go into the online database for ReDead and locate the machine that registered the first place high score of all time."
Seto paused and looked up at him. Most people knew ReDead as a classic first-person zombie shooter game that could be found in any arcade with a dozen others of the same genre. To Seto and Mokuba, it was the first shooter game released by KaibaCorp, unique at the time for implementing what had been praised as a breakthrough in public arcade gaming – an online system that recorded all scores in Japan and displayed the top fifty scores ever achieved on any machine, as well as the top ten scores of that day. Ever since its debut, the top single player score had been held by Mokuba under the name of 'KAI'. The top multiplayer score was shared by the two brothers and though Seto never had time to play with Mokuba anymore, he anticipated correctly that no one would ever beat their score and allowed five letters for their high score name; KAIBA would most likely remain on top until the game went out of service.
"Somebody beat you." It was not a question but a statement of fact. Mokuba met his hard stare with one of his own.
"Yeah. That's why I want to find out where this guy plays so I can challenge him and get my title back." Mokuba wanted to say, "Sounds familiar, huh?" but knew that any hint of Atemu would probably spell death for the Human Resources department. Seto did not like it one bit when they backed up employees that complained about long hours and with him in such a dark mood, Mokuba was not sure that he would be able to restrain himself from taking his anger out on their jobs.
Seto sighed, long and loud – it spoke clearly to Mokuba about how this would put Seto out, this better be worth it, if you don't kick the ass of the guy who dared sully the great Kaiba name so help me, Mokuba you are lucky I love you so much – everything that would simply be too much of a waste of breath, not to mention cheesy, to say. "I'll look into it."
Mokuba beamed. "You're the best, big brother. I'll leave you alone now." He walked out, leaving a ruffled Seto Kaiba behind to smoulder at faceless employees in isolation once again.
When he got a phone call two hours later on his personal line, he literally dropped everything - homework was a waste of time, anyway. He picked it up and answered, "So?"
"I did a bit of extra digging for you. Be grateful."
"What did you find?"
"The first time a player calling himself JOU got onto a high score list. It was fifth place on the local machine. The arcade it's located in is a small city and I don't know if this person is related to the JOU that beat your score. You probably don't know the place."
"Try me."
"Tenryu, in the Shizuoka prefecture."
"..."
"Case and point. However, the JOU that beat your score registered his username at the Kumo arcade."
Mokuba's eyes widened and he sat up straight. "You don't mean –"
"Yes, I do. He was playing at the Kumo arcade in Domino City. Not only that, but this took place about three days ago. It should be easy to locate him."
"Thanks, big brother. I'll scout out the area tomorrow." Mokuba hung up the phone.
Enjoy first place while you can, JOU. I'm on to you and I won't stop until I take back what was rightfully mine.
-o-O-o-O-o-
Tuesday afternoons at the Kumo arcade were never busy. There were far too many things to be done in the real world for most of its patrons to come. However, its regulars, shameless about their love for games, would come rain or shine, homework or no. This is why when Mokuba walked into the arcade and saw Jounouchi and Yugi playing a fighting game against each other, he was not surprised in the least.
"I lost again?!" Jounouchi cried, shooting up from the stool. "I thought you said you'd handicap yourself!"
"I did," Yugi said sheepishly. "I really don't know what else I can do to make it easier for you, Jounou – ah, Mokuba! Why are you here?"
"Mokuba?" Jounouchi blinked and looked back. "What are you doing in a dump like this?"
"Business," Mokuba said seriously, grey eyes darting all over the place. It could be anyone. Could one of these guys be him? "I'm looking for someone, actually."
"Was he gonna meet you here?" Jounouchi said. "Relax, you just got here. Have some patience. My sister's in here from out of town and I brought her here, but she went to the washroom about ten or twenty minutes ago and I haven't seen her since. The only reason out I'm still waiting is because I know how long girls take in the washroom." He grinned and elbowed Yugi in the side. "Am I right?"
"I don't think girls usually take so long," Yugi said. "Anzu doesn't."
"Anzu, Shmanzu. She's practically a guy. Mai takes a freaking hour in the washroom sometimes!"
Yugi turned a bit red and turned to Mokuba. "So who were you looking for?"
"Some guy that goes by the name of JOU," Mokuba said truthfully. Jounouchi pointed at himself with a confused look on his face and he shook his head. "Not you, someone that can play video games well. He beat my high score on one of my best games and I want to challenge him to a match."
Jounouchi puffed up angrily. "O-Oi! What's that supposed to mean? Hey! I'll show you who can play! I almost beat Yugi today!"
"Yeah, yeah," Mokuba said, rolling his eyes. "I'll take it back if you can get a high score on..." he looked around. "That pinball machine."
"Alright!" Jounouchi grinned, rolling up his sleeves. "Prepare to eat your words!"
Mokuba took Yugi aside as Jounouchi boasted loudly about his gaming skills and told the pinball machine to "watch out, because the great Jounouchi is here!". Yugi looked at him, slightly concerned.
"What's up, Mokuba?"
"Well..." Mokuba breathed in deeply and paused before charging right in. "To be honest, I was hoping I would find you here too. Look, I know Atemu's been turning down all of Seto's job offers and he does have every right to be suspicious of what's making him do this all of the sudden - but I also know how hard it is to find a job anywhere outside of the Kame Game Shop when you don't legally exist. Seto's been so bogged down with work lately that I think he's on the verge of firing half of his employees and I really, really think that it would help him out a lot if Atemu would at least give the job a chance!"
Yugi blinked slowly as if considering something. "Are you sure this is just about the job?"
It was Mokuba's turn to be confused. "Huh? What are you talking about?"
"With the way he was moping around..." Yugi muttered almost too low for Mokuba to hear. He leaned forward only to jump in surprise when Yugi suddenly clapped loudly. "You know what? You're right! This would be good for him. The store's not bringing in what it used to anyway and we don't really need him around."
"So you'll talk to him?"
Yugi nodded and smiled. "I'll make sure he calls your brother tonight."
"Yugi! You want a drink?" Jounouchi called from the pinball machine. "I'm just gonna grab one once I finish th – ah! Shit!" The machine blinked and beeped loudly and Jounouchi turned away from it, grinning sheepishly. "I'm gonna go get a drink now. Coke?"
"I'll come with you. Mokuba, would you like something?"
He blinked. "Uh, yeah, sure. Just get me a Coke too. Here..." he fished out a thousand yen note from his pocket. "My treat."
Jounouchi grinned widely, grabbing it eagerly from his hand. "You're a good kid. Don't think I'm done though - I'll get a high score on there even if it kills me!"
As soon as they left Mokuba went straight to the closest ReDead machine he could find. He took the blue gun from its holster and spun it around his fingers like a pro. "Alright, JOU. This is the end of the line for you!"
He allowed the high score to flash across the screen once more before putting in two coins. As the game went through the introduction screen and instructions he tapped the machine dashboard impatiently. It was easy to go through a perfect game in terms of health – don't get hit and don't hit any civilians. The only way he could beat JOU was if he managed to have an accuracy range somewhere in the 95 and 100 percentile while also getting multiple shots on the zombies before and after their deaths. How the Hell could JOU manage that, anyway?
"Choose your character!" The announcer said.
The choice was obvious – Seth, of course. Mokuba grinned and squeezed the trigger. The moment the tinny sound echoed from the machine, Mokuba knew he would not beat JOU. The gun's trigger was sticky; there would be at the very least a .5 second delay from when he reacted to when the machine processed it. Mokuba swore under his breath but began the game anyway, his mood thoroughly ruined.
This gun is utter crap. There's no way I'll be able to triple combo all the zombies if the gun shoots a freaking year later! A sudden horrible thought hit him as he blew a zombie's head off. JOU had managed to beat his score in this arcade, possibly with this very crappy machine. He beat him, Mokuba, who had a ReDead machine in his room in top condition!
"Got your coke!" Jounouchi bellowed from behind him.
"AGH!" Mokuba yelped, dropping the gun. He scrambled to grab the wire that connected it to the machine and reached for the gun, but it was too late – the axe-wielding rambler had already reached Seth and was hacking happily away. A shot in the head and chest finished it off but two health bars would not be enough to beat JOU.
"Way to go, Jounouchi!" Mokuba said irritably. "You ruined my score."
"Was this the game you were talking about before?" Yugi asked, looking mildly disturbed at the rotting body parts flying this way and that across the screen.
Jounouchi shivered slightly and Mokuba could have sworn his face was grey. "Zombies are so creepy."
Mokuba swapped the coke in Jounouchi's hand with the gun and smiled innocently. "Well if they're so creepy you wouldn't mind killing a couple of them, right? I'm tired of playing anyway."
"Eh?" Jounouchi stared at the gun in his hand for a second; there was a loud roar and a zombie swinging around a chainsaw lumbered into view from behind a radioactive barrel. Jounouchi's eyes widened comically. "Oh shit –"
"Go, Jounouchi, go!" Yugi cheered.
"AIYAAAH!" Jounouchi hollered, though whether it was his battle cry or simply a cry of fear Mokuba did not know. But by the way Jounouchi was shooting everywhere on the screen except for the zombie limping towards him, Mokuba did know the only thing that mattered: Despite what he thought, Jounouchi was not anywhere close to the skill level of his archenemy JOU.
"You can do it, Jounouchi!" Yugi chirped. "Rip it apart! Shoot its brains out! I believe in you!" Yugi meant well.
"I – hate – zombies!" Jounouchi yelled. "BACK! STAY BACK!"
"Game over," the machine said gravely and the three could only stare as Seth was ripped apart.
Jounouchi was definitely looking ill now. Yugi shook his head and patted his back sympathetically. "Ew," he said.
"Ew," Mokuba agreed as the credits rolled up the screen. "Anyway, here," he said, standing on his toes and tapping the screen, "this is the guy I was talking about. He calls himself JOU and he got his high score in this arcade."
"You Kaibas are both creepy stalkers, you know that?" Jounouchi muttered and knocked back his ice coffee in one shot, hand still trembling slightly.
"He scored 967 868 points? That's a really good score, Mokuba. I wouldn't feel too bad about losing."
Mokuba opened his mouth to protest then froze as he registered what Yugi said. "Did you say –" Mokuba turned to the screen quickly, but the scoreboard did not lie. "But he hadn't cracked 960 000 points before I started playing!" His grey eyes widened and without another word, he dashed down the aisle.
"M-Mokuba? What's wrong?" Yugi called after him. Mokuba ignored him. As soon as he got to the end of the row he grabbed the right handle of the Dance Dance Revolution machine and used it to propel him around the corner without losing a second.
Sometime between when I started playing and when Jounouchi lost, JOU beat the game and increased his score. It couldn't have been more than ten minutes so he might still be here –
He almost ran into the girl now standing in front of the only other ReDead machine in the arcade, who was staring at it with a rather bewildered look on her face.
"Hey! Hey you!"
The girl looked at him quickly, her big eyes widening.
"Did you see where the guy before you went?" he said, breathing hard.
"Um," she said, rather alarmed by his appearance, "I think he was heading for the exit –"
Mokuba took off like a shot towards the door. There was no one else leaving, only coming in so if the guy had just left he could still catch up –
He kicked the door open with a bang and landed in the middle of the sidewalk, looking this way and that, but it was a bustling crowd with people going this way and that. JOU had lost him.
"I'll get him tomorrow," Mokuba promised himself as he trudged back in. "I can wait a day. Or I'll get Seto to look at the surveillance footage. I won't let him get away." He supposed he should apologise to the girl before going back to Yugi and Jounouchi so he let his feet take him back to the second aisle.
"Did you find who you were looking for?" she said, her voice soft and anxious as if Mokuba would suddenly jump and run again.
"Nah, he got away," Mokuba said dejectedly. "Look, sorry about that, I didn't mean to startle you or anything – hey, wait a second," he said suddenly, getting a good look at her face. "Aren't you Jounouchi's sister?"
She looked startled and smiled shyly, "Yeah. You're Mokuba, right? You were there at Battle City?"
"Yup," he said proudly. "I helped run the thing. You know, Jounouchi still thinks you're in the washroom. Shouldn't you go tell him you're out? He got you a drink."
Mokuba noticed her glance towards the ReDead machine before answering, "Oh... Well, I guess I should. Do you know where he is?"
A strange idea popped into his head that moment. He tried hard to be as much like his brother as he could, honestly – but he had not yet mastered the ability to think before he acted. "Did you want to play the game?" he asked before he could stop himself.
Her dark eyes flitted back from the game to him again. "I really shouldn't," she said. "Jounouchi wouldn't like me playing games like that, and I should let him know where I am."
"But you want to play, right?" Mokuba insisted. "If you want to play you should play. Who cares what he thinks? Come on, play with me." He put coins into the machine while inwardly cursing at himself. Why was he pursuing this? He should drop it, drop it now before he looked like even more of an idiot –
Shizuka had picked up one of the guns from the holsters. "Well, if you want to play with me," she said, "then I guess I'll play with you."
"Great!" Mokuba said. "Do you know how to play?"
"I've played once or twice."
Mokuba chose Seth as his character again. "So you don't need me to tell you how everything works, right?"
Shizuka smiled at him and chose a well-endowed blonde beauty, Miya, as her character.
"She looks like... uh, what's her name? Mai Kujaku," Mokuba observed, watching the character pose and bat her eyelashes at them as she spoke small phrases in thick, accented English.
"I know," Shizuka said admiringly. "Yours looks a bit like your brother."
Mokuba beamed proudly. "That's because his character design was based off of him. This is one of our earlier games." One of their earlier games... Mokuba sighed, dejected, and started the first level.
"Wow, really? Actually, I wanted to tell you that..." she trailed off when she glanced at his face. "What's wrong?" Shizuka said as the first enemy made its way slowly onto the screen.
"I used to have the high score on this game until some asshole calling himself JOU beat me." Mokuba took the first shot. "This was the first game that got me noticed as more than just Seto Kaiba's little brother, and now some idiot took my title away from me!"
"Ah," Shizuka said, quiet and contemplative.
"No one's really noticed yet, but people are bound to soon," Mokuba said bitterly. "And when they do, they're going to start talking. I need to nip this in the bud now, before it gets out of hand. I'm gonna track this JOU guy down and when I do I'll make him face me one-on-one and beat him, with all of Japan as my witness! "
A couple of Shizuka's bullets bounced harmlessly off the next zombie's sickle as he waited for her answer. He looked over at her face; she seemed strangely pale. Well, she was a beginner. She probably couldn't concentrate on conversation and the game like he could.
"And that was who you were chasing? You... You don't know who JOU is?"
"Not yet. But it won't be too hard to find out. It only took me a day to find out that he came here. Anyway, about before," Mokuba urged gently. "You were going to say something?"
"Oh! Um, I must have forgotten," she said, stammering slightly. Mokuba shrugged it off and blew up two heat-seeking missiles the zombies had shot at them – how zombies could acquire and properly shoot a rocket launcher was beyond him, but he did not question it.
Alright, Mokuba, he told himself, you're playing a game with a girl. Coaching her isn't enough. You gotta talk to her too. Ask her stuff about herself. You could be the first guy in class with a girlfriend! Though as far as girlfriends went, she was not his top choice if he was to be perfectly honest with himself. Her face was soft around the eyes, lips and nose but she had Jounouchi's sharp chin and cheekbones. Her hair was a boring brown and her eyes – well, he hadn't bothered to look at her eye colour. Probably mud brown too. But still, she was at least a year over him, and that would score him some major points with the other boys.
"You said you played the game before?" Mokuba asked, trying to sound nonchalant and cool.
"Y-Yeah," she said, eyes locked on the screen. "Not very often. My mom doesn't like me playing violent games."
"But you like this game?"
"... No," she admitted quietly. Her voice was almost drowned out by the machine gun her character was now using with ease. "I think it's gross and the monsters are a bit scary."
Girls are so weird! "You don't like playing?" he said, bewildered. "Then why would you even try it in the first place?"
"Do you promise not to laugh?"
"Promise." Maybe.
She shot a particularly gruesome-looking zombie off a female civilian. "It... It's for my brother."
"Eh?"
"I know it's hard to imagine, him being so brave and all, but he's a bit scared of ghosts and zombies," she said. Mokuba rolled his eyes slightly but said nothing. "He told me about how some of the monsters in Battle City came to life in the finals, when I was staying with Mai, and so – and so I decided that if zombies and ghosts appeared and tried to scare my brother, I should be able to defend him. I want to help him like he's always helped me!"
Don't laugh, don't laugh... She's getting ready for a zombie invasion? They're definitely related. Sounds like a Jounouchi thing to do. "Okay, that is a bit weird. But y'know, if my brother was scared of anything –" Mokuba was careful to exaggerate the 'if', "I'd do the same thing. Oh!"
He recognised this part of the level; he gripped his gun tightly in his two hands. There was a secret gun level up hidden behind a wooden box marked with a skull-and-bones but the timing was tricky. When one of the canine zombies jumped over the pile of boxes, the player needed to shoot it on the right side at just the right second in order to send its body into the metal container filled with corrosive material, which would then fall over and roll by the box – and then the player had to explode the barrel, thereby exploding the container with it, and claim the level up. It was a long chain of events that had to go just perfectly in order to work. What made it so difficult is that it took a total of about three seconds and there were no second chances; the camera would swing wildly to the right and their characters would storm another room, ending the level.
Mokuba sighed. It was double player, which meant more enemies, and poor Shizuka would need to be defended by him in order to survive. He wanted to show off his knowledge of the game, but he would have to wait until next time.
Shizuka gasped from beside him as the canine zombies started to flood the room. Their guns went bang bang bang and Mokuba paid special attention to any on her side, making sure to finish them off so she didn't have to. The key canine jumped over the boxes –
There was one loud shot and a whimper as it was sent flying into the container. Shizuka had switched without warning to the rifle. Mokuba stared in disbelief as two shots later, the canister exploded and the game chimed, "Level up!" That was not done by his gun. He looked at Shizuka.
His poor thirteen year old heart could not handle the sight. Shizuka was standing tall with her gun in one hand – oh my God she shoots one-handed so accurately?! – and her face was set in an adorable frown. Her hair – he couldn't believe he thought it was boring, it was clearly sparkling and auburn and beautiful – flew around her like a halo; her hazel eyes were narrowed slightly and her pink lips, glittering slightly with lip gloss, were pursed. She looked like a gamer. She was a gamer.
"Mokuba?" Shizuka said anxiously as she finished off the last enemies of the level single-handedly. "Are you okay?"
Mokuba suddenly realised he was openly staring at her and shut his mouth quickly. "I – uh – I thought you said you couldn't play!" he said accusingly – it was all he could do to keep the admiration out of his voice. His heart was doing flip-flops all over the place. A girl near his age that could play video games this well – it was unheard of!
"I-I never said that," Shizuka said quietly, "I just said I didn't play very much and that I don't like it. And I don't. Jounouchi's friend Honda showed me how to shoot, that's all."
Honda. Death-T. Laser Tag. Ah. Gotcha. That explains it.
"But – you –" Mokuba said, absolutely flabbergasted. "You knew, you knew about the secret level up –"
Shizuka looked very worried. "Should I not have known? I'm sorry, Mokuba –"
"No, it's fine," said Mokuba. His throat was dry. He was feeling funny all over, actually. Tingly. Electrified. And his cheeks were heating up like they were over a power burner set on high. "Look, Shizuka, I – I think I have to go. I'm not feeling great."
Shizuka's eyes widened as she put the two guns back in their holsters. "Do you need to go to the washroom? I can take you –"
"NO! I mean, uh, no thanks, no thank you, I probably need to go anyway, Seto gets paranoid when I'm out too late 'cause people like holding me hostage and, you know, it goes all over the news and stuff. Y-Yeah. Like television."
Shizuka was staring at him funny and he was well aware of it. "Do you," she said slowly, her voice strangely thick, "want to meet here tomorrow? We can finish our game. I'll write down the code."
"Oh – sure. Sounds great," Mokuba said faintly. Something in his gut told him if he did not go tomorrow he would be beating himself up over it later. "If I'm feeling better, I mean – I think I will be better, so I'll be there, but y'know, just in case –"
Shizuka took his hand into her own and covered it with her other and stared deeply into his eyes, concern written all over her face; the gesture sent shivers up his arm. "You should go home now – you're right, you don't look well at all. I'll tell my big brother and Yugi that you left." She smiled at him. "Trust me. It's no fun being in the hospital."
Mokuba nodded dumbly. They both stood there for a moment, neither withdrawing their hands, just staring at each other. It took Jounouchi and Yugi rounding the corner calling their names to startle them away from each other.
"There you are! We thought you were going to come back," Jounouchi said. "Why'd you run off like that – eh, Shizuka? When did you get out of the washroom?"
Yugi looked from Shizuka to Mokuba with thinly veiled suspicion. "You found each other. That's good."
Mokuba stepped away from the group with a loud, awkward laugh. "You guys are here! Great! I was just about to leave but you know, didn't want to leave your sister here on her own or anything."
"You okay, Mokuba?" Jounouchi said, staring at him.
"He's sick," Shizuka told him sympathetically, looking nothing like the determined gamer of before but more like a delicate flower or an angel or perhaps a – where were these cheesy thoughts coming from?
Mokuba turned swiftly and started marching away before he blurted out something embarrassing. He could feel their stares burning into his back as he left them behind and he tried his best to ignore them.
Sick. He was sick and that was that. Sick.
"Feel better soon, Mokuba!" Oh, Yugi.
Mokuba Kaiba was sick.
-o-O-o-O-o-
"Big brother, I'm sick."
Seto glanced up from his paperwork and swallowed a chunk of turkey. "You don't look sick to me."
"I'm sick," Mokuba insisted stubbornly. "I'm all hot and sweaty and my chest hurts. I probably have some sort of heart disease." The dinner table was much too long for just two people, especially when they sat on either end, but it had been bought because they had the money to buy it and because it was a great asset for when guests and potential business partners dropped in. Seto probably just could not see how diseased he was from such a distance.
"You are not staying home from school tomorrow just to play ReDead all day and that's final."
"Eh?" Mokuba started. "No, that's not what I was – you were considering it? Because that would be awesome."
Seto cleared his throat loudly. "No, I wasn't." He put down his pen and his fork; honestly, Mokuba had never seen another person do the amount of work that his brother did while eating at the same time. "You are not staying home tomorrow. You are not skipping out on your chores. You are not putting off your homework. You are not shirking your responsibilities to the company."
"I already did my chores and I don't do anything for KaibaCorp anymore other than publicity," Mokuba muttered.
"Well, do you have an interview tonight?"
"No."
"Then you just have your homework left."
"I hate foreign language studies."
"Too bad. You can play ReDead after. Did you find JOU?"
"No," Mokuba said. "But I –" he hesitated; his mind had moved straight from JOU to Shizuka and his palms had become so sweaty he had to put his cutlery down. "No, I didn't find him, but he was definitely there. I just missed him by a few minutes."
"Do you want me to take a look at the surveillance camera footage after dinner?"
And see me make a fool out of myself in front of a girl? "No, that's fine. Now that I know what time he goes in there it shouldn't be hard to find him."
"Mokuba." Mokuba looked at Seto, surprised by the grave tone in his voice.
"Yes, Seto?"
"Be careful. When you find out JOU's identity, do your research on him first before challenging him. Multiple personalities, for example. Potential magical artefacts."
If Mokuba had been a animé character, he would have sweat-dropped. "I think your case was the exception, not the rule."
"Regardless, research can save you time and money. Remember that. Did you talk to Yugi, Mokuba?"
"No," he lied. "Why?"
"I got a phone call from Atemu. He said he would meet with me on Thursday."
"Reeeeeally. That's lucky, isn't it?"
Mokuba thought that Seto might have actually been attempting to cut through him with his glare. "It is," he admitted grudgingly. "I'll just have to hope the fool listens to reason this time."
"It'll be fine," Mokuba said. "Relax. He can't turn down such a good offer this many times without having some doubt."
"He turned it down before and he will probably do it again." Seto sipped his drink and stared at him. "Will you be going back to the Kumo tomorrow?"
"Yup."
"Bring your cellphone. I'll have security disguised at civilians at the door to prevent another kidnapping. Also, don't forget your whistle. Short blows for the number of men and a long one if they're taking you out the back."
Mokuba sighed. "Yup."
It was just another normal dinner in the Kaiba mansion.
-o-O-o-O-o-
Mokuba must have had some sort of attention disorder. Wednesday afternoon was a blur, nothing but noise, sound and action-packed gaming – and yet when Mokuba tried to think back to exactly what levels they had played or how far into the game they had gotten, his mind would drift to how pretty Shizuka looked in her floral-patterned skirt and the cute way she smiled when she triple-comboed a zombie ninja. When he had pestered Seto later about being sick again – he had the chills, for God's sake! – Seto had only one word for him and it shocked him to the core.
"Hormones."
It haunted him Thursday afternoon. He kept looking at Shizuka. Hormones. Hormones. But hormones meant feelings, and feelings meant girls and kisses and, and – he couldn't stand the thought of it. Hormones! But it explained a lot, like why he suddenly did not care so much about his reputation in the gaming world and more about what Shizuka would think if he had not brushed his hair or showered that morning (he did both, of course, and stole a bottle of Seto's mint cologne as well). JOU was slowly becoming nothing more than a bad dream. Something that just... did not matter anymore.
When Shizuka excused herself for a bathroom break at a checkpoint he leaned against the machine, slightly dizzy. Girls had hormones too, right? Which meant Shizuka had hormones. And she was older, so if he had them by now, she would too. Did the hormones make her feel like this? Around him?
Jounouchi jolted him out of his thoughts when he suddenly laughed out loud and clapped him on the back. "I really can't believe it."
"Can't believe what?" said Mokuba, heart racing. Please don't be onto me!
"You and Shizuka. You, a Kaiba, friends with her. She talks about you after you leave, you know?" Jounouchi's smile was good-natured. "It's hard to take in. I hope this means I don't have to see Kaiba more often!"
Mokuba laughed feebly with him. His heart wasn't racing anymore – it was running a 5 kilometre sprint. "She talks about me?"
"Nothing but good stuff, I swear," Jounouchi teased. "Makes me wonder what she'll do when she goes home on Saturday!"
"When she... goes home?"
"Yup," Jounouchi stretched. "It was good while it lasted but she's got a one-way train ticket home at 3:00 and Mom would kill me if I had her change it. Man, will she miss you!"
Mokuba's eyes were burning. He turned away from Jounouchi, a fake smile plastered on his face. Thank God Yugi wasn't here. He'd see right through him. "She's going home. On Saturday."
"Uh, yeah. I just said that." Jounouchi's voice turned incredulous and he said, "Wait, she didn't tell you?"
Mokuba did not answer. He simply put his gun back in his holster and walked away. "I... I need to go. My phone... Big brother is phoning. That means I need to go home now."
"Eh? But I didn't hear anything –"
Mokuba was already gone.
-o-O-o-O-o-
Mokuba rushed straight home. He ran straight past his friends on the street, ignoring their calls to come play with him. He ran straight past admiring fans of his brothers, ignoring their cries of excitement and glee at the sight of him. He rushed straight home, not bothering to shut the door behind him and took the stairs two steps at a time. Mokuba only stopped running when he reached the door of his room and dropped to his knees with the loss of the adrenaline, panting and gasping.
What was wrong with him? So Shizuka was leaving in a few days. So what? She lived an hour away, it was not that far – no, no! So what, as in who cared if she left, where she lived, or when the next time he saw her would be?
He knew what this emotion was and knew he was wasting energy denying it, but he did it anyway. This was not the proper emotion for a Kaiba. This was not love – okay, maybe it was a crush. Wait – did he just admit he had a crush on her? No, no, no! This was horrible – what would his classmates think? What would Seto think, the unfeeling ice king of KaibaCorp?
Mokuba could hardly keep his thoughts focused on one thing or, more importantly, away from what he dreaded thinking about most, so he concentrated on breathing. Just catch your breath. In, out, in, out.
The run really had taken a lot out of him, now that he thought about it. He couldn't believe himself, still gasping for breath after five minutes. He was practically groaning with the effort. Maybe he should spend less time playing with Shizuka - no, trying to beat JOU - and more time exercising...
Except that wasn't his voice groaning. Come to think of it, he was breathing quietly and normally in even spurts. Mokuba sat up straighter, suddenly uneasy. But if that was not him, then who was it? It was coming from inside the room. Inside his room. What the Hell?
Mokuba grabbed the nearest blunt object, a bronze bust of a Blue-Eyes White Dragon, and gripped it tightly - three, two, one! - before throwing the door of his room open and running in screaming bloody murder. His eyes were shut tightly and he swung it wildly around his head. No fear!
The two never had a chance. Atemu was lucky that he was so small; the bust skimmed his hair as he rolled off the bed and took cover under the bedside table. Seto was not.
"MOKUBA!" Seto howled just as Mokuba got a strong hit on his shoulder. "STOP, MOKUBA!"
"OH MY GOD, SETO?!" He hollered back, managing to stop his next swing a centimetre before Seto's kneecap.
"Shit, that hurt...!"
"Is it safe to come out now?"
"My room, oh my God, you were doing that in my room?!" A bruise was forming quickly where Mokuba had hit Seto, something he would not have been able to notice if his shirt had not been lying on the floor, and his trench coat over Mokuba's dresser.
"Mokuba, what have I told you about using that as a weapon?"
"He's used it before?"
"My bed, you were both on my bed – Seto, you said you just offered him a job!"
"Actually, I can explain that, Mokuba –"
"Look, I did, and I don't need to explain everything to you. We were just going over the details of his job –"
"Does his job description include hickies?! Or maybe you meant a BLOW JOB? My room, Seto! You were IN MY ROOM!"
"You know what, maybe we should just leave –"
"You told me you were going to be in the arcade until six," Seto said, having the audacity as only he would to sound mildly irritated.
Mokuba managed to breathe out slowly. "I came home early, so sue me. Big brother, I never thought I would have to say this. GO. TO. YOUR. ROOM."
Seto stared at him for a full minute. Finally, he crossed his arms, let out a curt grunt and gathered his clothes. "We'll talk about this over dinner."
"And take Atemu with you!"
"No need to tell me twice," Atemu muttered, gathering up his shirt, chains and buckles from the pile on the floor. Mokuba made sure to slam the door shut extra hard behind them. As soon as their footsteps faded away, he slid down the door onto the ground.
Mokuba thought he would be angry. There was a strange feeling in his stomach, like a bubble. He was afraid of letting it come out but he could feel it rising up his chest and into his throat and with it came a great giddiness and a sense of relief. Seto with Atemu – Atemu with Seto? Seto in love – or lust. Who knows. Seto in a relationship. That was all that really mattered. The bubble burst and he started laughing so hard he had to hold his sides.
The only rational train of thought reminded him that he would have to take care of the sheets himself. Seto would want to keep this affair private until the most opportune moment to exploit it and send their publicity skyrocketing positively - it would probably be sooner rather than later, because their shadier branches that dealt with selling books that fans had taken to calling 'yaoi' had been reporting high profits this year. Changing the sheets would not be too bad anyway – with only their shirts off, they could not have done anything too bad.
But really, his mind was long gone. Mokuba snickered and chortled and guffawed until his lungs hurt. There was only one thought in his head that really mattered.
If Seto could do it, he could too.
He had to talk to Shizuka.
-o-O-o-O-o-
The arcade was unusually crowded today, Mokuba noted as he walked in, though he supposed all was fair in love and on Fridays. Maybe he and Shizuka could check out what all the fuss was after they finally finished their saved game off once and for all.
It was strange, though. The closer to their ReDead machine he got, the thicker the crowd of people came. When he had reached the aisle, he was literally pushing his way through.
"Way to go, Jou-chan!"
"Gunslinger Girl!"
Mokuba found himself stuck between the stomach of an overweight punk rocker and the disturbingly bare back of a teeny bopper. Though not quite a rock and a hard place (both were very soft and warm and Mokuba would be having nightmares about this for the next few nights) he figured it was as good a time as any to take a bit of control like a Kaiba would.
"Hey. You," Mokuba said in his biggest and best 'I'm a Kaiba and I mean business' voice. Though some of the edge and volume was lost in the flesh of his stomach, the punk rocker looked down at him. "Tell me what's going on here."
"Someone's going for the all-time top score," the punk rocker said, not looking the least intimidated by him. "They say it's the same person who beat KAI. Speaking of KAI," he said, recognition dawning on his face, "aren't you –"
"N-No I'm not!" Mokuba said hurriedly, but ended up almost falling over when the guy turned to his neighbour and hissed loudly, "It's him! Mokuba Kaiba!"
"Kaiba? Mokuba Kaiba?"
"Kaiba's here!"
"Which one?"
"The younger one! Mokuba Kaiba!"
"Mokuba was KAI, right?"
"I bet he's come to challenge JOU."
"You heard what Seto Kaiba did to try and beat his rival?"
"JOU beat his little brother. JOU beat a Kaiba!"
"Mokuba's here? Probably hunted him down. I bet it's a Kaiba thing. He'll never let JOU get away now."
"Mokuba Kaiba!"
The crowd split in front of him and he felt almost a dozen hands on his back pushing him forward; excited faces stared at him as he passed, whispering to each other about him and mocking him.
I don't want to be here. Mokuba stumbled forward after a particularly hard shove and wished he could sink into the ground. I don't care about JOU anymore. I just want to play with Shizuka, I just want them to leave us alone.
"Who do you think would win?"
"I don't know, JOU's good but Kaiba could rig it. Don't they own the game? Probably knows all the cheats."
Shut up, shut up! I just want to see Shizuka again!
"Yeah, that's my sister! You see that? That's my sister!"
Mokuba recognised that dumb, life-saving voice.
"Jounouchi!" he cried as he finally reached the centre. "Jounouchi, where's Shizuka? I have to talk to her!
"Mokuba!" Yugi said in a slightly awe-struck voice. "Um, Mokuba, maybe you should –"
Jounouchi grinned like an idiot and pointed behind Mokuba's head. "Where do you think she is? Read it and weep! Shizuka's number one!"
Somewhere deep inside of him, Mokuba knew exactly what he would see when he turned around. All of the circumstances of the week could no longer simply be chalked up to circumstance. Shizuka had been at the very machine JOU had been at on the Tuesday afternoon. Shizuka was much too good and knew too much about the game, even with her considerably less amount of experience with it. And of course, the irony itself was just something he could not ignore. Like brother, like brother. Seto, it seemed, followed the age-old expression, "if you can't beat'em, join'em".
Falling for the one person who beat him, his declared archenemy, his greatest rival.
Shizuka was JOU. JOU defeated Mokuba. Mokuba liked Shizuka.
Oh yes. It was definitely a Kaiba thing.
The machine beeped and shouted above the roaring crowd, "High score! You are in – first place!" Shizuka looked back and flashed a small timid smile at the crowd.
Mokuba stepped forward and all the noise abruptly stopped. Shizuka paled visibly and clutched the red gun like a lifeline. "Mokuba," she said. "I – I meant to tell you sooner –"
"Stop," he said. "Just... just stop right there." The crowd 'oohed' and a guy screamed, "Cream'im, Jou-chan!" The crowd erupted into laughter. Neither Yugi nor Jounouchi were smiling anymore.
Mokuba ignored them and turned to the machine, taking the red gun and flipping it from hand to hand. "Do you have the code from yesterday?"
"Y-Yes." Shizuka was pale and stammering, visibly upset; Jounouchi was looking angrier and angrier with every passing second and Mokuba could only assume that Yugi was the only thing keeping him from launching himself at Mokuba.
"Put it in. I want to finish what we started."
She shot in the code without even looking. Shizuka was staring at Mokuba the whole time but Mokuba refused to look back at her, choosing to stare straight ahead at the screen. The only noise came from the animated crowd behind them and the machine in front of them.
"Insert 4 coins."
They both reached for the coin slot and their fingers met. Mokuba brushed hers aside. "I'll pay."
"Mokuba, I am so sorry," Shizuka whispered. She had the gun in her dominant hand already aimed at the screen, but it was shaking.
The level began.
"We need to talk," Mokuba said. He loaded his gun with a flick of his wrist and Shizuka nodded fervently, doing the same thing.
"KICK HIS SNIVELLING KAIBA ASS, SHIZUKA!" Jounouchi roared from behind him.
"It's multiplayer, they're working together!" Mokuba heard Yugi say desperately.
Her gameplay had changed, Mokuba noticed, and his chest constricted painfully. Shizuka was literally aiming to please, doing her best to fend off any beast that dared to get near Mokuba's character without any thought for her own. It was all Mokuba could do to prevent her reckless actions from getting her killed.
Their characters hid behind a jeep and Mokuba finally said, "Why didn't you tell me."
Shizuka came out of hiding for a moment and took a single shot before ducking back again. Her voice was shaking. "I thought you would be upset if you knew."
"Of course I would be!" Mokuba said. He tossed a grenade over the jeep and their audience roared in approval. "But I would get over it!"
"I didn't want you to hate me! You seemed so upset!"
"I wouldn't hate you!" Screw this, Mokuba thought, and his character jumped out from hiding and started spraying bullets everywhere. "I'd rather you tell me than me find out myself!"
"You said you would humiliate me in front of all of Japan!" she said tearfully; her character was back to back with his, covering his blind spots. "I was scared! Jounouchi told me about what your brother did to Yugi –"
"This isn't about you being JOU! This is about you leaving tomorrow! You were just – oh God, we can't talk like this. Hold on." His character took his last grenade out and tossed it into the fray, finishing the last of the grunts off.
"That was your last one!" Shizuka cried out as the machine announced the last checkpoint and the final video clip played.
"Yeah, I know." Mokuba looked at her solemnly. "It was my last, but not yours. We're at the final boss now and I want you to be on the offensive. I'll cover you and act as a decoy."
"But if you do that –" They stared at each other. It was the ultimate sacrifice of a gamer: using your lives and ammo to protect the other player. Somewhere in his peripheral vision he could see Jounouchi leaning in slightly, trying to hear what they were saying.
"Shizuka," Mokuba finally said. "I don't care that you were JOU. I don't care that you didn't tell me you were JOU, either. What I care about..." Mokuba winced slightly, but said it anyway, "what I care about is spending time with you, and that you were just going to drop off the face of the earth with no warning. Why didn't you tell me you were going home tomorrow?"
Shizuka was staring at the ground. "I didn't think you would care. And I live so far away that we wouldn't be able to see each other often enough to... to do anything together. I didn't want to have to say goodbye."
"Hurry up and play!" someone shouted, but he was immediately shushed by the crowd.
"Hey. I'm up here. Look at me." Shizuka looked up, flushed with embarrassment and red around her eyes. "I don't know if you noticed, but I'm a Kaiba. My brother owns a private jet, for crying out loud. You think you live far away? Big brother likes to visit his park in America every other week. Compared to that, getting to Tenryu is nothing. Distance is no big deal."
"But Mokuba -" she started.
Mokuba stared at her and said firmly, "Say it. Distance is no big deal."
"Distance... is no big deal."
"One more time."
"Distance is no big deal," she repeated and finally smiled. "But how did you know I live in Tenryu?"
"Don't ask." It now felt like the appropriate time so he put on a smirk that would make his big brother proud. "Ready to kick some zombie boss butt?"
Shizuka had the laugh of an angel. "Ready!"
The final boss was the most improbably zombie of them all – a flame spitting behemoth with rotting flesh constantly falling off his limbs, acidic breath and sharpened claws like knives. Mokuba had not offered himself up as a sacrifice just to be noble – it took sharpshooting in all the right places to not only score critical hits, but bonus points. Shizuka was good, but even she would need all of her concentration and could not afford to spend time defending herself.
The first hit Mokuba took was when she ran out of machine gun ammo. "Mokuba!" she cried over the loud gloating shrieks of the monster but Mokuba shook his head quickly.
"I'm fine," he rasped. "I need a drink –"
"Someone get KAI a drink! Now!" an audience member shouted.
A half-empty bottle of water was passed from one person to another until it reached the front of the crowd. It was Yugi crept up and stayed low so he did not block the screen - being short really was an asset - and carefully dipped the water bottle into Mokuba's mouth. "You're doing great, Mokuba! You can do it!"
"Thanks," Mokuba said distractedly. "Shizuka, he's got an opening on his right side!"
"Got it!" Shizuka shouted and threw her last grenade. The crowd whooped loud as the monster screamed furiously and lurched over. "I just need one more hit – I think I can finish him!" Her character rushed forward and aimed at its skull.
A sudden surge of dread washed over Mokuba and he screamed, "No, Shizuka! He still has his final attack!"
It took one sweep of its claw to send Shizuka's character flying back. Mokuba manoeuvred his character forward with the joystick on the dashboard, eyes narrowed into the classic Kaiba glare. The monster reared back and shot its critical attack – Death Meteor. Seth charged forward at full speed, shooting bits and pieces off of the side to slow its fiery descent. "Damn it!"
"No – You only have one life left! Mokuba!"
Shizuka was a step behind him when it hit. There was a loud squelch; Seth choked, doubled over and Mokuba's screen faded into black. "Continue?" it asked mockingly.
Mokuba grinned at it. "No." There was one loud, final explosion and on Shizuka's side of the screen, the monster screeched its death cry and fell over, finally dead.
"We won!" Mokuba almost yelped as Shizuka turned to him and hugged him so tightly all the breath was forced out of his lungs. OhmyGodI'mbeinghuggedbyaGIRL –
"KAI-JOU! KAI-JOU! KAI-JOU!" their audience screamed in delight from behind them.
"Yeah," Mokuba said breathlessly, trying to ignore how soft and foreign her body felt. "That was – that was a lot of fun and – these guys are crazy, why are they still here?" He looked back at the crowd who were still bellowing "KAI-JOU" at the top of their lungs and his eyes fell on Yugi, who looked positively elated.
"Mokuba! Look at the score!" he mouthed.
Mokuba looked over Shizuka's shoulder at the screen and gaped. Above all the other scores in the multiplayer category across Japan, theirs rested at the top, blinking expectantly. Above every single one. Above KAIBA.
Shizuka followed his gaze. "Wow," she breathed. "Wow. I can't believe it."
"I always thought that would be there forever," Mokuba said in a daze.
They looked at each other, both of them still basking in the glory of their win.
"I guess one of us will have to give up a letter," Shizuka said.
Mokuba already knew what to do. "Leave it to me," he said, grinning widely, and took five well-aimed shots. Someone whistled loudly.
"A-I-J-O-U... Aijou," Shizuka read. "Ah!" She looked startled and flushed, and her eyes darted to Mokuba for confirmation. "Y-You...!"
Mokuba scratched the back of his neck sheepishly. Writing 'love' as their multiplayer high score name suddenly seemed like a very cheesy pick-up line, and yet he didn't regret it a bit. "You don't mind, do you?"
"KISS HER, KAI!" They both turned bright red at the loud cheers and chants coming from the crowd. Shizuka took a glance back at her brother whose mouth had almost hit the ground and then back at Mokuba. Mokuba held his breath. They both knew the high score would be posted all over the country.
"Nope," she said with a giggle. Mokuba and Shizuka reflexively restocked their ammo and then aimed at the confirmation button.
"Ready?"
"When you are!"
They took the final shot together.
I loled. Finally I get to poke fun at how seriously games are taken in Yu-Gi-Oh!/Yuugiou.
AIJOU – it has three meanings (I was 99% sure it meant what I thought and needed it to mean, but I looked it up anyway): sadness, love/affection, and beloved daughter. Just guess which one I was using. ... If the site was wrong, then I'm screwed. 7_7 I wouldn't mind someone correcting me, of course. Jou-chan (which incidentally I borrowed from Kenshin because it's that awesome) is informal, roughly translated into something like 'Little Missy'. See? The earlier pun WAS FULLY INTENDED.
Also, um, when I said "If Seto could do it, he could do it too," I did not mean sucking their faces off and where that inevitably leads. XD I reread that part and was like... Huh. Other dirty-minded people like myself might get such-and-such idea.
... And I wrote Shizuka a bit like Tsubaki from Soul Eater. Quiet, wonderfully kind, accommodating and timid, but she can kick ass when it matters. She is a Jounouchi, after all – a kawaii Jounouchi (see what I did there? See? Ah, I'm so shameless). This is what happens when I write about characters I don't know much about while in the middle of watching other series filled with awesome.