His new 'twin' was meant to inspire him to study harder, and Noa agreed that it was a good idea. Being an only child, he'd never had particular reason to excel, as he had no one to compete against for inheritance of his father's legacy. His father had made hundreds of orphanages across Japan administer IQ tests to all of the children between eight and twelve by promising them generous donations in return, and a bonus for the institute that produced the child with the highest score. It had been rather a surprise that the 'winner' was so much alike to Noa in age and looks.

Seto was three months older than Noa and had achieved a score of 162 on the IQ test. He was a super-genius. Noa's score was 147, he was technically a genius, but of a more average variety than Seto. His father said that the 15-point difference could be overcome by hard work and discipline, if Noa dedicated himself to his studies hard enough, and he already had the advantage of breading and a head-start on his education. His father said that he was confident that Noa could become a better business man than his new 'brother', but that he would be forced to work hard for it. It was his first test of his oncoming adulthood that he would have to earn his place in his father's company, rather than having it simply given to him like everything always had been.

His father had explained this test to him before Seto's test results had put him at the top of the list of candidates, and so Noa had known that he was getting a brother, who would be his rival, before he knew who it would be. What hadn't been expected was that the high-scorer on the IQ tests would have a brother of his own, one whom he would not be parted from. And so instead of getting just one brother, Noa suddenly found himself with two.

Mokuba's IQ score was 129. He was smart, but he wasn't a genius. He wasn't a competitor for the Kaiba fortune, he was merely an accessory. A non-threat. Noa had known and understood his relationship to his would-be rival, but he wasn't at all sure how to regard the younger boy that had come as part of the package. He met them both on the same day and in the same circumstance. He'd stood in the entrance hall next to his father as one of his servants presented two boys in faded, dingy clothes that looked several years out of date.

The following day was a Sunday and Noa met them again in the front hall. He watched them from the stairs as one of the house servants, Junko, was directing them to put on their shoes and jackets. Noa tilted his head curiously. 'Where are you taking them, Junko-san?' he asked.

Junko looked up at him and smiled. 'We're going to go shopping, Noa-bozu,' she replied. 'Seto-bozu and Mokuba-bozu need new clothes, the ones from the orphanage aren't appropriate for your brothers' new status. Would you like to come along? Maybe we could get a treat afterwards.'

Noa conidered for a minute, examining his new 'brothers' as Seto looked suspiciously back up at him and Mokuba let his hair hide his face while he mashed his foot into the rattiest shoe Noa had ever seen. They were a strange curiosity. Now that Seto was here, perhaps Noa should spend his free-day studying, to keep his edge over the rival. But then, his councilor had told him that it was important to have fun on his holidays and to always be well-rested; if he let himself work too hard, he would become absent-minded. Hard work and rest had to be properly balanced.

And so he nodded and said, 'I do,' collecting a light-weight wool jacket from the coat-closet and stepping into his very nice shoes. He again looked over at his 'brothers' before Junko shuffled them all out the door towards a waiting car.

In the car he and Junko sat in the set of seats that faced forwards and Seto and Mokuba sat in the ones that faced them. 'Well, isn't this nice? It will be a good chance to get to know each other,' Junko said brightly. 'Seto-bozu, you and Noa-bozu are the same age, you know. I think you'll be excellent play-mates. Do you have any favorite games?'

Seto didn't look at Junko, but stared unabashedly at Noa the whole time. A moment of silence began to stretch and Junko was just opening her mouth to fill it when Seto asked, 'Do you play chess?'

Noa tilted his head and smirked a little with interest. 'I do. And shogi, and go,' he replied. 'Father said that you tested very high. I wonder if that will be reflected in your game.'

Seto worked his jaw and looked Noa over carefully, seeming to size him up. 'No one has ever beat me at chess or go,' he said. 'I've never had the opportunity to play shogi, but I've read about it. I'm sure I could master it within an hour.'

Noa's smirk widened. 'Perhaps I shall teach you then,' he said. 'We can play after supper. My mathematics tutor says that playing complex strategy games is excellent mental exercise.'

'I suppose your tutors taught you how to play,' Seto said, still staring in a way that seemed to challenge Noa to break eye-contact. 'I'm self-taught.'

'Well they say that Musashi had no teacher either,' Noa said with a cheerful smile. 'Perhaps a self-taught chess-player could be the best in Japan.'

'I suppose we'll have to find out,' Seto said quietly.

'Well that's wonderful!' Junko clapped her hands. 'You two will get along so well!' She turned her smile on Mokuba. 'What about you, Mokuba-bozu?' she asked. 'What do you like to do?'

Mokuba clung to Seto's sleeve and squirmed, looking at his knees. 'Mm, um,' the small boy mumbled, flushing a bit. 'I-I like to watch Nii-san play chess. I'm not good at it so he doesn't play with me, but sometimes he does and it's fun even though I loose.'

Noa studied Mokuba, frowning slightly. 'You only develop skill by practicing, you know. If Seto wanted a better opponent maybe he should have given you more chances to practice.'

'Now, Noa-bozu, that sounded a little rude,' Junko chided softly, but Seto ignored her and rebutted without pause.

'He's not dedicated to the game. He'll never be good enough to beat me so it'd be a waste of my time to teach him. And it's not like I could enjoy it, there's no victory in defeating someone weaker than yourself.'

Noa stared at him openly, feeling slightly surprised at how cold Seto's speech had sounded. He glanced to Mokuba beside him, who had curled in on himself minutely and was chewing on his lip, looking faintly ashamed. 'Well there's probably things Mokuba's good at that you can't do,' he said, not sure whether he just wanted to argue with the other boy or if he felt a pang of sympathy for the little brother. 'What kind of games do you play, Mokuba?'

Mokuba looked up at him, seeming a bit startled, and flushed again. 'I, um, not really anything that's really a game or anything...' he mumbled, fidgeting with his overly long sleeve. 'I, mm, I like capsule-toys...'

'What's a capsule-toy?' Noa asked, pointedly ignoring Seto and giving full attention to the younger boy.

Mokuba gave him an odd look, as though these 'capsule-toys' were something everybody knew and understood. That made Noa feel a bit embarrassed, that there was some bit of knowledge he was missing that this poorly-educated little ex-orphan could have.

'It's small toys that come inside of plastic capsules like this,' he held his index-fingers and thumbs in a circle shape to demonstrate the size, 'and they come out of machines in front of stores.' He put down his hands and chewed on his lip, looking shy but a little more confident than before. 'They only cost a one-hundred yen coin. There was a nice lady who worked at a store near the orphanage and she'd trade me a one-hundred yen coin if I saved up the smaller coins that I collected, so then I could buy a toy from the machine.' He smiled shyly, looking down at his hands again. 'I have six,' he said in a little voice that was almost a whisper. Then he frowned, his nose wrinkling up a bit, 'I had seven, but Itsuki broke Super-Bomber and twisted his head off...'

'Oh that's awful!' Junko exclaimed. 'What a mean boy!'

Noa glanced up at Junko and nodded, it did seem a strange and wretched thing to do. The total worth of Mokuba's worldly possessions was a miserable seven-hundred yen and a bully had seen fit to destroy 15% of his tiny collection. 'I'll buy you a new one!' Noa promised, feeling oddly compelled by just how pathetic Mokuba's plight seemed.

Mokuba looked up at him, eyes wide and startled, and Noa noticed that next to him Seto had suddenly locked a glare on him. 'Y-you don't have to, um, that's okay, I was just mad at Itsuki, but Nii-san beat him up really good.' Mokuba seemed to be very flustered and embarrassed suddenly. Maybe he'd never had a gift before, they were ex-orphans after all, nobody had cared about them.

'It's only one-hundred yen, right?' Noa urged, giving Mokuba a friendly smile and being intrigued by the way Seto's glare seemed to be intensifying, like he was trying to drill a hole into Noa's head. 'I'll get some for myself too and you can teach me how to play with them!'

'That's so generous, Noa-bozu!' Junko praised. 'Your parents will be proud of you!'

'It's not a game,' Seto cut in, his voice raised slightly. 'They're just trading-figures.'

'Well it's playing pretend, right Mokuba?' Noa said, intrigued by Seto's reaction. 'Playing pretend can be just as fun as a structured game, right Mokuba?'

'He's not your brother!' Seto shouted, slamming his hands down on the seat and glaring fully, challengingly, at Noa, who stared back at him, intrigued.

Junko was saying something, trying to soothe them all and defuse the situation, but Noa wasn't paying attention to her at all, he was busy being utterly fascinated by his 'brother'. Curious. And analyzing the peculiar reaction in his mind, it suddenly occurred to Noa why Mokuba was here. It was another field on which to compete with his new rival. Not only did he now have the chance to prove himself the better son; he could also compete to be the better brother.

Noa could feel his lips pealing back from his teeth slightly as the corners tugged outward in a wide grin. This would be an interesting competition indeed.

...

A/N: Well this is a bit unexpected... Never really thought I'd be writing Yugioh fic, much less Yugioh-filler fic... Ah, I'm not really sure what I'm doing here or how this happened, the idea got into my head somehow (I haven't even watched this filler-arc! I only read through the episode summaries!) and I had to write it. I suppose this story runs on the assumption that Noa doesn't die and stuff, I'm not sure whether I'd write follow-up or not, I'm still kind of baffled that this came out of me.