"First Jounouchi-san, I need your uttermost approval," A fist sized recorder was placed on the table. "This conversation may be recorded, replayed, and published."

One might've noticed a flutter of movement. One might've defined it as hesitation. One might've saw that it was fear in his eyes, and one might've caught all his vulnerability within that split second. But that one didn't seem to exist. And without one's existence, no one will ever notice the lie and its fault. He was thankful for that.

Then his thin lips drew together to smile.

"Why not."

What was Said and what it Meant

A Few Hours Ago

"I don't know where to start. This is such big news, I can't even imagine how the public will react to this. Hell, I don't even know how to react to it myself. I mean, I can't miss this opportunity, it's going to be my debut as a journalist, I can feel it- but this isn't anyone I'm writing about, this is-" She whispers.

"Kaiba Seto. The perfect human recipe in full flesh and blood- I can't even deal with this right now. My luckiest chance in life actually feels like the heaviest burden simultaneously. How is that even possible?"

"Sorry, am I rambling again? It's exactly seven. One more hour and I'm doing this. I'm actually doing this. No- don't go, I really need to talk to someone right now. I'm scared shit-less. It feels like I'm going to be eaten alive by the truth. We're not ready for this. None of us are. No, actually, that's a very good point. I wonder how he feels. I wonder how he feels right this moment. I don't know. I think he just really needs the money. Do you know how much this is worth? This issue, for him, is probably going to send his grand-grand-grand children and all his fore comings to college while he's traveling the world three times a week. I'm serious. A single word about Kaiba-sama, especially if it's true, is worth diamonds. You're incredulous, I can tell, but I swear to you. Fine, don't come running back to me when I'm filthy rich and using my bills as toilet paper. Don't go- I'm already starting to sweat. Yes I have the tape recorder right here. Yes we'll listen to it together. I hate you. Bye."

She finally put her phone down and realized how sweaty her palms were. She tried to look nonchalant but all she can hear in her empty room is her heart beating like a ticking bomb.

An interview is all it is. She had her twenty questions written down by hand and typed up to make it fool proof. She calculated every aspect of distraction possible and made sure none of it would ever occur. She might as well prepared everything and more.

Yet what did she expect? For this to be an epiphany? For this chat to be mind blowing, shocking, absurd, regretful? She had no idea.

"Jounochi-san, I can't thank you enough for this opportunity. I am truly honored-"

"That's good enough Saitou-san. I'm not here to be flattered." He spoke curtly.

His character had quite changed. He wasn't the adolescent duelist anymore. He was just another bitter Japanese man. Sarcastic, perhaps cruel, but most of all: faithless.

"Well, if I may, I'd like to start by asking some questions concerning just you Jounouchi-san." She waited for his approval. He nodded and she continued. "You've been in the limelight familiar times in the past and it was Japan's joy to watch you grow. You gave us a thin shard of hope concerning your generation and especially its ex-delinquencies, no offense, and helped older generations to compromise and somewhat understand the differences between the old and the new. After a famous friend of yours moved to Egypt, Japan saw the disbandment and was devastated. You were the only one left here, how did it feel then?"

"You sound like you already know." His empty smile remained on his face. "Motou Yugi's decision was brave. But it was also selfish. He knew what he wanted and nothing was going to stop him. Not even his friends he always preached about. From then it just went downhill. Anzu went to America to follow her dream as a dancer, Otogi followed her using his fledgling company as an excuse, Honda's now in Germany boasting something about being a soccer player. In more ways than one, it's really a melancholy joyride for me. Everyone's out there doing what they love, getting into a mess, but loving every single moment of it. I was stuck here with no plan for myself except to sit and rot.

Some kid asked me one day. 'Did you expect to play card games all your life?' I did. I expected myself to die with a poker face. With the same faces cheek to cheek and the same voices right and left. I just figured it wasn't like that the hard way around."

"The hard way? Please do explain."

"I got into gambling. Ironic, I know- but it's also most fitting. Saw society's true faces and it's safe to say I still haven't seen all of it. Did you know the top ten companies in Japan all share the same blacklist?"

"No I didn't."

"To keep it simple, let's say a man owes one company a dollar, then through a chain reaction he owes all ten companies a dollar because they all share the names of the victims. Ultimately the man isn't paying a dollar, he's paying ten times that."

"So you were involved in the riot two years ago."

"That wasn't a question, so I won't answer that." He managed to wink. "Money has always been a problem for me. It came to a point I couldn't afford myself a new pair of shoes. No word would ever be adequate to what I was feeling then. I had no choice but to start anew.

"So what did you do?"

"Started off small, going back to part time and living clean. It wasn't much but it kept a roof on top of my head. I actually liked where I was at. That time in life, it felt like I couldn't go lower. I finally hit the ground, I couldn't be falling anymore."

"And Yugi-san stopped contacting you altogether?"

"I stopped. I was tired of keeping something so intangible. I might regret this in a few years, but so far I'm doing fine. I didn't have to pretend anymore."

"So nothing has changed since then?"

"Yes."

"I see. So if I may, how does ..he enter the scene?"

"He doesn't. I enter in his."

She gulped unnoticeably. He takes a sip of his coffee.

"I wonder how this is going to affect our lives. All of us." He mused. "I wonder what this will make of us."

She reached over for the recorder and pressed the stop button. He raised an eyebrow and she kept the recorder in her lap.

"I'm ready to stop whenever you are Jounouchi-san. I don't have to publish any of this, you have a choice."

"No. Thank you Saitou-san, but it's inevitability that will crush us, not my mere words."

She slightly flinched at the word 'us' but remained composure. She pressed a button and the interview continued.

Author's Note: I know it's incredibly confusing now- but as the story unfolds, so will your inquiries. I hope you enjoyed and please R&R. I'd appreciate your feedback and love to hear from all of you!