The squeal of breaks on the pavement.
The pain of your bones shattering.
Immense pain coursing through your being, too strong to bear.
Numb, that's how you feel as you look across the road, hoping that he's all right.
Tear-filled violet-grey eyes meet your slowly dimming blue ones.
"Nii-sama!"
You're feeling rather weightless now, speeding through an endless space of darkness.
Lights blur past you, looking as if they are streaks in the sky leading up to that bright (too bright) one ahead.
But something pulls you to the side.
You find yourself looking down at your little brother, crying his eyes out over the loss of you.
And you can't help but feel that you've let him down again.
But the joyful grin as he spots you washes that feeling away…
"Seto? Is it really you?"
Guilt pools uncomfortably in your stomach as you tell him you have to leave him.
Tears once more, "Don't leave me! Please!"
"I'm sorry, Mokuba…"
You're letting him down again.
"Just because I'm dead doesn't mean I'm abandoning you, Mokuba… I'll just be watching over you from afar, I guess."
"Like a guardian angel?"
"Exactly."
The warmth of that heaven-sent breeze lifts your spirit into the air. Up to what awaits you in the great beyond.
But, oh, Kaiba Seto… it's not going to be anything you'll be expecting.
For I, Enma-Daioh, Lord of Hades, have bigger plans for you.
Whether you like it or not.
Life After Death
Chapter One: Welcome to Your Afterlife
-bohr-d
Life after death, Kaiba Seto mused, was not supposed to be like this. Or, at least, that's what every major religion preached.
'Unless I'm hallucinating and I didn't really die…'
The recently deceased brunet scowled as he found himself surrounded by darkness, only knowing that he was in a room by the clicking of his shoes on the floor beneath him. During all of his living life, he was of the idea that when one died, he or she would go to the afterlife and do whatever dead people did when they bit the dust. Not to say that he didn't believe in a Heaven or a Hell, but the image of a sinner working a spit in Hell and burning for eternity didn't fit the list of plausible outcomes in his mind.
Suddenly, a blinding light appeared in the middle of the room. Seto shielded his eyes from the momentary blindness as his eyes adjusted to the new source of lighting. There was a small stool underneath the light, and he could vaguely make out a long table with several seated figures seated at it a little ways off from the stool. It reminded him faintly of an interrogation room in black and white films, and he wasn't very surprised when a booming voice asked him to sit.
Frowning at that fact that he, the 'Great Kaiba Seto', was being ordered to sit down, he grudgingly did. He wanted answers, after all, and it wouldn't do to make his questioners angry with him and reluctant to give any information to him.
"State your name for the record, please." The same booming voice commanded, and Kaiba realized that it was the one sitting off to his left that was talking to him.
He glared in that direction through the darkness, "Kaiba Seto. And what the hell is all this?"
His question was ignored as the questioner continued, "Cause of death?"
Growling at being ignored, the brunette hissed out: "Car accident."
A softer, rather sympathetic voice sounded from Kaiba's right, "Protecting your younger brother, one Kaiba Mokuba, correct?"
Kaiba blinked at this new voice and the fact that they had known about the circumstances of his early death. "Yes," he answered soberly, remembering his little brother's heartbroken look.
There was some small murmuring amongst the figures around him. Kaiba tapped his foot impatiently.
"You… visited your brother before you arrived here, did you not?" asked that same sympathetic voice from before.
"Yes, though I still fail to see what that has to do with whatever this whole interrogation is," was the sharp retort.
Once again, the blue-eyed brunette was ignored as the questioning continued. Kaiba was reaching his last nerve and his already thin patience was wearing thin.
"What would you say, if say… you were given a chance to skip Final Judgement for the time being and take a rather… interesting opportunity, Kaiba-san?"
An eyebrow peaked upward in interest, "Go on."
"You are quite the interesting individual, Kaiba-san, if I may say so myself," a third voice added, this time from Kaiba's right. "During your regretfully short mortal life, you had the intellect to head one of the largest corporations in the world at the age of sixteen, as well as an indomitable will and a strong sense of perseverance. Not to mention, you have been in contact with the supernatural and come out relatively unharmed. Not many can say the same. Meifu could really use a man of your skills."
It is unnecessary to say that Kaiba's already overly large ego enjoyed the praise, but of course he was wary of such a proposition. Remembering the promise he made to his little brother, Kaiba spoke.
"What about Mokuba? I promised I would look after him."
Apparently, his questioners weren't prepared for such a remark. Usually, when a soul with spiritual attachment to the mortal plane was offered a job working for Enma-Daioh, the offer was quickly taken.
"Well… you would be traveling back to Earth quite frequently… and—"
"That wasn't what I was asking. I want to know if taking this job will interfere with my watching over my little brother." Kaiba interrupted, ice blue eyes glaring deeply in the direction of the questioner.
A smooth chuckle drifted across the room. Through the dim lighting, Kaiba could almost make out the tensing of the bodies seated in front of him as they all turned around and looked up towards something he himself could not see. A deep voice spoke- each syllable of his voice seeming to resonate through Kaiba's very being.
Kaiba Seto was not a man who could be intimidated easily. But even he felt a shiver of hesitation and apprehension as he was spoken to.
"You would give up an opportunity many men would covet… all to watch over a boy whose life is out of your hands now?"
The first questioner spoke before Kaiba could answer, "S-sire! You don't need to—"
"Silence. You are not the one being addressed."
''Sire?' Who the hell is this guy?' Kaiba thought, before answering.
"Of course. Why wouldn't I? I have never broken a promise to Mokuba, and I am not going to let a trivial matter such as death stop me from doing so."
The man called Sire chuckled, "My, we have a temper, don't we. As to answer your previous question, Kaiba Seto, the answer is no. The job I am offering you would require you to be quite busy, with little time to watch over your brother. Not to mention that traveling between planes of existence without strict allowance is prohibited. I am afraid you made a promise that, this time, you won't be able to keep."
Blue eyes raised a challenging glare, "Then I refuse. Send me to hell, or wherever you're assigning me to go."
"I am afraid I can't do that."
Kaiba stood up suddenly, knocking over the small chair as he did so, "And why the hell not? This is my afterlife, and I don't want to be some damn lackey doing whatever job you fools want to assign me to do! I am Kaiba Seto, and no one dictates my life, whether I'm dead or not!"
One of the questioners stood up and hissed at Kaiba, "Do you have any idea who you are talking to, Kaiba-san?"
"No, and I'm afraid I don't give a damn," was the scoffed reply.
Slight anger could be heard lacing 'Sire's' tone as his booming voice spoke, "I am Enma-Daioh, and what I say is law. You, Kaiba Seto, have no choice in the matter. You have been hand chosen to work for me, whether you wish to or not."
"I refuse, Enma-sama."
Enma glared at the mocking respect. Never had such a potential candidate treated him with such disrespect. "All this fuss over a silly little promise. Such a bright talent and mind going to waste over some trifle little matter. I won't have it."
Enma's hand lashed out, and with it came a wave of power that launched the prideful brunette about twenty feet in the air and immobilizing him.
"What… the…?"
"If all it is, is nothing but a simple promise holding you back, Kaiba Seto, then it would be best for you to forget that it ever happened."
Kaiba's body burned with a fierce white glow, and though he tried to conceal it, a small, sharp cry of pain released through his lips. A minute later, Kaiba's unconscious body was lowered to the ground. Enma smirked in satisfaction and turned to leave. The questioners looked on in horror, wondering vaguely what was so special about this spirit that Enma himself was forced to inflict his power upon him.
"E-Enma-sama?" one called out.
The Lord of Hades turned his head, "Summon Konoe-san. Tell him I request an audience with him about his new recruit."
"B-But, Sire… he…"
"The boy will be fine. I wiped his memories. He has no recollection of his brother, nor most of his past life. Give him a new last name, and send him off to be tested for any side-effects," a shadow of a smirk crossed his face, "I believe I may have been a bit harsh with my new Shinigami."
A/N: Notes at the end this time. Well, this is a rather crack!fic idea that wormed its way into my head when I realized that the English dub voice actors for Yami no Matsuei's Watari and Tsuzuki were the same English voice actors for Yu-Gi-Oh!'s own Kaiba and Atem/Yami. Suddenly, I wanted to see a crossover of the two series, but alas… in that area I found none. (angsts)
Therefore I took it upon myself to write one. And as far as inspiration goes, I decided to make this a direct sequel to my one-shot, "Mon Ange de Gardien", which deals with Seto's death and promise to Mokuba. My plot bunnies for this reappeared after a month-long break after I turned in afore-mentioned fic for an English assignment and have yet to leave me.
And as I got into developing a plot for this, it became less 'crack!fic' material and more drama/actually-having-a-decent-reason-for-being-a-crossover. Wow.
So please review; though I doubt many will because of the oddity of this fandom. (Cheers for this being the first ever YnM and YGO x-over on fanfiction dot net.)
Your humble authoress and resident Kaiba and Watari fangirl,
bohr-d