Reprieve
Enlynn
Disclaimer. No ownership, no profit, no legal action, please. Just a crazy Kaiba fan, that's all!
-Intro-
...Found unresponsive in the lobby...
A loud crack, a sharp gasp, and a soft thud. A dark stain, a growing sea of scarlet, and a blur of dissociation. Day after day and night after night, these were the set of reptitive, unwelcome flashes of memory that tortured Seto Kaiba into near insanity. Those weren't the only memories, though. The angry shout, the shiny gun, and the surge of terror all came before the gentle pleading, the merciless rejection, and the unexpected physical force of a desperate boy shoving his long-time rival out of harm's way just as a furious bullet was evicted from where it should have stayed.
...A single gunshot wound to the chest...
Who in their right mind would ever risk their life like that? Could a person who insisted on being the vessel of an ancient pharaoh with a mystical destiny have ever been in their right mind in the first place?
...After recently winning the extravagant Battle City tournament hosted by local CEO Seto Kaiba, Yugi Mutoh was killed at the businessman's corporate headquarters last Friday evening...
A powerful swell of a billion emotions exploded in Kaiba's chest, and he somehow sent the computer monitor from his desk sailing out of his hundredth floor window, probably all the way down to where busy people were continuously entering or exiting the building. Did they see it coming like Yugi did? Did they get hit anyway too? With that thought, a bud of fear blossomed in Kaiba's chest, shocking him out of his stupor but rendering him too frozen to even look down and out of the window. Moments later, a faint buzz of commotion outside his office door distracted him, and he turned to face it just as it opened and his publicist entered. She took one look at him before letting out a long exhale, closing the door behind her, and leaning against it as she crossed her arms.
"Why are you even here right now?"
"Because companies don't run themselves, Sophia," Kaiba muttered under his breath as he approached his desk chair, cursing his minor lapse in impulse control when he realized there was no computer handy to hide behind. The young woman scoffed and shook her head.
"Look, I am sorry about Yugi Mutoh. The entire town is. But you're clearly in the middle of a psychotic break, and it's my job to make it look like you're not, so I'm going to need to you work with me here and go home. Computers flying out of the executive office of the building where the town's most beloved resident was tragically murdered two weeks ago isn't helping you in the 'picture of sanity' department, especially since literally everybody knows that you two had history."
Had history. Past tense. Because Yugi was dead and gone, so there would never be any history to have again. Ever. His whole life was history.
Suddenly, a surprisingly mellifluous sound began to fill the room, and the blonde woman groaned as she checked the screen of her phone before answering it. "Sophia Cipriano...oh, yes, there was a small incident today," she said brightly after a small pause, causing Kaiba to clench his fists-he paid her to make him look good, not teach him lessons the hard way, and if she had the gall to go there, he'd make sure she never worked as a publicist again.
"One of Mr. Kaiba's interns accidentally sent that computer flying when he tried to deliver a brand new computer to his office-the poor guy sent the delivery cart with the old system straight out the window. Luckily, Mr. Kaiba managed to catch the cart before he went out, but the old computer wasn't so lucky," she breezed, ending her little story with a laugh, then paused as the caller asked another question before continuing. "Yes, yes, it's the same intern from the flying files accident a couple weeks ago. He's a brilliant intern, though, and Kaiba Corporation intends on fostering that talent despite the clumsiness we've all come to adore...no, no one was injured, there was just a bit of a panic...of course, any time, thank you." She ended her phone call and stared at the screen for a few moments before turning serious again and looking over at her boss.
"You need to go home, Mr. Kaiba. Take some time off or just work from home...but you need to stay away from here until you get your head together. That'll help both you and your company's image. No one was hurt this time, but next time could be different," she said quietly, but seriously.
Kaiba paused, then stood up and shrugged on his suit jacket. "I was planning on leaving anyhow," he lied as he picked up his briefcase. "Get me a car and instruct them to wait at the private access entrance." He walked out without giving the woman a parting glance.
Mokuba Kaiba couldn't figure out what he was feeling. Most hours, it was barely more than nothing. Between professionally dealing with the news of what had happened to Yugi and worrying about his older brother's increasingly unpredictable and uncharacteristic behavior, Mokuba hadn't really found the chance yet to process anything. It's not like he and Yugi got together every week to watch a movie or play video games. It was more than that. Other than his big brother, Yugi was the only person Mokuba fully trusted-mostly because he cared about him and his brother completely on a human level. He didn't care about their money and probably never understood the business part very much.
Except he was gone now, and the only person Mokuba had left to lean on was Seto, who was losing stability award points by the minute.
The younger Kaiba sighed and trudged down to the kitchen, where he grabbed a bottle of apple juice out of the fridge before taking it back upstairs to his bedroom, where he downed half of it before setting it on his desk next to his math homework. He was Seto's brother, and math and science came easily to the both of them, but unfortunately, Mokuba was more than a little distracted these days. Not just that, but he was overwhelmed and flat-out exhausted. He was also barely twelve. Perhaps the hollowness he'd been feeling was simply a defense; after all, if you pack a void with enough obscured nothingness, what can be expected to try and break through?
He shook his head violently, trying to snap himself out of whatever existential crisis was suddenly attempting to consume him. It was time to stop stewing over everything by himself in his bedroom, pretending to not feel alone, and go find answers. Sure, Yugi's killer was already captive and in the system, but Mokuba knew that his brother was up to something else. While it was completely normal for Seto to spend hours upon hours holed up in his home office, it was also normal for actual business to get accomplished-software was usually being developed, or prototypes were being assembled, or there was a vision or idea scheduled for proposal. Mokuba had no evidence that anything had been happening in recent weeks-and he knew for a fact that only two conference calls had taken place. That's not to say he'd been searching for evidence of business productivity-he'd just observed that there had been little, if any. He entered Seto's office and powered up the computer, and while waiting for it to boot, he shuffled through several drawers of the desk. In the top space where extra pads of paper, sticky notes, and pens were kept. there was also a small yellow notebook with pages that were obviously ruffled and worn. Mokuba frowned slightly and flipped through it.
The tiny book was filled with coffee stains, random phone numbers, and phrases that made no sense to Mokuba-they appeared to be in maybe Latin or Italian? His frown deepened and he switched his attention to the computer, which was displaying the log in screen. He entered Seto's business credentials, and found exactly what he expected-not much in the way of anything. He then logged out and then back in with his brother's personal information. This account was usually just short of barren-there was always tax data and bank information and Kaiba Corporation files he refused to share with the company (generally future potential projects he wasn't ready to move forward with and didn't trust employees to access); however, there was now quite a bit more going on. Mokuba scoured through the sparsely available history remaining on the web browser, his disbelief and confusion growing with each click.
Each link brought him to curious, unorthodox, and just plain bizarre theories and even so-called accounts of resurrection. What on earth...?
"What are you doing in here?"
The sound of his brother's voice brought Mokuba back to reality from whatever hallucination had clearly been had, probably due to his unexpressed, unexperienced grief and heavy lack of sleep. He just looked at Seto, shook his head, and glanced back to the computer monitor, where all the aforementioned content remained, unfortunately less of a hallucination that he'd hoped. Seto walked over, and Mokuba jerked out of his way before placing the yellow notebook pointedly in front of his brother before countering with the same question.
"What are you doing in here?"
Seto ignored him and powered off his computer without acknowledging the question. "Have you just been snooping on my stuff? What is going on with you? Are you not aware that I tell you everything I'm doing?"
A derisive snort escaped Mokuba before he even knew it was coming. "Are you seriously saying that right now? Seto, you've been completely ignoring work and reading into resurrecting the dead. Look, I know that what's happened has been horrible. I do. I miss Yugi, too, Seto, but-"
"I don't miss him. No one will, because I can fix this and bring him back. There's no reason to get upset about this. If there's one thing I've learned from everything that's happened in the last two years, it's that I can achieve anything thing."
"Who are you?!" Mokuba was practically yelling-there were only two possible scenarios at this point: either his brother had been kidnapped at replaced by a pod person, or he'd finally gone and lost his damn mind, and to be honest, Mokuba wasn't sure which scenario he preferred at that point.
"I'm the one who's going to fix this mess," Kaiba growled, clearly unwilling to discuss the matter any further. And with that, he snatched the notebook and the laptop, shoved them into his briefcase, and left the house. Mokuba sank back into the chair and began hammer-calling his brother's phone, to no avail and with no idea of what to expect next.
Or even if he should ever expect to see his brother ever again.
Note: So after YEARS of reading, I've finally written my first fic. I'm nervous-I know things seem off-kilter, OOC, and weird, which is how I meant for it to be! I promise it'll make sense soon so please give it a chance if you find it intriguing at all!
