Originally posted to tumblr and AO3, now getting around to post it here. I'll probably space the uploading of the chapters out here but feel free to check out the rest of the story (still in progress) at Microraptor_Glider on AO3 or techno-sorcerer on tumblr (also on tumblr, I have the fic along with other ramblings, art, playlists, ect. under the tag #fic:-adjusting-to-the-dark
Chapter Summary: Seto Kaiba survives an unnerving attack and makes a painful recovery.
Chapter content warnings: death (major characters undead, side character death), supernatural torture, implied violence, mention of hallucinations, mentions of child abuse.
Seto Kaiba was walking up to Kaiba Corp Tower's large glass doors when something knocked the wind out of his lungs, pushing him backwards. Suddenly, he found himself in an alleyway, one next to the Tower if the towering glass wall to his right meant anything. Or for that matter, if the laws of physics meant anything. However, it was night, and his eyes were slow to adjust. He staggered and leaned against the wall, his heartbeat racing.
Something must have brought him here. Kaiba's eyes darted from shadow to shadow. His voice caught for a moment before he yelled, "Show yourself."
One of the shadows moved, and a figure came into view. As Kaiba's eyes focused, he noticed it was a man, or rather a boy his own age. The boy was short with hair sculpted into spikes like the Mutou kid, but unlike the Mutou kid, his skin was a warm brown and his bangs seemed to defy gravity, flying out towards the center of each spike. The boy's nostrils flared, and then he shook his head. "I'm sorry for what I have to do, but you are clearly tainted. You reek of demon."
"What?" Kaiba croaked, still somehow managing to include some disdain in his voice. "If you are talking about the White Dragon Necklace, I won that fair and square."
He reached into his pocket and pulled out the necklace in question. Rows of pearls spun over his fingertips upon which dangled a sapphire the size of a peach pit. Between the sapphire and the pearls sat a miniature silver dragon curled around the gem as if it were its hoard. He knew his obsession with dragons was childish, but he couldn't resist.
The boy rolled his eyes. "Anything that requires kidnapping an old man and sending him to the hospital is not won fair, especially considering you already had a dragon to sic on him."
Kaiba narrowed his eyes. He did have the rest of the collection, three other identical necklaces that had cost a fortune to acquire, but the dragons were made of silver. He certainly couldn't and didn't sic them on anyone. Perhaps the boy was referring to his head of security Kisara and her team who had aided in the acquisition. She was fierce and had probably toyed with both the old man and the necklace, but she could hardly be called a dragon. In either case, Kaiba hated when people spoke in riddles. "So, what are you here for? To get it back? I can call Kisara to take care of you as well."
"That was a part of the plan," the boy smirked, quickly grabbing the other end of the necklace and pulling it just short of taught.
It was a challenge, and Kaiba could not turn down a challenge. He moved his own hand gently from side to side, carefully watching the boy mirror his actions. He then pushed his hand forward to loosen the string, and moved his left hand to unfurl the boy's finger's and release the necklace. Yet, before his hand could reach the boy's, it stopped. Without Kaiba seeing him move, the boy had grabbed his left hand, and he felt the boy's fingers press down with a cold iron grip. Kaiba's eyes widened, and for a moment he forgot to breathe. How… ?
The boy continued to smirk.
Kaiba tried to move his hand, but he couldn't budge the boy's grip. Instead it felt like he was pushing against a statue. When he tried to pull back, the boy's fingers pressed down harder, locking his hand in place. Red welts appeared on Kaiba's skin beneath the boy's fingertips. The boy's smirk intensified. Kaiba grit his teeth and tried not to flinch at the pain.
The boy was toying with him, and it burned. A memory of Gozaburo towering above him flashed through Kaiba's mind, and he panicked. Pulling the necklace back, he felt the string go taught before breaking. Pearls cascaded to the ground, before bouncing and rolling away. Staring at the now exposed old cotton strings, Kaiba rolled then under his fingers one last time before letting them too fall to the ground.
The boy blinked and then frowned. "I suppose we go to the other part of the plan."
"Or you go home before I call security. The necklace is gone. Neither of us can have it now." Kaiba's free hand slid into his pocket fumbling for his phone.
However, as he pulled it out of his pocket, the boy released his left hand only to swat the phone down and pin him against the concrete wall across from Kaiba Corp. "Unfortunately, you are tainted to the point where I doubt a priest or hunter could cleanse you, and even if you weren't, your actions reveal you. You are filth." The boy dragged Kaiba down the wall so that their eyes were level. The concrete's bumps and crannies dug into his back and burned. The boy's eyes almost seemed to glow with a pale light."If it is any consolation, my partner would not approve. I hope the darkness eats your taint and frees you before you die."
Kaiba's eyes widened, and despite knowing its futility he pushed at the hands that locked his shoulders in place. He clawed at the boy's exposed arms and kicked at the boy's legs to no avail. He even, for a moment, screamed until he felt two sharp pricks in his neck and then numbness.
He tried to dig his fingernails into the boy's skin, but his fingers felt weak and lethargic. They barely moved and slid across the boy's skin before they stopped and fell. His feet skid across the ground a few times before they went limp. A few gasps of air wheezed out of his lungs, his tongue unable to form words. Finally rainbow patterns tinged with darkness wove across his vision, while his ears went hot with dizziness. All sensations became vague and blurred like he was miles away from his own body.
Then, the last light left his vision, and he fell to darkness.
An eternity seemed to pass, and then Kaiba saw white in all directions. He blinked, twitched his toes, and shook his head, but everything felt off, like he was existing slightly to the left of reality. He moved his feet again and noticed that he wasn't encountering any resistance. He bobbed in place. A squeak escaped his lips, and he started to flail. It took a moment to steady himself, and by the time he did, he was panting. What the fuck was going on? He stared downward into nothing, eyes struggling to focus without anything to focus on. Slowly his breathing returned to normal. Perhaps none of this was real anyways.
Looking back up, Kaiba began to notice a few details. First, a thin grey line started to form a horizon with wisps flying outward in both directions. Kaiba wasn't sure whether it had been there before, but regardless he was grateful for its steadying influence. Second, a soft red glow emanated from behind him.
At first, the glow as disconcerting but curiosity got the better of Kaiba, and he began to twist his body to get a better view. Unfortunately, without anything to push against, he didn't turn so much as slightly swivel in place. Glaring at the horizon, Kaiba pouted. Wherever he was, it was annoying. He concentrated on the horizon and willed himself to move, but before he had a chance to twist, he began to move, spinning on his axis. He startled and suddenly stopped, before concentrating and turning again.
He immediately regretted it.
In front of him stood a gigantic garnet bust of Gozaburo. It stood nearly eight feet tall with deeply carved eyes staring down at Seto. In addition to the glow the stone's marbled pattern seemed to shift as if it was the shadows cast by a fire, and Seto thought he smelled a whiff of smoke. However, there was no fire to be seen, and the only light here was the omnipresent fluorescent glow. But, the most troubling aspect of the bust was how it wasn't quite human. It certainly had Gozaburo's face and his condescending sneer, but there were also a pair of rams horns that curled from the edges of Gozaburo's forehead and wrapped around his ears. The parting of his lips revealed rows of sharpened teeth.
Seto felt his heart pound against his chest. He tried to remind himself that he was Kaiba now, but in front of Gozaburo it never felt true. After seeing that face, even with the man driven out and dead, it seemed like he was one transgression away from being sent to the orphanage and one misstep away from a long night of studying with no breaks and no dinner.
Seto willed himself away from the statue, cursing how slow his body drifted. The horizon was now a thick black stripe. It roiled and churned with a physical presence like a sandstorm made of charcoal and smoke. But, anywhere was better than here.
The bust glowed brighter for a moment and then a strand of garish red lashed out at Seto's ankle. He pulled his leg towards his body and watched the strand pass beneath him, but soon other strands emerged from the statue and whipped towards him. He dodged one then two, yet eventually one wrapped around his torso and started pulling him forward. The outside of the swath was featureless, but it felt sinewy and writhed against his skin like a giant dry tongue. Grabbing and tugging on it jostled it and Seto around, but the efforts did little to detach himself or stop it from pulling him closer to the statue.
Seto barely saw the black clouds approaching or the light dim as he fought with the red swath. He pulled and tugged. He dug his fingernails into it and attempted to pry it off. He pounded against it and wedged his fingers between himself and it. None of it prevailed, and the statue held him 4 feet away from its taunting eyes.
But the clouds eventually came and fortunately they hit the bust first since at that moment embers flew up into the cloud quickly disappearing within it. The bust's glow flickered for a few seconds and then extinguished. The swath writhed tossing Seto about before finally letting go. He didn't have much time to react before the cloud completely overtook the statue leaving nothing more than a few bursts of light.
The black cloud continued rolling forward.
Kaiba glanced around, looking for a way out, but the only light was coming from above and below. The edges of the clouds formed a long thin tunnel in both directions With the cloud closing in, Kaiba decided to fuck it- he was floating anyway- and willed himself up. But, he moved painfully slow till and the dark cloud quickly consumed him.
The black cloud tossed him around like a rag doll and pelted him, though Kaiba could not see with what. It was confusing, and everything hurt.
Fortunately, not being able see anything and, in particular, being free of Gozaburo's statue helped him clear his mind. This was nonsense. Everything that had happened since he got here was utter bullshit. There was even a chance that this was another hallucination, though most of his had only had auditory and visual symptoms. Seeing himself melting had been incredibly off-putting, but he didn't remember the experience being this physically painful. Still, Kaiba considered, a strange boy had just beat him up in an alleyway; some physical pain was probably par for course.
Moreover, if he was hallucinating, there was still reality out there waiting for him. There was still Mokuba waiting for him to get home from work. Mokuba who was going to enter the fifth grade and insisted on going to public school rather than just having a private tutor because he wanted to be with the other kids. Mokuba who helped manage the company despite not having undergone his first growth spurt. Mokuba who still smiled and wanted his big brother to smile.
And, if it wasn't a hallucination, well, there wasn't anything more he could do than try to make it through this.
The pounding increased as time went on until the smoke did something it shouldn't be able to do: it tightened around his throat. His already labored breathing became wheezes, and his fingers immediately went to his throat trying to find whatever was choking him. The smoke was thicker there but there was nothing to hold onto. He reminded himself that there was nothing there. This was not happening. He could still breathe.
He hated these exercises, but what choice did he have. He focused. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Deep breath in. One Two. Three. Four. Five. Deep breath out. One. Two…
Eventually the smoke gave up trying to strangle him, and then everything felt like it was on fire. The smoke burned against his skin and lungs, even though there was still not a speck of light to be seen. Still, Kaiba couldn't hold back the scream that erupted from his throat. His mind was consumed by the pain, but a small part of him was glad to have some proof that he hadn't actually been choking. That hardened his resolve to push forward. He thought of Mokuba.
When Kaiba managed to make it through that, the smoke felt like liquid sloshing all around him. Instead of pushing against his throat, it slid down into his lungs. Instead of fighting to breathe, his body became convinced that each breath was killing him. But, it wasn't happening, he reminded himself. It couldn't be happening. Somehow he kept breathing.
After a while, everything stopped. He floated in peaceful darkness, waiting for the hallucination to part. While he waited a whisper came, or rather words came without a voice, "Your soul is strong."
Kaiba tried to laugh, but it exited his lips as a deflated sigh.
"We tried but cannot consume you. Still, we took your life; it is ours. You shall consume for us."
Suddenly, the world shifted and changed. It was still dark, but his other senses were tumbled upside down.
First, Kaiba noticed the smell. The previous place, which Kaiba was already discounting as a particularly vivid dream, was odorless except for the brief period of burning that smelled of ashes and cinders. Now, he smelled rotting food, piss, sour milk and molds. Even the most pleasant overtones of coffee and tea did little to help the unholy bouquet unfurling in his mouth and nose and sitting at the bottom of his lungs. The intensity was overwhelming, assaulting his senses like nothing he'd ever experienced. He breathed out, pushing the air out his lungs and hoping that, by the time he had to breathe in, the stench would be gone. It didn't stop the smell entirely but it would have to do for now.
In addition to the smell, a shallow pool of liquid soaked the side of hair and the front of his shirt, and some had even leaked in through his previously parted lips. He sputtered, attempting unsuccessfully to spit out every trace of the liquid and then sealing his mouth against anymore entering.
Having provided himself that relief, Kaiba noticed he was no longer floating but rather was laying belly down on a cool metal surface with his head twisted to the side uncomfortably. Weight pushed down on him unevenly. In some places, the pressure was focused and sharp such as the line weight that went down his back before stopping at a point that dug into his spine. Other places were simultaneously heavy and soft. Whatever was covering his face stuck to his cheek and molded to his head's crevices, yet pushed him down almost pinning him against the wet ground.
Kaiba curled his fingers around the pressure on his right hand hoping to move it out of the way. Immediately noticed it was a plastic bag by the way the film stuck to his skin and tugged when he pulled on it. When he tried to lift the bag, it buckled against the things above and around it. He was able to push it up half a foot before the bag ripped, releasing another wave of noxious fumes.
Kaiba dropped the bag and gagged, expecting himself to barf but finding himself unable. He continued to hope that he wouldn't have to breathe in.
There was no choice but to lie there and wait. He let his mind drift to the city sounds around him. They were understandably muffled but also louder than usual. He heard the thrum of car engines and the occasional screech of tires. Somewhere far down the street construction was underway. The breeze funneling through the streets gave a low whistle he'd never stopped long enough to hear before. There were footsteps and distant overlapping conversations, though the muffling meant that he couldn't pick distinguish any words. And, underneath it all were quiet but hypnotizing iterations of tu-tup.
A hunger began to crawl at the back of his mind. No. Not hunger. He didn't want to eat. Whether it was the stench around him or something else, the thought of eating anything from a common burger to his favorite beef fillet sounded.. disgusting.
Yet, the occasional tu-tup immediately lured him and intensified his hunger. He salivated, and something twitched in his upper jaw. He wanted to run towards whatever was making that noise and bite into it, rip into it. He wanted to hear it, but he also wanted to it to stop- to be the one who stopped it. The compulsion was so strong that he tried to stand up, but, again, shifting the bags released more foul odors that pinned him in place.
Kaiba was trapped and terrified. The pitch black sensory hell was bad enough, but now he had the hunger raking across his thoughts, giving him violent desires he didn't understand. Why would he react so strongly to such a small simple sound? A need rang through his body to get up, go, grab the noise. I can't, he tried reminded himself, but the need persisted. The only thought that placated it was the idea that he waiting, biding his time. And, with that, his consciousness drifted away, leaving his body limp.
He still hadn't breathed in.
The next time he came to, he had an amazing taste in his mouth. Sweet and rich but slightly metallic. he swallowed and savored it. His tongue instinctually licked his lips, trying to find more. Moreover, he felt relaxed, and he could finally think straight. The hunger was gone or at least sated. Something in his mouth pulled back.
That's when Kaiba started processing the situation around him. He was no longer pinned against the ground, but was in fact standing. The smell was strong but not nearly as overwhelming. The sounds were crisper, including a blaring incessant beep. A pulsing light illuminated the scene, and Kaiba's eyes drifted towards a pale corpse in a bright green vest slouched against the wall in front of him.
Kaiba tried to scream, but without any air in his lungs, the noise caught in his throat.
Author's note: tried to follow Kaiba's perspective partly to emphasize how weird and confusing this was for him. Hopefully, you were able to pick up on some things he didn't, and if not hopefully things will become more apparent as the story moves forward. I did realize towards the end that I could have used a soul room for the white space sequence, but I loved the visuals of this and it was already written.
Also, at this point, Atem is very much like season 0 Yami, passing often disproportionate judgments based on the bad behavior of other people without knowing fully what's going on. Also like Yami, he will be growing as things go on. He won't be appearing for a little while, but this isn't the last I plan on having him appear either.
