A/N/Warning: This is just something I wrote. There is no intention to complete this. I am informing you ahead of time.
""""
The two inch tall steel figurine was pushed across the mock terrain, going up a slight bump in the ground, on which it came to rest. From the slight bit of elevation, Kaiba imagined it was surveying the rest of the battlefield, looking over the several dozen other steel units along the terrain.
Kaiba nodded as he looked down at the notebook next to him, picking up his pen from the cherry wood desk he was working on. He quickly scribbled a couple of notes near the bottom of the nearly full page.
"Six minute march from fourteen and sixty seven to seventeen and seventy four...fifteen foot elevation over nearby terrain," he muttered, delicately moving the hands of a small clock six minutes forward. "Estimated increase in sight distance...thirty meters."
He heard the mute clipping of footsteps in his direction, ignoring them in favor of bumping another figure an inch and a half to the south.
"Meanwhile...demolition team moves into the trench. Eleven minutes to set up trap."
A small cough came from behind him. Reasoning he couldn't ignore it, he looked up over his shoulder.
A short woman in a blue vest with a large V-neck and short blue skirt stood there, holding a tray with a plate of cheese slices and crackers, along with a large filled tea cup.
"Pardon me, sir-"
"You didn't get sent in here to talk," Kaiba snapped, turning back to the map in front of him, chewing on the tip of his pen as he considered his next move. He heard the servant girl silently set the tray down on the desk to his right, not bothering to look up as she did, then meekly retreat from his room.
"Meanwhile...opposing units move north...uniformly." Kaiba bumped several of the figurines along the terrain. "Position of cavalry causes them to funnel into the trench."
He heard further footsteps approaching him. His forehead wrinkled in annoyance, so he paid extra attention to ignoring the visitor out of spite. He shifted a couple more units to the south west, preparing what would eventually prove to be a funnel trap.
"Last I checked, we won this battle quite convincingly." Kaiba twisted his head. Gozaburo stood there, his adoptive father, peering over his shoulder at the map.
"And meaninglessly," Kaiba responded, again scribbling in his notebook. "We forced a retreat. Six percent enemy casualties. Waste of time."
"And I suppose you could have done better?" Gozaburo asked, moving to Kaiba's left, leaning up against the desk.
"Is that a question?" Kaiba pointed at the formation of units of the near side of the map. "I've created a funnel formation. Russell's aggressive, he wouldn't turn a chance like this down."
"Sure," Gozaburo agreed. "Then what?"
"You lace the funnel with explosives. Lines of TNT on both sides. Setting them off at the exact right moment would cause somewhere between forty-three and forty-six percent casualties alone. And that, dear father, is something worth fighting for." Kaiba slowly pushed the figurines toward the funnel, showcasing his idea.
"Very good. Excellent idea. Of course, our troops at the very edge of the funnel would probably get caught by the explosion." Gozaburo looked up at Kaiba, eagerly waiting his take on this.
Kaiba nodded. "Four to seven percent casualties. I accounted for it. The remaining enemy troops would be in complete disarray. We'd charge them, probably take another thirty percent, maybe lose nine or ten, get our retreat after four hours."
"Opposed to just pushing the funnel back a few dozen meters?" Gozaburo suggested, pointing at the chokepoint where the imaginary trap would be sprung.
Kaiba shook his head. "You're losing your edge, dear father. The tight funnel is the exact reason why Russell would never expect an explosive trap. If we widen it to rule out casualties, we tip our hand."
Gozaburo stroked his chin, looking the fake battlefield over slowly. "It's impressive. Mostly, at least."
Kaiba rolled his eyes. "Does the great Gozaburo have something better in mind?"
"Quite." Gozaburo walked back towards the door. "And in there it'll stay. Let me know if you can get our projected casualties under ten percent."
Kaiba flipped the notebook a few pages back, looking over his scribblings and notes. "Yes. And after I do that, maybe I'll invent magic."
"The generals are having dinner with us tonight. Dress appropriately," Gozaburo called out behind him as he left the room, waving his hand back at his adoptive son.
Kaiba growled, returning to his work, trying to squeeze a few extra percentage points out of his early projections.
""""
A cruel midday sun beat down on the large field of yellowed dirt, an added obstacle to the difficult course. Not to be deterred, several dozen young, athletic men were traversing through a well-worn course of wooden structures designed to test their strength, speed and agility. It was one of those days that really separated the pencil pushers from the front liners. And that made it a good day for those in power to actually watch.
Gozaburo watched from just outside the outer rim of the obstacle course's track, waiting for the men's ranks to begin to thin as some of them would inevitably wear down under the sweltering heat and conk out. His adoptive son stood next to him, protecting himself from the sun with a small umbrella over his right shoulder, his nostrils flared in annoyance.
"I think I'd rather watch a goldfish swim laps for three hours," Kaiba snorted. "I don't know who's getting the worst of it. Them for doing it, or me for watching them do it."
"Our armies aren't fueled by two inch tall figurines, Seto." Gozaburo watched one of the men sprint by right in front of him.
"Isn't that a dream?" A uniformed girl ran up to the two, holding out a steel pail. Kaiba looked into it, seeing a couple of damp rags at the bottom. He grabbed one, feeling the ice cold water it had been drenched in, and quickly slapping his on his forehead.
"And sometimes, you find something really special." With that, Gozaburo pointed towards the middle of the track, at one particular recruit, who had been cutting through the course the entire day.
Kaiba looked at the tall young man in the distance, leaping up a sheer wooden wall and scaling it to the top in a few seconds as if he had just started the course two minutes ago rather than three hours. No sooner had he reached the top had he thrown himself back onto the ground on the other side, landing and continuing a dead sprint without a moment's pause.
"Look at the endurance on that one. The strength. The grace."
"The hair," Kaiba scoffed. He turned his attention to the girl holding the pail. "You. Have him brought over here."
"I can't-"
"I didn't ask if you could. Now go do it," Kaiba ordered, pointing at the impressive participant.
Quickly, she bowed before running off to stop the prize race horse in his tracks.
"Taken a fancy to him?" Gozaburo teased, looking at his son.
"Our armies may not be made up of two inch figurines, but they're also not made up of blond bimbos. I won't have it." Kaiba ran the wet towel over his face again, watching as the small girl slowly wandered out onto the track and stood in front of the young man being discussed.
"He's gonna run right into her," Gozaburo remarked, smirking. "And it'll be all your fault. Shame on you."
Kaiba shrugged. "Last I checked our servants didn't have accident insurance coverage. Stop whining."
"Oh, I'm a whiner? What does that make you?" Gozaburo kept his eyes on the servant girl.
"The son of a whiner." Kaiba rubbed the rag over the top of his head.
They watched the girl tense up and close her eyes as it looked like the man was going to plow right into her, but he slowed to a halt in front of her. To Kaiba's annoyance, the girl engaged him in what seemed to be a conversation, and she seemed to be rather enjoying herself.
"Aw. Love at first sight," Gozaburo commented. "So sorry to disappoint you, sonny boy, looks like he's taken."
Kaiba ignored the barb, instead opting to glare at the strange man. They seemed to be approximately the same height, but he was a little more heavyset and bulkier than Kaiba's own slim build.
Suddenly, his focus was broken by a loud whistle sounding through the air.
"Jounouchi! I know your ass ain't tired! Stop trying to land pussy and get back on it!"
Kaiba looked around, quickly realizing the scream came from the drill sergeant standing near the start of the course.
"Yes sir!" Jounouchi immediately continued his sprint, the girl left in his dust.
Kaiba shook his head, glowering at the girl who simply stood in the middle of the track, watching Jounouchi blow through a small forest of heavily weighted hanging bags.
For a moment, Kaiba watched Jounouchi work his magic over the obstacles, effortlessly hopping through tires and crawling under wire. Each obstacle he passed made Kaiba feel strangely ill, as if his success was degrading to his own.
A movement in the corner of his eye made him turn to his right. Another servant girl, this one holding out a glass bottle full of ice cold water. Without a word, Kaiba grabbed it and ripped the top off, throwing it to the side as he poured the contents into his mouth.
"Go fetch the drill sergeant," he ordered after concluding his drink, pointing at the man standing by the start of the track.
Nervously, the girl looked over at the sergeant, then back to Kaiba. "Uhm-"
"I'm not in the mood, now go!" He snapped, pushing her off roughly. "Go!"
"Y-yes sir!" She squeaked, stumbling off.
"We need to fire our servants, get new ones," Kaiba mumbled. "These ones talk back and whine too much."
Gozaburo said nothing, but gave a small nod.
Kaiba continued to watch Jounouchi beat a trail through the course, lapping other men and seemingly losing not a drop of his stamina no matter how many times he climbed that wall, or how many times he pushed through those weighted bags. Every single time he accomplished something, even though Kaiba eventually came to understand that he was going to continue to succeed, Kaiba found himself more and more disgusted.
Eventually, Kaiba forced himself to look away in time to see the girl leading the drill sergeant towards him and his adoptive father.
"Well, at least she's good for something," Kaiba grunted, tossing the rag to the ground to his side.
"What's the problem?" The sergeant said, still talking rather loudly inspite of the close quarters.
"The problem?" Kaiba repeated. "Our military is being disgraced right now, that's the problem."
The sergeant glared at the younger Kaiba for a few seconds.
Kaiba gritted his teeth. He didn't appreciate being stared at. This guy is clueless.
Kaiba pointed at the blond who had just sprinted past them.
"Oh! Him? He is our best prospect. I don't-"
"His hair. It is disgusting that you would allow him to keep such a color. It is the mark of a delinquent. He has gone out of his way just to be rebellious. Shave it off or shave him off."
The drill sergeant gave an affirmative nod. "Jounouchi! Get over here!"
Jounouchi pointed at himself as he hopped threw the tires.
"Yes you!"
Jounouchi jogged over to the drill sergeant. "What do you need- is there a problem sir?"
The sergeant glared at Jounouchi. "Your hair. You will have it shaved off."
Jounouchi bit his lower lip for a second, then looked at the two Kaibas. "And...where'd this come from?"
Kaiba growled. "My god, everyone in this town talks back." He pointed at the top of Jounouchi's head. "Either this goes, or you go, we're not discussing this."
"How old are you? You ain't my boss! Who the hell are you anyway?"
Kaiba's shoulder's dropped in disbelief. "Are you for real? You don't know me? I pay your salary, boy." He could feel Gozaburo glaring at the back of his head, but ignored it. "And you say you don't know who I am?"
"Maybe you ain't worth remembering," Jounouchi growled back. "I mean, I don't remember the snot that came out the last time I blew my nose either."
Kaiba's eyeballs bulged with anger, and he was about to open his mouth to reply, but was cut off.
"Jounouchi!"
"Sir!" Jounouchi's body completely tensed and looked directly ahead.
"At ease." Jounouchi loosened up. "Report to Field Officer Banks. He will take you to the Barbershop and then he will give you a toothbrush."
Jounouchi gave a small grunt. He knew what the toothbrush meant. He knew why he was getting punished.
"Hey," Kaiba said, looking at the sergeant. "While you're taking this guy's hair off, why don't you do us all a favor and take the rest of his head off too?"
"Let the sergeant deal with his men in his own way," Gozaburo warned, but Kaiba had already decided to take this personally.
"I don't think we need brats like this in our military." Kaiba looked Jounouchi up and down, sneering. "The last thing we need is a loose cannon talking back to his superiors like he's worth something."
"Join."
"What?"
"Join and show Jounouchi that you're better." Gozaburo nodded, smirking. "I think you've had enough of the books, enough of the observing from a distance. Why don't you go prove it where it matters?"
Kaiba looked at his father for a moment, then swung his head to look over at Jounouchi. The blond just stood there in silence, giving away nothing with his expression or body language. Even in this most unassuming state, the young man infuriated Kaiba for reasons he couldn't process. He refused to allow himself to look weak in front of him.
"Yes, father. That's exactly what I need to do." He gestured his right thumb at Jounouchi. "I need to show that good-for-nothing pond scum that I'm a superior person. Yeah. I'll join. And my contributions to the military will be a thousand times more important than whatever this guy musters up. The Kaiba name does not get disgraced without punishment."
Gozaburo gave a firm nod.
Seto Kaiba would be enlisted. And he would show them all.