I've found myself modeling the relationship between Gozaburo and Amaya (the name I've given to Missus Kaiba, Noa's mom) after that of Daredevil's Wilson Fisk and Vanessa Marianna, specifically from the Netflix series. I dunno. Gozie seems like a Kingpin figure to me.

In any case, this installment is an attempt to at least start hammering out some details on how these two operate. Because it's a facet of Gozaburo's character that I've honestly never even tried to pin down before.


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A specter in black, with swept-back hair and a time-chiseled face, stood sentinel in one of Saint Clare Municipal Hospital's sterilized hallways, as though he never intended to move again. And somehow, even though they weren't standing next to each other, even though their clothing—or anything else about their respective appearances—didn't match in any way whatsoever, somehow it was clear that the grim woman sitting beside the boy in the hospital bed was . . . a part of him.

This man, and this woman—they belonged to each other.

Sun. Moon.

Candle. Shadow.

Both moved in perfect concert with each other, even with distance between them. The ultimate dancing metaphor, but now each was cast in stone. The unfortunate puzzle was figuring out which one was which.

No one who passed through that hallway came within ten feet of Gozaburo Kaiba. Just the thought of inadvertently touching him seemed to frighten people. Normal people, standard people. The silent majority.

This perhaps explained why, when a balding man in a pinstriped suit actually approached him directly, nurses, doctors, and patients alike stared in something like wonder.

"Ah . . . Mister Kaiba. Sir."

Gozaburo blinked slowly, deliberately. Mechanically.

He sighed. "Not now, Edmund."

"Mister Kaiba, that's not exactly an option, and I think you kno—"

"Not. Now."

Did this man, named Edmund, have a reputation? Did he have important business? Was he a confidant of the Kaiba family? It was impossible to tell, because there was literally nothing to read on Gozaburo's face, nor did he bother to speak again.

"After what you've just done, you can't just stand here and tell me . . . !"

The words didn't cut off suddenly this time; they drifted, as Edmund's face went pale. Bad enough to face one shadow of death. As Amaya Kaiba drifted like an austere winter spirit out of her son's room, to stand vigil beside her husband, the temperature in the building dropped twenty degrees.

"My boy . . . is fighting for his life in there," she whispered; her emerald eyes gleamed like lanterns in a cemetery. "If I hear one more word about business right now, of any persuasion . . . I will make you fight for yours."

Amaya watched Edmund scramble to disappear with some vestige of amusement, but it sloughed off her face almost instantly. When she spoke, she didn't look at Gozaburo; she looked at the boy in the hospital bed.

She said, eventually: ". . . This has to change."

Gozaburo didn't look at Amaya, either. He said, "You'll have to be more specific."

"I've always been prepared for the sacrifices you've laid at my feet. Always ready to shed blood for your ambition. But I am not ready, nor prepared, nor willing, to shed his. I will not sacrifice him."

Gozaburo's jaw twitched as he ground his teeth. "Naturally." He waited a moment. "A total revamp of house security. I'll gut them. Those who can't be retrained to better realize a proper standard will be let go immedia—"

"No," Amaya snapped. "No, that's not enough." She finally looked at the man to whom she'd sold her soul so many years ago. She waited for him to look back at her before she continued: "If this empire you're building is going to put Noa in danger, then it will be sacrificed. I'm not talking about the house staff." Amaya looked at Gozaburo like she couldn't believe he could be that stupid. "I'm talking about everything."

Gozaburo's eyes narrowed. "Amaya. Shedding ourselves of the Kaiba Corporation won't do anything in the long run." His tone was almost gentle. "Our name is still tied to us, to the history we've built. To him. That will never be banished, nor exorcized, no matter what we do."

"Keeping in contact with those men has now directly put our son in mortal danger," Amaya hissed. "Or do you want to tell me things didn't pan out the way you predicted? With Faraji."

". . . He did it," Gozaburo said, with a voice like rolling thunder on the horizon; quiet, but apocalyptic. "I don't know why, for what specific reason or on whose orders, but he did it."

"Then break free of them," Amaya said. "Rid yourself of them all. If the one man, of all of them, you came closest to trusting . . . could do this . . ." her gaze was torn away from her husband again, through the window in front of them and back to her son, so small and vulnerable that it was a wonder he still lived at all, ". . . then what use is any of it?"

Gozaburo drew in a deep, steadying breath. It didn't seem to calm him. "What would you propose?"

"Medicine? Pharmacology? Space travel? What does it matter? Your innovations extend to any number of fields. Don't stand here and tell me you couldn't make a transition. Step into a field that's not only safer but just as, if not more, lucrative than . . ." Amaya's lip curled in disgust, ". . . whatever the hell Kaiba-Corp has become."

Gozaburo flinched; he hated that abominable shorthand.

Amaya's eyes glittered.

She cast out the line; the hook sparkled. "Or do you mean to tell me that the great Gozaburo Kaiba has met his match? Is your legacy only worth celebrating if it entangles itself with the lowest dregs of moral decency? Is your greatness only measured in graveyards and bullet casings? Surely you can't be that simple."

Silence then dominated, like a spirit best left unnamed.

Gozaburo lowered his head. Had he been anyone else, he may have been mistaken for a man deep in prayer or introspection.

Amaya stepped back toward the door to Noa's hospital room.

". . . There are people so frightened of me that they would sooner commit suicide than say what you just said . . . to say nothing of doing it where I can hear," Gozaburo noted. It wasn't a threat; simply an observation. In fact, he looked more than a little amused.

Amaya stopped. Turned to glance over one shoulder.

"I'm not them," she said.

Gozaburo smirked.

"No," he murmured, as he finally followed his wife into the room, "you most certainly aren't."


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The Kaiba family is an odd thing. An odd mix of violence, tradition, some vestige of honor and basically nothing if not loyalty. I feel like it's a play on a mafia / yakuza family. Admittedly my understanding of such things is limited, as I've never been particularly interested in the genres of fiction that deal with organized crime, but … I dunno. Gozie seems like he'd fit.

Be that as it may, I don't necessarily think that Amaya would be all in for it. I think she has particular standards of conduct, and I think that's best exemplified in the fact that she's gone by the time Seto and Mokuba show up in the canon story.

I have a hard time believing she's dead. Like, I don't think Gozaburo had her killed or anything. I think she cut ties with him after Noa's death. Probably because of how he handled it. What with the supercomputers and world domination stuff.

So naturally . . . if Noa had lived . . . wouldn't she have stayed?