Chapter 2

KAIBA MANSION; ABOUT 10 YEARS LATER

Kisara

Seto and Yugi together had helped me build a Duel Monster deck some time ago, and I was dueling Seto in the living room – just a duel on the coffee table, the Duel Discs I'd deemed too complicated for a casual evening – and I was winning. I was suspecting Seto of letting me win, because even after ten years of being taught by the best, I still wasn't that good. I didn't mind.

He had about a thousand life points, I had fifteen hundred, and suddenly my train of thought was interrupted by a loud bang, a thump, a loud "Oof!" and a sudden influx into my mind of the sense that someone was there.

And not just any someone, but someone I never expected to sense ever again once I left Chaotia.

I straightened up and stared past Seto. The sofa behind him had tipped over backwards. "Max?!"

A casual tenor voice answered me. "Hey, sis." Then the sofa righted itself.

Sprawled out on the sofa, dressed in the brown casual wear of Chaotia, was my brother. Aside from the fact that he covered the whole sofa now, he was exactly the way I remembered him: velvety black skin, shaggy black hair that reached to his shoulders, and sparkling red eyes.

By the time he'd righted the sofa, I'd figured out what I was going to say to him. I stood up and walked around the coffee table while Seto watched me. "You have a lot of nerve showing up here," I began, kinetically grabbing the front of his shirt and setting him onto his feet.

He grinned at me, his teeth flashing white in their black background, like he was trying to charm his way out of trouble.

Then I added, "…After what you pulled." Honestly, he probably had pulled something to get here from where he'd been.

His smile vanished, his eyes got big, and he pointed at himself.

We just stood there, arm's length away from each other, looking at each other. I was trying to look stern, and he was just starting to think that maybe I really was mad at him.

Then I couldn't take it any longer – I got him in a headlock and messed up his hair, laughing. "How are you doing, you crazy black puppy?"

Laughing just as hard, he heaved himself to one side, sprawling both of us on the floor with him on top. "What were you thinking, leaving the dimension without telling me, you blue-eyed demon?"

I pinned him to the ceiling with my mind. "I was thinking of hiding from suitors, you useless bodyguard!" I teased.

He pretended that his gravity had been reversed and put his hands behind his head, hooking one leg over the other. "Oh, speaking of," he answered sarcastically, "thanks for inviting me to your wedding."

It didn't surprise me that he knew; either it was a lucky guess, or he sensed it when I got him in that headlock.

"You were busy in solitary confinement." I threw him onto the sofa again.

"Sara?" Seto asked me slowly as he stood up. "Who is that clown?"

I stood up again and gestured dramatically. "Seto, this is Maximar Maygo – my twin brother."

My husband stared at my brother, who just went even more casual than before. "He doesn't look it."

Max shrugged. "Funny, everyone says that. I don't get it." He was kidding.

I walked over to Seto and looked back at Max. "Maximar, this is Seto Kaiba…" I looped my arms around Seto's neck and finished, "the love of my life, founder of Duel Academy, and head of a game company."

He sat up and cocked an eyebrow, smirking. At least…I think that was the expression he was making – his eyebrows were almost the same shade as his skin. "In that order?"

I made a face at him. "Game company was first, then me, then the academy."

"Ah, I see."

I sincerely doubted he did, but I went with it because frankly, his appearance was quite timely. After about ten years of Duel Academy, the classes were getting bigger, and I was starting to get worn out. And besides…

Mokuba came in, giving Safira a piggyback ride. He stopped when he saw us.

"Max, this is my brother-in-law Mokuba and my daughter Safira. Mokuba, Safira, this is my brother Maximar."

"You're kidding!" Max exclaimed as he scooped the little brown-haired seven-year-old from Mokuba's back. "I'm an uncle?" I think he was genuinely surprised.

"You sure are," I plucked the girl from his hands kinetically so that he could shake hands with Mokuba. "And therein lies why I'm actually relieved to see you."

"Oh?"

"It's like this…" Then I broadcast my problem to the whole room, letting everyone hear what I was saying in concepts to my brother. "Duel Academy also has a hidden dorm that teaches psychic powers, since duelists are far more likely to develop powers here than anyone else. I'm the only teacher in that dorm, but what with having a daughter who's only in the second grade and another child on the way," I felt Max's astonishment and ignored it, "I'll be hard-pressed to continue teaching easily. I'll need someone to take over for me. And that someone is you, Maximar."

"Me?"

"Yes, you."

He gave me a sweeping bow. "Why, I'd be honored, my lady!"

I rolled my eyes. "Just promise me one thing?"

Max straightened up and his red eyes met my blue ones.

"Don't try to charm the female students."

He flashed me another grin. "Okay, okay, I won't."

Seto walked over to him and held out a hand. "Fine, then: you're hired."

Well, at least my brother shook hands with him. Considering what I remembered about my brother, that was progress.

"Oh, but by the way," Seto turned to look at me again, "what did you mean by solitary confinement?" His attention returned to Max. "Are you a criminal?"

Max…cocked an eyebrow at him, tilting his head. (Had to look closer.) "Actually, no. The trouble is…um…" He spun to look at me. "Kisara, I need your help just as much as you need mine."

I stared at him. Maximar was actually admitting that he needed my help? I told Seto, "Max was in solitary confinement because he's a curse carrier. The Maygo bloodline has a curse that's ultimately called the Wolfshadow. As a general rule it only follows the males, which is why I wasn't being watched, but…"

"But that's why he was in solitary."

I nodded.

"Well, that's all well and good, but what's that got to do with now?"

"If I'm right…" I glanced at Max, "…then the curse is probably close enough to manifesting that the carrier can tell."

To answer, Max pulled up his left sleeve. There was an image, blazed on his forearm in red, of a canine head baring long fangs.

"I've never been good at summoning up a solution to a problem, even – or maybe especially – a problem specifically concerning myself. But you…you found a way around your destiny! Can you help me?"

I studied the mark, remembering what I'd learned about this curse. Then I kinetically summoned up a calendar that had the school's important days marked on it and studied both at once. "Judging by the signature…I'd say that the curse will ultimately blow around Duel Academy's final exams this year."

"So what can we do about it?"

I straightened up. "Simple: I'll meditate." Then I walked off, leaving my husband and my brother standing in the middle of the room.


I went back to my room, got out a pen and a pad of paper, sat down and started meditating. In order to properly remove this curse, I need some students placed in the academy who can actually counter this, because I can't: removing curses just isn't my forte. I can remove curses, but the odds of the bearer surviving aren't all that good to begin with, and my powers are actually kind of in flux because of my pregnancy. Then something slammed home to me – a vision of what was actually needed to remove the curse: a legendary duelist who had lived a lie and only after death learned the truth, and a Chaotian who had been betrayed by their own birth. I felt the pen start moving of its own accord as that vision channeled through my powers.

When the pen fell over, I opened my eyes. Two sheets of paper had been torn from the pad, each with a drawing. On one page was a male, probably around his teens and dressed like royalty, probably someone just after Atem's time. On the other was a girl, also in her teens, who…

Suddenly, "betrayed by her own birth" made perfect sense.

I'll bring her first: she's the simplest, though I'll have to give her to Pegasus so that she can get her own deck together. The boy will require a certain amount of technically-forbidden magic.