Kuriso- I'm not going to lie, I'm kinda bummed the last chapter only got 1 review. It was a good review yes but still, I do like hearing feedback. It keeps me wanting to continue. But this chapter is dedicated to Yami's Aibou for being the only person to review and say wonderful things about it. I hope this chapter is long enough for you this time. Love ya all!
One by one all the guests stood up from their seats and began to exit the grand dining room. They followed Pegasus into the study who instructed them to take a seat while he headed to the front of the room. There sat a large antique desk with a large leather chair behind it. Sitting on top of the desk was a manila envelope with a note that read "Open after dinner." Everyone adjusted themselves getting comfortable on the assorted chairs and sofas around the room. In the back of the room in the corner near the door, Mr. Body took a seat in a large gold chair as he eyed the people sitting in the room.
Yvette walked around with a tray of Champagne and brandy that she offered to everyone. Mai pulled out a cigarette from a case she kept in her breast, then turning to look at Yami who had taken a seat next to her.
"Got a light?" she asked. He pulled out an old fashion lighter. It was a deep purple matching his suit and on the sides had carved the image of the Dark Magician. "So, Professor Plum, is all the purple because of your love of the Dark Magician?"
"Partly," he replied.
"What's the other part?" she asked with a seductive smile.
"Something that need not concern you," he said. Dissatisfied with the answer, she turned away taking a drag of her cigarette and blowing the smoke in the face of Kaiba who sat on the other side of her. Fanning the smoke away with his hand, he was about to say something when Pegasus interrupted him.
"Everyone here was invited because you all have one thing in common…" Pegasus began.
"Yah we are all duelists and we were all stupid enough to come here," Kaiba remarked sarcastically.
"As I was saying, you all have one thing in common…and that is…unless of course, would you like to tell?" he asked as he looked over to Mr. Body.
"Why? Do they know who I am?" Mr. Body asked.
"I don't believe so. You haven't formally introduced yourself," said Pegasus. Getting up from his seat, Mr. Body headed for the exit of the room in a fury.
"This is all a hoax! I suggest we all leave now!" Mr. Body said turning back to the guests before walking out of the room and heading for the front door. Pegasus followed him out of the room.
"You can't get out that way!" he informed Mr. Body. "All the doors are locked and all the windows are barred.
"You can't keep us in here!" Mr. Body shouted! All of the guests realizing what was taking place exited as well standing at the entrance of the room and began agreeing with Mr. Body.
"What is going on here Pegasus?" exclaimed Yami.
"You sleazy slimball! What do you have planned!?" demanded Joey.
"If this is another one of you're tricks Pegasus…" started Kaiba.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, please listen to me. Everything is fine. Please return to the study. Everything will be explained. That means you too Mr. Body. Mr. Body get back here!" shouted Pegasus. Mr. Body ran past Pegasus down the hall and entered the indoor patio. It room was surrounded on all four sides by large windows. From the windows a flash of lightening brightened the room and thunder rumbled the potted plants that covered the room. Rain was coming down now in buckets making the view almost impossible to see. Mr. Body looked around till he spotted a large brick on the ground. Bending down to pick it down, Pegasus finally caught up. Catching his breath and standing at the doorway, he took in a deep breath and brushed his long grey hair back. He smiled and looked at Mr. Body who now had the brick in his hand and pulled back preparing to throw it at the windows.
"You can't get out that way," pointed out Pegasus.
"Why not? It's only glass," said Mr. Body. Just as he said it, as though timed and planned a flash of lightening lit up the room again as 3 large dogs jumped against the windows standing on their hind legs, they bared their teeth and barked with anger in their eyes ready to rip someone apart. Looking over at Pegasus in defeat, who proceeded to cross his arms and smile smugly; Mr. Body lowered his arms and dropped the brick. Letting out a deep sigh, he walked out of the patio and back into the main hallway where the rest of the guests were waiting to see what will happen. Following Pegasus back into the study again, everyone adjusted themselves once more while Mr. Body sat in the back pouting. Pegasus walked back over to the desk picking up the manila folder, he ripped the top off and pulled the files and photographs out. Glancing over the notes, he looked back at the guests who sat with their hearts racing as they waited in anticipation for the news to why they were all reunited in the godforsaken mansion on top of the hill.
"Everyone is here because you all have something in common. You are all being blackmailed. For some considerable time, all of you have been paying what you can afford and in some cases more than you can afford to someone who threatens to expose you. And none of you know who is blackmailing you. Do you?" asked Pegasus looking around at the shocked expressions on everyone's face.
"Oh please! No one could blackmail me! My life is an open book. I've never done anything wrong," said Tea as she nervously took a drink of her Champagne.
"Anyone else wish to deny it?" asked Pegasus. Everyone avoided eye contact with him as they looked down shamefully. "Good then as we are all in the same boat, there is no harm in my revealing some details. And my instructions are to do so. Thank you Yvette." He looked over at the maid standing on the other side of the door. She nodded and walked out of the room and closed the door behind her to give the other guests privacy.
"Don't you think you might spare us this humiliation?" pleaded Ishizu.
"I'm sorry." Pegasus said with a genuine look of sympathy. Composing himself again, he cleared his throat, looked down at his notes and walked over to Yami who was now leaning against the fire place. "Yami-boy, since you are the king of games, why don't we begin this little one with you. You were once a Professor of psychiatry specializing in helping paranoid and homicidal lunatics suffering from delusions of grandeur."
"Yes, that's right, but now I work for the United Nations," he said curious to where Pegasus was going with this.
"So your work has not changed. But you don't practice medicine at the UN. His license to practice medicine has been lifted. Correct?" asked Pegasus as everyone gave a small gasp.
"Why, what did he do?" asked Mai who stood up from the couch and walked over to Pegasus and leaned against the desk.
"You know that thing you are not allowed to do with minors?" Pegasus asked.
"Yea," said Mai.
"Well he did!"
"HA! Wait don't tell me it was..." started Mai
"Yugi," said Kaiba.
"I didn't know he was still 17 at the time. We are in love." Yami said trying to defend himself.
"I never would have guessed," said Ishizu.
"Really, it wasn't obvious to anyone else?" asked Kaiba.
"So that's the other reason for the purple, to match Yugi's eyes. How sweet, someone gag me," said Mai.
"Oh how disgusting," said Tea. "Homosexuality is bad enough, but with a child."
"Are you passing moral judgment Mrs. Tea Peacock?" Pegasus turned and swooped down sitting next to Tea on the couch getting uncomfortably close to her and smiling. "How then do you justify taking bribes, in exchange for delivering your husband Senator Peacock's vote to certain lobbyists?"
"My husband is a paid consultant! There is nothing wrong with that!" she snapped back.
"Not if publicly declared perhaps. But if the payment is delivered by slipping used greenbacks in plain envelopes under the door of the men's room from known members of the mob, how then do you describe that transaction?" said Pegasus feeling he has her cornered.
"I'd say it stinks," said Mai as she swooped from behind the couch to lean over and smile at Tea.
"Oh how would you know? When were you in that men's room?" snarled Tea.
"So it's true!" said Yami.
"No! It's a vicious lie!" shout Tea as she stood up about to break down in tears. Looking around, she sat back down.
"I'm sure we are all glad to hear that…but you have been paying the blackmailer for over two years now to keep that story out of the papers." Having heard enough, Tea got back up and turned away from Pegasus.
"Well I am willing to believe you Tea. I too and being blackmailed for something I didn't do," admitted Ishizu as she returned the black veil on her hat back over her face as though she was beginning to mourn.
"Me too," said Joey.
"And me," said Kaiba.
"Not me!" said Mai.
"You're not being blackmailed?" asked Pegasus with a puzzled look.
"Oh no I'm being black mailed alright. But I did what I'm being blackmailed for." Mai said as she walked back over to the desk this time sitting on top.
"What did you do?" asked Yami.
"Well, to be perfectly frank, I run a specialized hotel and telephone service which provide gentlemen with the company of a young lady for a short while. It's called the Harpie Ladies…"
"Predictable," snorted Kaiba.
"If we are going to discuss predictable," Pegasus said as he walked over to Kaiba "then let's talk about you. You're company, when run by your step father, created military weapons. Because you believed that gaming was the new wave, you shut down all military contracts as well as research. Since then, profits have seemingly tripled. Here's the odd part. Your company's profits have gone up, therefore so has your salary compared to that of your father's. Yet, you have not had to pay a single read cent in taxes. How is that? Probably because of a certain mistress of yours who knows their way around to hide money in order to avoid paying taxes on them."
"Don't you dare call him my mistress!" Kaiba growled standing up in an attempt to intimidate Pegasus.
"Wait wait wait! Him? You have a male lover?" asked Ishizu.
"What is everyone fucking queer?" mumbled Tea.
"Wait a minute. Kaiba, how did you know what Joey did? Before at dinner you were able to announce that Joey worked for the IRS. Is he your lover?" asked Yami.
"Certainly not!" exclaimed Joey who now has also stood up from his seat to intercept Yami as he walked towards Kaiba.
"I wasn't asking you. I was asking Kaiba!"
"Well tell him it's not true," Joey said looking at Kaiba.
"It's not true," said Kaiba.
"Is that true?" asked Mai.
"No it's not true," said Kaiba.
"AHA! A double negative!" shout Pegasus who was now standing next to Joey and Kaiba!
"Double negative? You mean you still have the….photographs?" whispered Joey to Kaiba.
"That sounded like a confession to me! In fact the double negative has lead to proof positive. I'm afraid you gave yourself away!" Pegasus said holding up the explicit negatives of Joey and Kaiba together.
"Are you trying to make me look stupid in front of the other guests?" Joey shouted trying to get in Pegasus's face.
"You don't need any help from me," Pegasus said calmly.
"That's right!" Joey said triumphantly, before he slowly realized what he had just said.
"But seriously. So Joey and Kaiba are lovers. I don't see what's wrong with that," said Yami.
"Look who's talking, cradle robber," snapped Mai.
"But Kaiba is sleeping with one of the heads of the IRS. It looks shady to the government if their affair became public. And both their positions are sensitive. Of course we all can't forget tax evasion is still a crime. Al Capone was never charged for all of his murders and robberies, rather for taxes. And if Kaiba goes to jail, he loses his company." Pegasus said matter-of-factly. "Now then, Mrs. White, you have been paying our friend the blackmailer ever since your husband died under, shall we say mysterious circumstances.
"HA!" laughed Mai.
"What's so funny?" asked Ishizu.
"I see; that's why he's lying on his back all day. In his coffin," she said with another laugh.
"I didn't kill him."
"Then why are you paying the blackmailer?" asked Joey.
"I don't want a scandal, do I? We had had a very humiliating public confrontation. He was deranged…lunatic. He didn't actually seem to like me very much. He had threatened to kill me in public," Ishizu explained.
"Why would he want to kill you in public?" asked Mai.
"I think she meant he threatened, in public, to kill her," Pegasus explained to her.
"Oh…was that his final word on the matter?" Mai asked as she took a puff of her second cigarette.
"Being killed is pretty final, wouldn't you say?" Ishizu asked Mai.
"Yet he was the one who died, not you Ishizu. Not you!" Pegasus said with a suspicious tone.
"What was he like?" asked Mai.
"He was always a rather stupidly optimistic man. I mean, I'm afraid it came as a great shock to him when he died. But he was found dead at home. His head had been cut off and so had his….you know…" Ishizu said pointing down to her privates. All the men sitting crossed their legs as they sympathized and felt pain in their groins. "I had been out all evening at the movies."
"Do you miss him?" Mai asked.
"Well, it's a matter of life after death. Now that he's dead, I have a life."
"But he was your second husband," Pegasus pointed out. "Your first husband also disappeared."
"But that was his job, he was an illusionist."
"But he never reappeared." Pegasus said looking at her with a confused look.
"Well, he wasn't a very good illusionist."
"So this just leaves Mr. Body then," said Tea.
"What's your little secret?" Maid looked over at Mr. Body who hadn't said a word through the whole thing and barely had moved. His black eyes looked right at Mai who was trying to be seductive, but Mr. Body seemed unfazed by it. Mai took another puff of her cigarette before crossing her legs on the desk and leaned forward anxious to hear what his secret could possibly be.
"His secret? Haven't you all figured it out yet?" asked Pegasus. "He's the one blackmailing you all."
Kuriso- DUN DUN DUN!!!!!!!! *insert dramatic music* So that's why they are all there and that is who Mr. Body is. Hope you enjoyed this chapter. The next one is going to be to die for…read and review!