"Seto, I've got an email from Yugi and Joey's manager. Forward it later or read it now?"
"Just read it. What does the twerp want now?"
Seto hadn't heard anything out of Yugi or his geek squad in a while. They had all met at a tournament in Greece a couple of months ago and Joey and Tristan had gotten really drunk at the after party and lost some of their rarest cards in the mess. They spent hundreds of dollars having them replaced and the somewhat humiliating memories of dragging drunk friends back to their hotel rooms.
"Right, it's requesting some of their KaibaCorp promotional money to throw an event, some kind of party..."
"How much of the funding do they want?"
"Uh...they're requesting half the budget."
Seto spun around in his chair and raised an eyebrow.
"Half the sponsorship budget their allotted? What makes them so special?"
She skimmed down the email...blah blah blah...
"Uhm,..it says they welcomed home an old friend who had been out of the dueling scene since your Battle City tournament, and want KaibaCorp to pick him up as a team member on their sponsorship roster...sooooo...party. Yeah. They want to throw a party to celebrate is what I'm getting.."
He gripped his chair and tensed.
"They could be talking about the Valentine whore but that would be ridiculous. They couldn't mean all that nonsense about the Egyptian..."
"Egyptian, huh? Well it says he returned from a couple year long trip to Egypt a few days ago. You know him, I guess?"
"I don't fucking believe it. Are you fucking kidding me? All that mystical Egyptian bullshit ended years ago and supposedly he's back?! I need to see this shit for myself.""
Aura was now the one giving her boss the look of insanity.
"Well are you going to approve it or not?
Seto stood up and stormed out of the office to find Mokuba.
"Aura, just sign it your own damn self! It's not like I hired you to just sit there and be pretty. Tell them to throw in another quarter of my budget to, goddamn it."
She turned back around a little stunned...but it turned into a generous grin.
"Well fine. He trusts me that much, does he? I guess he won't mind if I throw in a personal commission to get ready for said party on the invoice."
Seto took his personal elevator straight down to the first floor and stepped outside to have a cigarette. Usually he wouldn't dare want an employee, or anyone else for that matter, see him smoking, but right how he didn't give a damn.
Roland pulled up at the most opportune moment, letting Mokuba out of the car.
"So, you heard about the party, did you Seto? I stopped by the Kame Game Shop right after school and Joey had already faxed over the rough invites. They look so cool, big brother!"
Joey had gone a little overboard with his duel monster-esque foiled out invitations. This was going to be ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous.
Mokuba skipped happily inside and left Roland to gently chastise the CEO about smoking and his health. Seto half smirked, asking him if he had finished the errand he requested. They made a quick exchange, the small box being dropped into Seto's pocket. He thanked his old friend and returned to the office to try and comprehend what was going on.
Aura was printing signing various contracts that had been attached to the email. She stapled it and looked at Seto as though she felt sorry for him.
"You seem unusually angry about some old duel monsters player coming back from Egypt, did he beat you or something?"
He gave her the glare of death.
"If Yugi or his little Egyptian friend thinks they are going to out-do me, in anything, ever again, I will promptly stop them into the ground and piss on them."
She shrugged her shoulders.
"Well Seto, just let me know if there is anything I can do to make you less angry."
He tapped her shoulder one more time and she turned to face him, but instead, had a small white box in her face, held out at a distance as Seto desperately tried to half-turn away.
"Consider this a late birthday. Maybe you could wear it to this...whatever this is that the dweeb is throwing. I'm sure you added something to that first company invoice for a dress, so whatever. I just expect you to be ready to be picked up an hour before the invitation says to arrive."
She opened the box to a massive pendant of a single cherry blossom, done in pave` white and pink diamonds. This thing easily cost six or seven digits, much like her earrings, and Aura was so beyond shocked she didn't know how to reply.
"I...uh...wow. Just...wow. Thank you, Seto. This is beyond kinder and nicer than anything else anyone has tried to do for me on my birthday. How did you know...?"
He shrugged. "Don't worry about it. Just make sure to wear something appropriate with it whenever this..party is...next Saturday or something I'm assuming."
"Hmm. Is this a date, then, "
He threw up his arms in disgust and defeat.
"Sure, whatever!"
She smiled, thanked him again softly for the gift and turned off her computer.
"I'm looking forward to it, Seto."
A stranger watched Aura walk away from the KaibaCorp complex and followed her for a half mile or so. He knew which direction she lived in. It wouldn't be hard to figure out exactly where he could find her.
The stranger smiled when he saw the flier taped to the telephone pole about the celebration on Saturday.
She was still so beautiful, even thousands of years later. So powerful, so lustful. This time...this time...it would be different. She belonged with someone who could control her power and appreciate that beauty.
He'd introduce himself Saturday...and this time the Pharaoh and Priest weren't going to get in the way.