Chapter Six

Yugi raced into the house he shared with his Grandpa (whenever said Grandpa wasn't gallivanting all over Egypt) and dumped his keys and briefcase on the couch as he dashed by it. He juggled a large manila envelope from one hand to the other so he could tear open the knot of the tie around his neck. Never surrendering the envelope, Yugi juggled it yet again as he snagged an opener from the top of his desk. He plopped into his chair before slitting the envelope and pulling out the contents.

He barely glanced at the top sheet, able to tell immediately that it was simply the polite cover letter that would tell him nothing. He bent over the next page, which was covered in tiny print, to see if this packet, from this company, might be the one... The one that would launch his dream. Overcome with a sudden anxiety, Yugi leaned back and tipped his head up, taking a moment to simply breathe and calm his racing heart down.

Nearly six months to the day, Yugi had caught that wicked blade as it sliced down toward Mokuba. He rubbed the slightly puckered scar across his right palm. He never once regretted that impulsive action. Mokuba was an amazing kid, and Yugi could tell he was going to be at least an equally amazing man. It wouldn't have been at all unusual for Mokuba to feel gratitude, for a while, for what Yugi had done, and then, pulled away as his life settled back into its pre-attack routine. It would have been possible for Mokuba to come to resent Yugi, too, resenting being 'beholden' to Yugi for saving his life -- not that Yugi looked at it that way, at all. Instead, Mokuba had, not unreasonably, become his friend--seemingly viewing him as a back-up older brother. Yugi was happy with this outcome.

Their taste in movies was similar, and Yugi had several video games that Mokuba liked, too. It was easy enough for Yugi to double the amounts when he happened to be cooking something Mokuba liked. The upshot was that Mokuba had become a frequent visitor to his apartment. Over the past several months, Yugi had been invited to the Kaiba mansion a handful of times, too. Even though it had always been Mokuba asking, Yugi was fairly certain Kaiba was behind some of those invites.

As fun as the movies and video games were, the activity he shared most often with Mokuba was 'dueling' -- that is, play-testing Yugi's game. He'd created many new monsters in the last six months, and come up with more intricate combinations of moves along with the standard attack, defense, magic, effect, and trap cards that were the basis of his game system. Mokuba's input was absolutely a godsend, as he was the exact age Yugi was hoping would like 'Duel Monsters' as he called the game. Mokuba, surprisingly, also had solid insights as to how to pitch his idea to various gaming corporations. When one of those companies expressed guarded interest, in the form of a sheaf of papers that Yugi had to fill out in order to secure an interview, and one of the items they were looking for was a character reference, Mokuba had suggested slyly that dropping his name could only help Yugi. 'Kaiba', even attached to young Vice President Mokuba (instead of powerful CEO Seto) commanded respect.

Perhaps too much respect -- or maybe he should make that attention? Seto Kaiba had been none-too-pleased with that when he discovered it last month, Yugi recalled with a grimace...

-- -- -- --

"What do you think you are doing, Mutou?" Kaiba demanded as Yugi lifted a forkful of peas to his mouth. Even though he lost three when he started slightly, Yugi put the rest of the peas in his mouth to buy a minute to get his heart to calm down.

"Eating peas?" he ventured after he swallowed.

"Not that, idiot. I meant bandying Mokuba's name around to Sharmar Entertainment. Surely you don't think that I wouldn't be alerted that you used Mokuba's name as a business character reference?"

"Oh, that."

"Yes, 'that'. Spill it." Kaiba glared at him coldly.

"I can explain, Seto," Mokuba piped up.

"I'm sure you can, but I want to hear it from Mutou."

Here it was, a day Yugi had kinda hoped would forget about coming, or decide he was not worth bothering about. The day he had to reveal his dream to Seto Kaiba. The day he had to swallow his discomfort, bare his heart, and show Kaiba his art, explain his game, and somehow weather the Kaiba Cataclysm of Disdain that was sure to follow.

"But..." Mokuba began.

"I presume you have homework, Mokuba," Kaiba said. "We will finish eating, and you will go do your homework while Mutou and I have a discussion."

Mokuba, hearing the steely resolve in his big brother's voice, nodded miserably and shot several apologetic looks Yugi's way during the rest of that tense meal. After they finished, while the table was being cleared, Kaiba enforced Mokuba's banishment.

"Talk."

"There's... It's... It's a game -- or a concept for a game. Players -- duelists as I call them -- collect cards, like playing cards, but each card shows a monster, or a spell, or a trap, or..."

Kaiba blinked at him. "You bring my younger brother's good name to the attention of one of my business rivals -- as a game?!"

"No, no. That part isn't a game! My idea, the one I'm hoping they will want to back, is a game!"

Slightly mollified, Kaiba sat back in his chair. "Continue."

"I haven't had any luck. Most companies have just rejected me without even looking at my idea."

Kaiba leaned forward again with alarm. "You haven't actually sent your idea to any of them, have you, Mutou?"

"No, I'm not that foolish. Why buy the game-designer's services if you have the game? Most of them reject even meeting with me about it. One company, well, two, actually, have shown some interest. Industrial Illusions seemed very promising, but I haven't heard anything from them in weeks. Sharmar Entertainment wanted me to complete something along the lines of an application before they would consider setting up a meeting. Mokuba suggested, ah, that is, I thought that I could ask Mokuba..."

Kaiba almost-smiled. "I suspect you were more accurate the first time. Mokuba suggested you use his name as your business reference -- for the cachet attached to the Kaiba name."

"Well, uhm, yes. But, I would have asked him. So, don't well, think badly of Mokuba..."

"For his willingness to help his friend? Why would I think badly of him for that?"

"You seem upset..."

"Of course I'm upset! Mokuba might have some skill in the business world, but he's still just a child. The Kaiba name does have tremendous pull, but Seto Kaiba is even more compelling. Why didn't you ask me for the reference, Mutou?" Yugi blinked at him in confusion. "Of course, I'm seeking to protect Mokuba from any fallout or negative association if your idea is a total bust. My name would hardly be tarnished if your little idea tanks, given my business acumen, but Mokuba hasn't quite my 'bulletproof' reputation -- yet."

Yugi bristled at hearing Kaiba's less-than-complimentary comments about his idea. Then he realized that Kaiba was doing it again, just like before. 'Mokuba' hadn't been distressed at Yugi's care at Chessex Hospital -- Seto had. This was simply a backwards version of Kaiba's it-ought-to-be-patented Mokuba Dodge. He relaxed, and even smiled.

"What are you looking so smug about, Mutou?" Kaiba demanded.

"You. You're a big softy."

Kaiba blinked at him, and glared.

Yugi shrugged. "That's not going to work. I'm onto you, Kaiba."

"In your dreams, Mutou. I'm way more subtle than you are obviously giving me credit for."

"Whatever!" Yugi shot one of Kaiba's favorite dodges right at him.

Kaiba's glare increased to radioactive levels. Suddenly, it abated. Alarmed, Yugi sat up, and gulped.

"You need my help, Mutou. I'm not going to let you use Mokuba's name as your business reference -- but you can use mine. With one condition. I have to see this game of yours. If I think it's viable, I will help you gain the interviews you are looking for." Almost as an afterthought, he added, "It's the least I can do."

"Oh... Uhm..."

"What's the matter, Mutou? Is your little game so fragile only Mokuba can see it?" Kaiba sneered.

"Yes!" Yugi shouted. "I don't want you to... It's important to me, dammit! You will think it's foolish or trivial -- and I don't want to hear you insulting it."

Kaiba straightened, folded his hands carefully on the table, and looked down at them. "I don't think anything you do is foolish or trivial, Mu-- Yugi. I owe you so much. Granted, it was the nearly tragic circumstances surrounding my brother's abduction that brought you into my awareness again after high school, but I would not permit Mokuba a continued association with you if you were not worthy of that association." Kaiba looked up. Yugi was shocked to see something very vulnerable in Kaiba's eyes. "Mokuba is so enthusiastic about your game. I've wanted to see it on that strength alone for months. Now that I've offered my not-inconsiderable help..."

Yugi realized that, contrary to what he thought, Kaiba felt left out. He certainly hadn't intended to slight the man by not showing him the game, it had been a matter of his own uncertainty. Seto Kaiba was such a hard person to read. "I didn't want to waste your time," Yugi said softly. "It wasn't anything more than that. I wasn't trying to--to block you out."

"Mokuba comes home from a visit with you brimming with excitement. I can tell he wants to share it with me, but..." Kaiba shrugged. "He's not willing to break faith with you."

Yugi didn't know what to say. Kaiba broke the awkward moment by standing up. "My offer is on the table. It's up to you to decide what you are going to do with it. I will be in the game room if you wish to discuss it further."

Yugi considered for several minutes after Kaiba had left. Really, he had no choice. Not because he wanted Kaiba's help (though he wasn't foolish enough to reject it) but because... Dammit, because he cared. He couldn't help but view Mokuba as the little brother he didn't have, and he knew Mokuba had come to view him with a brotherly sort of affection, too. Nothing like the bond Mokuba had with Kaiba, of course, Yugi would have been alarmed if that had happened, but... Somehow his friendship with Mokuba had extended to include Kaiba, too. At least he thought it had.

Ah, he had no idea! Sometimes it seemed there was some sort of less-than-hostile connection between them, that might, if one were very generous, be termed not completely unlike friendship, and other times Yugi felt certain Kaiba wished Yugi would just disappear. Then again, there was the Mokuba Dodge, when Kaiba claimed Mokuba wanted something, or did something, and it was just a screen for Kaiba to express his own wishes or actions.

"You. You're a big softy." Kaiba hadn't denied it when Yugi said that.

Yugi made his decision and squared his shoulders. Either he was right, and Kaiba actually viewed him with some version of friendship, or the man would despise...

Wait a minute. Why would Kaiba despise his game even if he wasn't Yugi's friend? Dammit, Duel Monsters was a great game, no matter what narrow-minded idiot powers-that-be at giant companies thought! Kaiba wasn't an idiot. Even if he didn't like Yugi on a personal level, surely he would see the value in the game. And, he hadn't said that he had to like the game in order for Yugi to use him as a character reference. He said Yugi just had to show it to him and prove it was viable. Which is so was.

The game room at Kaiba Mansion was a gamer's paradise. It was huge, containing every video game system in a huge bank along one wall. A row of theater seats gave bystanders an unimpeded view of the massive screen the games were played on, while the players had plush seats in the game pit directly in front of the screen. In one of the corners of the room there was a mint-condition Dragon's Lair arcade game. The shelves set on another wall held every board game Yugi had ever heard of -- and then some. Game tables and chairs were strewn around the room in strategic groups, so all one had to do was get the box of pieces and set up at the proper table to play a game of chess, for example.

Kaiba looked up when Yugi entered the room. He was seated at one of the plain game tables reading a book. His gaze flicked to the laptop and art portfolio Yugi carried. Without a word Kaiba set his book aside, and folded his hands together in front of him. Yugi had never seen him being so carefully neutral before.

Okay, business. Keep it on a professional, business level and that should work.

"At its heart, Duel Monsters is a collectible card game," Yugi began as he opened his portfolio and handed it to Kaiba. While Kaiba flipped through the art looking at the individual monster drawings, Yugi continued. "Mokuba has been helping me with not only the design of the cards, but refining the rules of play. Even though he's been creative enough to make actual cards for my concept, the rules have been changing, so we opted to keep them on my computer until each card has been finalized."

Yugi opened his laptop, brought it out of its sleep mode, and turned it around so the screen faced Kaiba. "The full rules for the game, and the current description for each card, are here. I think the best way to understand Duel Monsters is to play a game or two for yourself. You can access each card by name. They are sorted alphabetically."

Kaiba nodded. Yugi slid the deck of hand-made cards he'd borrowed from Mokuba across the table for Kaiba to use. He unfolded the game mat that he'd made and flattened it out upon the table between himself and Kaiba. Finally, he pulled out his own deck -- also made for him by Mokuba using scans of his art.

"Let's duel!"

Yugi fretted about it, but couldn't bring himself to play less than his best, so he won the game. To Kaiba's credit, Yugi had to struggle for his win -- even with his Dark Magician card and several of the support cards that boosted the Magician's abilities.

Kaiba nodded. "I suspected you were a finesse player. Your game reflects that. There's nothing wrong with it, but you might be cutting into your potential market if you design your game only for the finesse player."

"How do you mean?"

Kaiba reached over, picked up the Dark Magician card, and looked at it closely. Yugi squirmed. Kaiba almost-smiled.

"This is your card -- probably the whole reason you designed the game in the first place. Come up with alternate art for him -- something more dangerous in appearance and not quite so wholesome. Go after the 'bad boy' image, too. Otherwise, it will become difficult to keep track of things in the inevitable Magician versus Magician duels."

Yugi considered that. In his delirium dreams he recalled a figure turning and throwing a thousand knives at him. He thought it was the Dark Magician -- but not 'his' Dark Magician. Alternate art... There was quite a bit of merit in this idea.

Kaiba continued. "Don't frustrate or cut out the younger gamer who's too impatient to learn how to play the game at that level. Also, there are some players who are power-gamers by nature. Give them a card that can be a credible challenge for the Dark Magician in the hands of a master player. Gain the brute gamer as well as the thoughtful one. Take this card," Kaiba held up the Summoned Skull, the strongest card in his borrowed deck. "and boost the attack and defense. Make it a power card that any player can play fairly easily to make it a reasonable challenge for the more skilled player. The Magician might be your favorite card, Mutou, but he shouldn't automatically own the game. Otherwise, Duel Monsters might as well be named 'Dark Magician Duels' for that's all they'd be."

Yugi nodded. It was something that had been bothering him a bit about the game. He was just too close to it to have put his finger on it so neatly. It hit Yugi with a burst of pure, white light. He'd tentatively started assigning element alignments to his cards, but some of them didn't fit just one element -- like his Dark Magician card. Shadow -- and Light. The rest of the cards that he hadn't been able to classify could fit in either of those categories. But -- Summoned Skull would be a 'shadow' card, just like his Dark Magician. This power 'brute' card Kaiba was talking about should be as diametrically opposed to the Dark Magician as possible...

-- -- -- --

Yugi's eyes refocused on the play of light and shadow across his ceiling. Kaiba's assistance with evaluating contract proposals now was as fully valuable as his observations about the game had been a month ago. He was able to cut through the obscure legal language of each proposal more or less at a glance and explain them to Yugi in real world terms. Yugi grimaced as he read this proposal and realized it wouldn't pass Kaiba's requirements, either.

He sighed, looking at the dwindling list of companies who could conceivably be interested in his Duel Monsters game idea. Some offered far too little backing to be worthwhile. Others offered sufficient backing, but, Kaiba had showed Yugi that he would have to sign away his rights to his own ideas to secure that backing. A few permitted him to keep the rights to his images, setting up convoluted and complex royalty agreements for the exact image, but wrested control for further development from him. Kaiba told him these were the most insidious, for Yugi would see good return for his idea for about a year, then the company would exercise its right to develop the idea as they saw fit, obsoleting and discontinuing any part of the concept that hadn't been developed 'in-house'. They'd cut Yugi right out of his own game.

Didn't any of these companies believe in his idea -- and him -- enough to just back him without taking his control away? Yugi looked through the first pile of proposals again. Yeah, they believed in him, but not enough to help. He sighed, wishing his random psychic gift would deign to help him find the path through this dilemma. Of course it remained uselessly quiescent.

The only thing that gave him the drive to keep trying to find a way to make this work when his own enthusiasm flagged was Mokuba. The kid has an unerring instinct for reading Yugi when he started getting down on his idea -- and himself. When Mokuba looked at him with such hopeful, trusting eyes, Yugi just had to try. Dammit, it would be cool to see all his duel monster images rendered into full-color, glossy cards, along with a clearly written, concise rule book, and a game field playing mat. As new monsters and game ideas presented themselves to him, Yugi could issue expansions. Duelists (even after all this time, it still sounded so much cooler than 'players') could collect or not collect the newer cards at their option. Posters, promotions, tournaments... The ideas whirling in his mind were endless. But, they all took money. Money he didn't have, and couldn't figure out how he was going to get. Kaiba estimated he'd need about five million dollars to fund his idea enough for a reasonable chance at success. Five million. It seemed hopeless, but, that look in Mokuba's eyes yesterday when he gave Yugi his latest hand-made card inspired Yugi to look the depressing file over again to see if there were some way at all to make it happen -- even as he added another company's inadequate proposal to the mix.

Yugi pulled out his 'deck' and thumbed through it, smiling gently. The cards had randomly uneven edges and they didn't line up as a proper deck of cards would. He ran a thumb along a line of tape on the top card, tacking the paper image more firmly to the stiffer card. Mokuba had tried -- and the cards he made did permit Yugi to refine his game play rules as he could duel Mokuba's deck with his own -- but the unique nature of each card made it easy for both of them to 'cheat' since the cards were anything but uniform. They were pre-marked, so to speak. Still, Mokuba got an A-triple-plus in Yugi's book for effort. And just knowing that Mokuba was so enthusiastic about the possibilities in Duel Monsters that he'd take the time and effort to hand make decks for both of them showed Yugi that his idea had the right kind of potential, for the right kind of audience. Duel Monsters could be bigger than any other collectible card game out there -- he just knew it. He just needed backing -- financial backing, enough of it, with conditions that didn't take control away from him, or hamper his ability to adapt the game if the core audience required it, and didn't over-saturate with greedy cross-marketing -- basically a contract that met all of Kaiba's stringent requirements.

If only Industrial Illusions hadn't folded! The phone call Yugi had with Maximillian Pegasus, before some personal tragedy had struck in Pegasus' life, had been the most promising of all. The man had seemed genuinely interested in looking at Yugi's sketches, world and game concept, and proposed development. I.I. was an entertainment company, so they knew how to properly market such things. They'd probably back him enough, and not try to take control of his own game away from him. Perhaps they would have given him the contract that passed Kaiba's scrutiny. If only...

His phone rang.

"So?" Kaiba's voice. Despite the rude brevity of the question, Yugi knew what he was asking.

"No. Hillbro and Sons wants all developmental rights in the contract they sent. I made it clear during the interview that I wanted to retain those," Yugi replied.

"Hmph. Short-sighted fools. There's a reason why they aren't a top-ranked company," Kaiba said. "I have an opening in my schedule Thursday evening. There are two matters I need to discuss with you, so be at my office at seven p. m."

Yugi gaped at the phone. Kaiba, as always, was presumptuous. He finally managed a casual, "Working late?"

"Unavoidably, yes. Not too late, I hope. It depends entirely upon the stubbornness of a business associate."

"Well, I hope he's not too stubborn, then."

"Hmph. Thursday, seven p. m. Don't forget, Mutou." Kaiba hung up the phone.