Yu-Gi-Oh!
A Matter of Family
Yay! I'm back, and with a huge update to boot. Everyone, enjoy the final chapters of A Matter of Family!
CHAPTER SEVEN – NEVER AN ANIME CHICK WITH A B.A.G. WHEN YOU NEED HER
To say that the hospital and the surrounding area were in a state of chaos would have been a bit of an understatement. Even as Seto pulled up in his over stuffed convertible, he could see smoke still rising from the bottom floor of the building as police worked to section off the area, and reporters tried to butt their way in. Draco stared in amazement as Yami Seto leapt out of the car and Marik let out a defeated sigh.
"Why can't we ever have a normal summer?" he uttered as the others piled out of the car.
Seto rushed into the crowd almost instantly, pushing people out of his way and looking over the crowd for Mokuba (something that was not too difficult at his height). He called out for his little brother, starting to get frantic, before he heard his voice over the crowd.
"Onii-sama! Over here!"
He followed his voice, coming to where some people were clustered together next to an ambulance, the back of which was opened up and doctors were inside treating people with minor injuries. Mokuba and his bodyguard were nearby, his little brother fingering a small patch of gauze on his forehead. Seto rushed over instantly, practically dropping to his knees and hugging Mokuba tightly.
"Are you all right? What happened?" he asked, pulling back and eyeing the patch.
"I'm all right, onii-sama," Mokuba assured him. "Just some idiot pushed me and I knocked my head on the pavement. Don't worry, Isona already punched the guy."
He waved up to his bodyguard, who just coughed slightly, drawing a smirk out of Seto. Mokuba tugging on his sleeve brought his attention back to him.
"Onii-sama, I saw them," he said urgently. "After the explosions went off, some guys dressed liked doctors went into Bakura-kun's room. I ran after them, but when I opened the door both the doctors and the Bakuras weren't there, and they couldn't have left the room before I got there; I would have seen them."
Seto hugged him again. "It's okay, Mokuba. We'll find them."
He bit his lip, not so sure about his brother's confidence, but nodded anyway. He looked up then, just as Fleur and the others finally caught up.
"Are you my onee-sama?" he asked Fleur, causing Seto's face to turn a brilliant shade of red.
Fleur tilted her head to the side, confused. "Onee… zama…?" she repeated.
Seto coughed, standing back up. "Don't ask," he muttered as he heard his yami and Marik sniggering behind them. He took Mokuba's hand, squeezing it tight, before turning his attention to Isona and dismissing him for the night. The bodyguard nodded, before walking off into the crowd.
"All right, everyone," Seto began, turning back to the others. "We need to find Bakura and Yami Bakura. Quickly. If that demented uncle of his would go this far, who knows what else he'll do."
"Shouldn't we try to find that staff thing that Bakura mentioned too?" Marik asked. "You know, just in case? We may need to use it as leverage."
"I don't know how that thing can exist, though," Yami Seto muttered, a thoughtful look on his face. "I don't remember Panseru or his father ever having something like that."
"Well, either way," Draco began, "we need to get out of here, before we attract—"
"Oh my dear Mokuba!"
The voice that rang out from the crowd was not familiar to the others, but it apparently struck a cord with the Kaiba brothers. Mokuba hid behind his brother as Seto turned, glaring at the two people that were approaching quickly through the crowd. The man was short and squat, almost looking like the Japanese counter part of Harry's Uncle Vernon, while the woman was definitely a relation of Seto's, as she was tall and thin with fine straight brown hair.
"You rotten boy!" the man exclaimed, glaring at Seto. "How dare you put your brother in such a dangerous position!"
"Poor Mokuba…" the woman cooed, bending down and holding out her arms. "Come to your aunt, dear."
Mokuba, however, just hid further behind Seto, who had a positively murderous look on his face. Yami Seto winced, feeling the rage at the mere sight of the two of them coming off his hikari in waves. He decided to step up, hoping to intervene and get things settled peacefully before that rage exploded; he knew it was not going to be pretty if it did.
"Look, now's not the best time to be bothering with us," the priest stated, resting a hand on Seto's shoulder. "Why don't you just bugger off and we'll talk to you later, eh?"
The woman glanced up at him, giving him a distasteful look. "What are you supposed to be? Some kind of body double?"
Yami Seto sweatdropped. "Something like that," he replied dryly. "C'mon, Seto, lets go."
"Oh, you can go," the man said sternly, "but Mokuba is coming with us."
"Out of the question," Seto responded before his yami could beat him to it. "I'm not letting either of you lay a hand on my brother."
"Well, he's obviously not safe in your care," the woman declared, standing up and fixing a hard look on Seto. He returned it with a piercing gaze of his own, one that made Marik cringe behind him, and he was not even looking at him directly.
"And what is he in your care?" Seto demanded, he anger rising to the point where it would boil over any minute. "I know you miserable people too well… you intend to use him as a link into our company, leeching it dry before dropping him, just like you did to us the first time!"
"Tch! What do you know, child?" the man asked. "Money is meant to be used, as well as anything involved in getting that money. Your father didn't understand that, and apparently, neither do you. Ha… he was a self righteous bastard too, and look at all the good it did him—"
Seto did not know what happened after that. One moment he was practically seeing red, the next moment he heard Fleur gasp in surprise and felt his fist throbbing. Below him, his uncle was sprawled out on the ground, holding the side of his face where he had punched him, the red quickly darkening into a nasty bruise. He looked up at him, eyes wide in surprise, as if he had never counted on Seto ever striking him.
"How dare you speak of my father that way…" Seto hissed darkly, looming over his uncle, making him back up in fear of being struck again. "Even a lecherous creature like Gonzaboru was twice the man that you are, you scum!" He glared at both of them, making them back away further. "Go back to the sewer you crawled out of, before I shove you down there!"
With that, he turned his back to them, snapping a, "Lets go!" to the others. Mokuba paused long enough to razz his aunt and uncle before following his brother off into the crowd with everyone else. Marik looked back on the brothers' aunt and uncle as they walked off, whistling softly.
"I've never seen Seto that pissed," he muttered to Yami Seto, who just sighed.
"Yeah… me neither. I was hoping I never would," he admitted.
Seto did not stop walking until they got to the car. There, he paused, his hand on the door… before letting out a tired sigh.
"Sorry… everyone…" he murmured. "I… tried not to… but…"
He trailed off, unable to find the words to finish. Mokuba looked up at him sadly, before hugging his brother tightly.
"It's okay, onii-sama," he murmured. "They deserved it."
Seto looked down at him sadly, before his gaze drifted up to Fleur. He winced inwardly, realizing she did not know what was going on, as she did not understand a word of Japanese. She smiled softly, however, reaching out to grip his arm comfortingly. Smiling back as best he could at the moment, he let his gaze drift over to the others. Amazing the kind of surrogate family he had developed over the years; what happened to the loner that cared for nothing but his brother and his company?
"All right; we need to head out," he stated after a moment. "Splitting up would be our best bet. Marik, Draco, Fleur; use the Ring to find out where the Bakuras were taken. Yami Bakura mentioned that Bakura's father wasn't home when he checked before he was kidnapped. Either he's already left the country, or he's in a hotel waiting to do so. The rest of us will try to hunt him down."
"Sounds good," Marik said approvingly. "Just one thing; can you drop us at my house first?"
Seto raised an eyebrow. "Why…?"
Marik did not answer; he just smiled a very disturbing smile that made people like Seto very concerned…
-.oOOo.-
Yami Bakura moaned softly, feeling like his head was splitting open in several places. He could not remember much of what happened; Mokuba said he was going off to get a soda, then the floor started shaking, then two doctors bust into the room and tried to take Ryou… There was a high chance he had punched one or both of them before everything went black, but he could not recall for sure. Opening his eyes did not give him many answers, other than the fact that he was tied up again, and this time it looked like someone had done it right. He moved stiffly, trying to get into a comfortable position… before pain hit his face as someone hit him with the butt of a rifle.
"Hey boss, this one's awake," came a man's voice as the thief muttered obscenities under his breath. A moment later, he felt the back of his head grabbed and pulled back roughly, making him yowl in pain. Blinking his eyes open, it took a moment for his vision to adjust again before he was able to properly glare at the man above him.
"Why, hello again, camel-ass face," he sneered. "Sorry to see you're still alive."
Ryou's uncle, Kyle, just smiled pleasantly as he let him go in favor of tapping a small black box with little silver knobs on the one end in the palm of his hand. Yami Bakura frowned at it. Now… where had he seen one of those before…?
"We're going to play a little game, my dark friend," he said patiently. "A little game of questions and answers. You see… I'm going to ask the questions, and you're going to answer. If I don't like the answers… your hair's going to have a few more spikes in it."
The tomb robber gulped. Oh… right… that's where he had seen one of those…
-.oOOo.-
Domino City streets were almost deathly quiet that night… almost. A sudden roar of a small engine followed by a whoop of delight and two screams of terror broke through the silence. Barely a moment later, a small motorcycle that looked like a cobbled together version of a 1990 CB750 Honda and a XL 883C Sportster King with an unusual set of customizations was ripping down the main street… with one rider and two terrified passengers aboard.
"Marik, you're bloody insane!" Draco shouted to be heard over the wind and the roar of the engine, clinging to the Egyptian's waist for dear life. Fleur was behind, clinging to him and muttering soft prayers in French under her breath.
"What are you complaining for!" Marik shouted back, grinning like a madman as he took a turn without slowing down. "This is fun!"
"We are going to die…" Fleur whimpered.
Marik shook his head slightly; what a bunch of spoilsports. "Don't worry! It looks like the Ring is pointing us toward the warehouses! We should be there soon!"
"GOOD!"
Marik just sighed.
-.oOOo.-
Finding the hotel that Anji Bakura was staying at was not too much of a problem. Seto drove, while Mokuba followed the trail of his credit card on his brother's laptop, and Yami Seto made idle comments about what would happen with Fleur once they got home that would have gotten him decked if his hikari was not preoccupied with his driving. It was getting into the hotel room itself that was presenting most of the trouble. Bakura's father was refusing to open the door, no matter how hard Seto banged on it.
"Bakura-san! Open this door immediately, or I will pay to have the hosts kick you out!" he shouted angrily.
"Way to put the fear of corporate Japan in him, hikari," Yami Seto mumbled.
Seto shot him a glare as the door opened slightly, just enough to reveal the elder Bakura's eyes.
"What do you people want?" he demanded. "Don't you know what time of night it is?"
"Don't you know your son's been in the hospital because of that uncle of his!" Seto shot back, irritated.
Anji's eyes narrowed. "I tried calling the hospital, but they told me he was asleep, and wouldn't wake till morning."
"Would have helped if you actually went there," Mokuba muttered under his breath.
"Well, you're going to have to try and call where ever that Kyle took him," Seto responded hotly. "He wants that scepter your wife found. Since you're not doing a damn thing about it, we will, and we'll need that artifact."
Anji muttered something under his breath, before slamming the door closed. Seto was about to start pounding on the door, when it swung open all the way this time, allowing them into the small room. On the bed, there was already a packed suitcase; apparently, Bakura's father had already planned on leaving the next day. Seto muttered an obscenity at that, as the man went over to the suitcase and popped it open… before pulling down a flap on it to reveal a hidden compartment. There was the scepter, exactly as Bakura had described; shining silver with dazzling gems set on it.
Yami Seto went up to inspect the object as Anji went over to complain to Seto. The high priest frowned down at it. Odd… very odd indeed… He was hoping that by actually seeing it, he would have remembered something about it, but nothing sprang familiar. Something as rare as a silver scepter he probably would have remembered… He picked it up… and frowned instantly. This was awfully light for something that was supposed to be solid silver…
"Hey… hikari…?" he began, giving the scepter a closer look.
Seto stopped mid argument. "What is it?"
"Last time I checked…" Yami Seto started, frowning at something on the scepter's base. "We didn't import our miracle granting scepters from Taiwan."
Anji looked away as Seto's face twisted into something that resembled one teed-off individual. He caught the elder man by the shirt, twitching slightly as Mokuba backed away.
"Care… to explain…?" he asked quietly, looking like he was going to hit Anji any minute. The elder man gave him a disdainful look, shrugging him off his shirt.
"It was my wife's idea," he began. "She knew Kyle was getting out of control… so when the police approached her with a plan to capture him, she didn't back away. The… only thing she didn't count on was the cancer she died from before the plan could be completed. I was talking with the detectives that she had been working for when Ryou and Amane were kidnapped. I… none of us thought he'd actually want it for what it could do… and we didn't think he would go that far."
"Oh, and that's why you left Ryou alone too?" Yami Seto replied critically. "Because you didn't think?"
Anji sighed tiredly. "I had just lost my wife, and then my daughter so shortly after. I did only what I thought was best for him; I was a wreck, and my work was the only thing I could face. I sent him presents so he knew I was still around for him. Like that ring… which he seems to have lost," he added bitterly.
Seto glared down at him with enough power to make him cringe. "If you knew half of the story behind that Ring, you would be much more concerned," he snapped, before turning to his yami and brother. "Lets go. We've wasted enough time here."
With that, the three of them left, leaving Anji alone with a toy scepter and broken memories…
-.oOOo.-
"GRRRAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!"
Yami Bakura fell over, or at least as far over as his bonds would let him. He gasped for breath as he glared up at Kyle, trying to ignore the fact that he could feel some of his muscles twitching. Apparently, his hikari's uncle was not too fond of the answers he had for his stupid questions. Not only that, but the man seemed to be counting on that; normally those things had enough charge in them to kill a human being. Sure, he was made of tougher stuff… but he doubted that had anything to do with it in this case.
"Hmm… you're not fairing too well in this game, are you?" Kyle said mockingly.
"Must be because I'm afraid you'll start farting out of your mouth," Yami Bakura shot back. "Camel farts don't smell too nice, 'ya know. Look, I don't know about your Ra be damned scepter, and I couldn't give a shit about it either. So why don't you let me go, and you just go off and blow steam out of your ass somewhere else?"
At first, the tomb robber thought he was going to zap him again… but then a twisted sort of smile appeared on Kyle's face.
"Perhaps I shall…" he sneered. "I'm sure Ryou will be more than willing to surrender the information I need…"
Yami Bakura was practically glaring swords. "Touch my hikari, and I'll make you wish you were never born…"
Kyle let out a sinister sounding laugh, before settling the stun gun under his chin, forcing his head to tilt up.
"Well, then…" he whispered. "You're going to tell me everything I want to know, aren't you…?"
The tomb robber just continued to glare. "No, I'm going to let you touch Ryou, so I have an excuse to rip you apart piece by piece."
There was no denying the fact that Kyle was going to hit the button on the stun gun that time and shut up Yami Bakura's sarcastic comments forever. Fortunately, though, the roar of an engine cut him off. Bakura's uncle backed away, ordering some of the men gathered to check the entrance… just as a window above shattered. The surprised henchmen turned, firing off shots that were far wide of their target as the bike and it's insane driver (and unfortunate passengers) landed with the squeal of tires.
"S'cuse me! Pardon me! Comin' through! Hey, don't shoot my fucking bike; you know how much it cost to put this together!"
Yami Bakura sweatdropped. Marik… of course…
The motorcycle plowed through the clump of Kyle's henchmen, leaving those that were not smart enough to get out of the way with broken toes. The bike came to a skidding halt on the other side of the group, and Marik hopped off easily (and Bakura caught sight of Draco falling off out of the corner of his eye). In the next instant, a cloaked Gravekeeper's Assassin was diving into the thugs, knife flashing… and Yami Bakura started to get to work. Just as he had gotten to the knot binding his hands together, however, he felt a knife slip under the ropes, cutting them.
"Thanks, kid," the tomb robber said with a grin, taking the knife from Draco and cutting the ropes at his feet.
"No problem, just promise me we don't have to ride back on Marik's bike…" the young wizard replied, sounding a little sick.
Yami Bakura smirked, and was about to reply when a gunshot went off over his head, forcing them both to the ground. He swore violently, glaring back up toward the gaggle of thugs trying to shoot down the Duel Monster.
"Dammit… never a blue-haired anime chick with a big ass gun when you need her," he grumbled, drawing a sweatdrop out of Draco.
There was a sudden shout, followed by a bang; apparently Fleur had finally recovered from Marik's insane driving "skills" and was assisting the Gravekeeper's Assassin in taming the confused henchmen. Yami Bakura took that opportunity to look around; Kyle had disappeared somewhere in the mess, and he could not see his hikari anywhere. However, he spotted what looked like a foreman's office on the other side of the building from where he was. If Ryou was going to be anywhere…
The tomb robber checked to make sure that Draco would be okay, before dashing around the confused mass of people as fast as he could, wincing as he could still feel his muscles still twitching. Fortunately, he made it without any trouble, and when he opened the door, his theory on Ryou's whereabouts was proven correct. Someone up there must have been smiling down on him for once.
"Ryou!" he called, rushing over to where he was laid out on a makeshift bed. "Ryou, you okay?"
Bakura's eyes blinked open at his frantic shout, gazing up at him blearily. "Bakura?" he asked. "Where are we?"
"Ra only knows," the tomb robber replied, attempting to help him stand. "I'm just glad you're okay."
Bakura smiled weakly at his yami's words, gripping onto his arms tightly as his own plaster encased legs started to wobble under him from the effort. He glanced over to the side a moment, and Yami Bakura saw his eyes widen. He was about to ask what was wrong, when suddenly Ryou pushed him…
…and then the shot rang out…
Yami Bakura's eyes widened in horror as he stumbled, somehow succeeding in staying on his feet and catching his hikari as he crumpled in pain, the side of his pajama's starting to darken to red. There was another shot, and the man that had attempted to kill the tomb robber thudded to the ground, revealing Kyle standing behind him.
"Intelligent help is so hard to find nowadays," he snarled angrily, but Yami Bakura was not paying attention to him.
"Ryou… Ryou…! You all right!" he shouted, trying to keep his panic down.
"Ow…" Bakura whimpered, his face twisted up in pain.
Yami Bakura held him close, feeling his heart practically stop. No… no, things could not end like this! It hurt… it was horrible… He could feel his very soul crying out, shouting in agony. It was not fair!
Then… and then… he felt something else… Normally he would have overlooked it… but lately he had been searching for it… Something familiar, yet different; it was something that had changed over the course of time… not much change, but just enough for him to overlook it. The answer had been so obvious, staring him right in the face – literally! – and he had not even noticed…
"Well," Kyle grumbled suddenly, lowering his gun on Yami Bakura, "if he's going to die, your usefulness as run—"
Bakura's uncle was cut off, as darkness suddenly started to swirl around the tomb robber and his hikari. A mere moment passed, yet it felt like so much longer, before Yami Bakura looked up to him, smiling that disturbing smile of his… the kind of smile he had not given anyone since he had been freed from his mental imprisonment.
"Ah, ah, ah…" Yami Bakura sneered, his voice taking on a creepy, mocking tone. "Poor, dear Kyle… You've messed with a reaper of souls… and now it's my turn to collect…"
Kyle's eyes suddenly widened in terror. He backed up, dropping his gun… just as something huge started to take form behind yami and hikari… something with a muscled, human-like upper body… and the writhing lower body of a snake…
