Yu-Gi-Oh is the intellectual property of Kazuki Takahashi and Konami, and is being used in this fanfiction for fan purposes only. No infringement or disrespect of the original copyright holders is intended by this fanfiction.
Author's Note: This story is a prequel to my series of "alternate reality Kaiba" stories. For the most part, the stories strive to follow canon Yu-Gi-Oh characterizations and events as presented in the unedited anime: however, two key characters—Pegasus and Gozaburo—have been somewhat distorted, and non-canon events added.
Apologies for the length of this chapter.
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Impressions 7: A Most Startling Shade of Blue
by Animom
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He was well on his way to being falling down drunk, he knew it, and he didn't care. He had a perfect right to be as drunk as he wanted! "It's my party, an' I'll drink if I want to!" he told Night Goggles. He did know that this wasn't the man's name, but at the moment he hated real names. Real names were no fun. Real names were, in fact, what people used to tell you how disappointed they were that the very successful business that you'd founded and been running all on your own since you were seventeen—a business that even had its own skyscraper—hadn't done even better.
"Of course, sir." Night Goggles, who wasn't actually wearing goggles at the moment—although it wasn't quite night yet, maybe he'd put them on later—was doing an admirably sturdy job of supporting him on his journey from the main house of the Crawford estate to the guest house. As they navigated across the stripes that the setting sun had painted on the desert, Night Goggles seemed to understand that it was very bad to step on the shadows, and that walking on the crunchy ruby red sand was much better.
"What's the date in Japan?" he asked Night Goggles as they entered the guest house. He knew that he'd asked this more than once already, but he still couldn't believe the answer he kept getting.
"Ninth of October, sir," Night Goggles said, helping him up the stairs. "Sixteen hours ahead of us."
"That's ridiculous," he said, pointing in what he hoped was west. "They're only a few hours that way!" He then sat on the bed to take off his shoes.
"Shall I make you some coffee, sir?" Night Goggles asked as he took a paisley smoking jacket from the closet. "Or would you rather rest for a while?"
"No, I don't want to sleep," Pegasus said, feeling dizzy as the champagne began to let him down. "I don't want to sleep through the rest of my birthday." His eyes were welling up with tears: why hadn't the silly boy called? What was so important that he wasn't making time to sneak off and wish his best friend happy birthday? Then he felt even more wretched, because he was an adult allowing his feelings to be hurt by a child. "Just go away," he told Night Goggles, clutching fiercely at a pillow as the room began to spin. "I want to be alone."
When he woke several hours later he rang for coffee and checked his messages. There were none—or at least none that mattered, none from Seto—and so he decided to buy himself an island.
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Sixteen days later—he made absolutely sure that it was the 25th in Japan—he made a phone call. He hadn't actually expected it to go through—the initial Kaiba Corporation receptionist had asked him in careful English to hold, and when she came back he expected to receive an ever-so-cordial brushoff—but to his surprise he received an apology for the inexcusable inconvenience of waiting, and was then asked if he would accept apologies for being asked to hold once again in order for the call to be transferred?
"Certainly," he said.
The next voice on the line was a baritone who introduced himself as Kogoro Daimon and asked the purpose of the call.
"I'm Maximillion J. Crawford, an old friend of Seto Kaiba," Pegasus said. "I was calling to wish him a happy birthday."
"One moment," Kogoro said, and then Seto was on the line. "What do you want?" he asked.
"I called to say Happy Fifteen!"
"Is there anything else?" Seto said, sounding distant. "I'm busy."
"Oh, surely not too busy for me?" Pegasus chided, but the line was already dead.
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"The worst way to get news," Maximillion's father used to joke, "is from a lawyer." Pegasus was reminded of this saying several days later when, in a meeting with his corporate senior counsel, he was handed a contract folder with the comment, "Everyone's green-lighted this, so all we need is final signatures."
He'd uncapped his pen and had turned to the signature page when he saw several lines allotted to " 海馬コーポレイション KAIBA CORPORATION."
Puzzled, he flipped back to the first page. The contract was for the joint development and production of dueling arenas. "Licensing, proprietary rights, non-disclosure agreements ... " he murmured, skimming the sections. "Is this SolidVision?"
"SolidVision?" The lawyer shook his head, turned to the others for confirmation. "No, the technology is called—" He paged through the document, "It's called Virtual Simulation System."
"I see." So this was the older technology, the holographic projection system that Gozaburo had appropriated for military simulations. Not Seto's latest and greatest, but his tired old soon-to-be second-best? How very disappointing.
"Admittedly, I still have some reservations about the informality of it all, " his head attorney was saying. "I'd have preferred that we take the time to hammer out a joint venture agreement or form a consortium, something with more equitable transparency, but I do understand the need to capitalize on a volatile market."
"I'm sure it will be fine," Pegasus said. Amused that a lawyer would refer to a hundred-page document as an informal agreement, he mostly felt irritated. This was the first he'd heard of the project: why hadn't Seto called or emailed him to float the idea first? Perhaps there hadn't been time? Yes, that must be it. Seto had simply taken advantage of a momentary flexibility on Gozaburo's part to get Kaiba Corporation's foot inside Industrial Illusions' door, and if that was the case it was best he take care not to crush anything.
"Refresh my memory," he said. "Who gets the first production units?"
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Saruwatari was a thug, but he had his virtues. To begin with, he had the sort of intimidating physique that made it easy to place him in the Kaiba household as a bodyguard to Seto and Mokuba. Second, when paid a sufficiently large salary he followed orders to the letter. Finally—and most importantly—he was so entirely lacking in imagination that whenever he reported something outrageous, Pegasus was inclined to take it as fact.
"Seto bought shares in a mortuary company," Saruwatari said. "Enough to take ownership."
"A mortuary company?" Pegasus asked, "For burials?" Kaiba Corporation was a military supplier—were they going to offer a body disposal service as well? Or perhaps it was some sort of war reparation. "Try to find out if they have any unusual patents."
"Patents?" Saruwatari laughed, "On what? Ovens?"
Pegasus winced. "Yes, good point."
Four days went by. "He sold it."
"Sold it? Why? He owned it less than a week!"
"It was a squeeze," Saruwatari said. "Said he'd fire everyone unless they bought the shares back from him."
"But I don't see—"
"Sat there cool as ice and said if they weren't willing to pay up it proved that money was more important to them than people."
"And this—this extortion worked?"
"Yeah," Saruwatari said, sounding awed. "Got back five times what it cost him."
Pegasus was rather awed himself: it was exquisitely amoral manipulation. He was sure that Seto was following Gozaburo's orders, but he hadn't suspected that the tyrant possessed such an impressive understanding of human psychology.
And then, according to Saruwatari, Seto did it again, and again. Pegasus was puzzled: hadn't Seto proved himself sufficiently heartless the first time? What was it going to take to please Gozaburo? a pile of still-beating baby hearts?
"No boss, you got it all wrong," Saruwatari said. "It's all been the kid's idea. He got a pile of money for his birthday and had a year to turn it into a hundred piles. It's a test."
"And how is he progressing?" Pegasus was slightly horrified, but mostly he felt oddly proud of Seto's accomplishment.
"He's gonna make it, easy," Saruwatari said. "He'd be done by now, but two deals didn't close. One company burned down—for the insurance, I guess—and another guy told him to go to hell."
"How did he respond to that?"
"He fired everyone, sold the equipment to a competitor, leveled the place, and then sold the land." Saruwatari chuckled. "Kid's got a temper."
It was gratifying that Seto was no longer the timid, fearful child he had been when they'd first met—he felt sure he could take most of the credit for that—but if Seto was speeding past self-confidence to drive deep into arrogance and even ruthlessness, well, that was clearly all Gozaburo's fault.
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"Talk to me." Initially, the letter from Mr. Howard challenging him to a duel had been handled with the standard form letter citing logistics and full schedules and avoiding favoritism, but, apparently unable to accept "No" for an answer, Howard had then gone public, bragging on-line (at first in an editorial on his own website, and then on the major Duel Monsters forums) that Pegasus was "afraid" to face him.
Not all publicity was good publicity.
"Saying yes to Mr. Howard will establish a precedent," Pegasus' newly-hired Director of Public Relations said. "And then you'll be deluged by challenges from everyone with a rare card who has a few wins to their name!"
"I disagree," the Director of Marketing said. "The way to avoid establishing a precedent is to make the response big. So big that it's clear that it won't happen more than once a year. Howard is the top player in America. It's reasonable to have an exhibition match at the national finals."
"Well," Pegasus said, "if I do that, won't the public expect me to duel someone every year? I hate being boxed in by expectations." He picked up and re-read Howard's original letter, which was an amusing mash-up of awkward flattery, unbridled egotism, and idiosyncratic punctuation, all simmering over a bedrock of belligerent envy. There were frequent references to Pegasus' piles of money, and the letter closed with the sentence If you want to do more than dress up pretty and pose for magazines give me a call. "But making it big ... I like big."
The Director of Public Relations snickered, but stopped at a warning look from the Director of Marketing, who had been at Industrial Illusions long enough to know very precisely what made Pegasus laugh and what made him fire people.
"Let's call him," Pegasus said, waving the letter. "See how far he's willing to go."
Howard answered on the second ring, his voice slurred as if drunk. " 'lo?"
"Mister Howard," Pegasus asked. "Is this Mister Keith Howard?"
"Who wants to know?"
"This is Maximillion Crawford, Mr Howard. I am calling in regard to the very interesting letter you sent to me. Is this a good time for us to talk?"
"I was fucking sleepin," growled Howard. "What time is it?"
"It is time," Pegasus said, "for you to duel. How does a one million dollar cash prize sound?"
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The children, hand-picked for their well scrubbed but obviously non-affluent innocence, appeared as though they'd be a joy to work with. Unlike him, they weren't nervous at all, seemingly oblivious that their dueling lessons were going to occur in a stadium seating 50,000. The cranes with television cameras, the banks of kleig lights, the sound checks with enormous speakers—none of this bothered them. They all just sat happily, reading the Funny Rabbit comic books he'd handed out. He'd wanted to give them booster packs so that they could have fun trading cards before the broadcast started, but his PR and Marketing Directors, were, for once, in agreement: live, on-camera "Oh, coool!" reactions would be marketing gold. Platinum, even.
He on the other hand, was a wreck. The two people most important to the success of his evening hadn't arrived yet, and so he paced, forcing himself not to bite his nails, glancing over every few minutes at the cave-like pit from which his VIP visitors would emerge.
Finally, Howard appeared, flanked by the "escorts" whose job it was to make sure he showed up presentable and on time. As they guided Keith to the commissary table the stadium speakers boomed, "LIVE IN TEN MINUTES!"
"Alright people," the show director said, slightly less boomy, "Stop milling, get to filling those rows, and get ready to be thrilling!"
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"Nice hair, princess. So you like little boys, eh?"
Pegasus was furious. He was willing to admit that, before he'd actually met the man, he'd found "Bandit" Keith's antics amusing: however, now that they were face-to-face, he realized that Keith was a swaggering, boorish jock who made Saruwatari look sophisticated. A dozen scathing responses went through his head, but of course most of them would be wasted on this leering philistine—and anyhow, sitting in the front row of the VIP section, wearing what looked to be a blue school uniform, was his special Guest of Honor. After making arrangements with Tom to put Keith in his place, Pegasus hurried over and sat next to Seto.
"I was sorry to hear of your father's death," he said, getting the formalities out of the way. "I didn't like him much, but—"
"I don't need your empty words of comfort," Seto said crisply, watching Keith and Tom. "The weak are not worth mourning."
"That's harsh."
"He'd grown careless, and underestimated me," Seto said.
"Oh? How?" Pegasus asked, and then, as Keith staggered back from the table. "Hold that thought. And don't go anywhere."
Once the trash had been cleared away Pegasus delivered his Duel Monsters pitch to the television cameras and handed out decks and booster packs to the kids. As soon as the broadcast was over he posed for a dozen photos, and then hurried back to Seto, who had watched the proceedings with an expression of amused contempt.
"So, what happened? Was it truly a coup d'état?"
Seto shrugged. "He gave Mokuba and I shares of KaibaCorp stock as a reward for my passing his test."
"Yes, I—" Pegasus almost said Yes I heard, but stopped himself before he blew Saruwatari's cover. "Yes, I imagine you did quite well. You're a very smart boy."
"I had tricked him into thinking that he had control of Mokuba's shares and could retain his majority, but then," Seto sounded as if giving the explanation bored him, "Mokuba voted with us, and Gozaburo was out."
"So," Pegasus said, nodding, "Little Mokuba was the key. That's very clever. And you've inherited Gozaburo's shares along with his company? So you and your brother own the majority?"
"Fifty-one percent," Seto said.
"How lucky you are to get a fully-staffed company," Pegasus said. "I had to build my board of directors from the ground up."
Seto shrugged. "Gozaburo's toadies padded their budgets with useless projects year after year. They lack vision; they want to keep doing the same thing they've been doing for twenty years." Seto made a sweeping gesture and said with surprising fervor, "But it is my company now! They must adapt or die. Kaiba Corporation will no longer be making weapons."
Hm, Pegasus thought. Sounds like he's having a rocky start. "Yes, I saw your proposal," he said. "We're ready to sign, though I must say I was disappointed to learn that we'll be licensing your older technology instead of SolidVision."
Seto looked at him coolly.
"You know," Pegasus said lightly, "if we weren't such good friends the terms of that contract would worry me. After all, once someone has access to our card database they could easily develop a competing product."
"Hn," Seto said, folding his arms. "Such an underhanded action wouldn't occur to me."
"Of course not," Pegasus said soothingly, but he wondered. The Seto of even a year ago wouldn't have double-crossed him, but this new Seto had already extorted half a dozen small business owners, driven one man to arson, and at least one—and possibly two—to suicide. Most likely he planned to keep SolidVision all for himself.
"The older technology is proven, and very stable," Seto said. "Several top entertainment complexes have already contacted us expressing interest. As you will be receiving the first ten arenas produced, you'll be able to sell your units to the highest bidder."
"Oh?" Pegasus pretended to study his fingernails. "If they're that good, I'm surprised you aren't reserving some for KaibaLand."
"Pegasus," Seto said, taking a silver briefcase from next to his chair and standing. "If you don't want the arenas, we can re-draft the contract."
"Now now, don't be that way," Pegasus said as the stadium lights came up. "Of course I'll take them. Who should we send problem reports to?"
"There will be no problems as long as they're built to my designs and installed correctly." Seto had turned and was walking swiftly toward the exit.
"Let's not quarrel," Pegasus said as he hurried to catch up to Seto before the crowds began clogging the corridors that led out of the stadium. "I look forward to having the very first one as the centerpiece of my new island home." He dodged in front of Seto and bowed. "I would consider it an honor if you would oversee the installation personally, Seto-sama."
Seto stopped, looking at him with frank irritation, and then laughed. "There is truly no one like you in all the world," he said.
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It had taken almost a month.
When Seto and his crew had 'coptered in and seen the castle—"You didn't buy a castle," Seto had scoffed, "you bought the shell of a castle"—their study of the floor plans had resulted in the pronouncement that none of the floors or load-bearing walls—existing or planned—would be able to bear the weight of the arena. After discussing several ideas Seto announced that they would reinforce the roof with a special frame that would enable the arena to be lowered from the ceiling of the castle's central structure.
"You do know that the castle is roofed with three-hundred year old terracotta tiles?" Pegasus had asked, bored beyond belief by the engineering talk but afraid to leave lest they decide to unleash some fresh horror on his celestial palace.
"Then I suggest," Seto had said, brushing past Pegasus to take a T-square from the chief engineer, "that you remove them before we return with the drills."
"You'll enjoy this, won't you?" Pegasus said. "Destroying my home."
"It is remote and impractical," Seto said as he began to annotate a schematic.
"Well—so are you!" was the best rejoinder Pegasus had come up with.
However, once the arena was installed he was, once again, impressed by Seto's ingenuity, and a flair for the excessive that almost matched his own. He'd been opposed at first to the motorized walkways and laser-positioning units—they seemed dangerous, and cost three times what his "free" arena was worth—but he had to admit when he saw them in action that installing them had been the right choice. "Fantastic! Amazing!" he said again and again during the demonstration, knowing as soon as he saw the holographic battle system that the arenas would be in great demand. Two people playing cards wasn't all that exciting to watch; televising giant monsters grappling and slashing, however ...
"Please let me show my gratitude," he said, clapping enthusiastically as the arena was being retracted and the various engineers and electricians began gathering up their tools. "Allow me to entertain you for the remainder of the week as my guests!"
"No," Seto said coldly, "we have work to do. Work that has already been delayed twice because of the time taken on this installation."
Pegasus felt quite deflated. He followed Seto and his crew out of the castle as they began to descend the steps toward the Kaiba Corporation helicopters. "Seto," he asked, putting a hand on his shoulder, "won't you at least stay for dinner?"
Seto turned and glared. "From now on," he said, knocking Pegasus' hand away, "call me Kaiba. I am president of a company! It is not proper for you to call me by my given name."
Pegasus was shocked. "Even when we're in private? I thought the intimate form was acceptable between friends."
"Intimate? There is no intimate between us," Seto hissed. "Now or ever."
Hurt, Pegasus found himself wanting to strike back. "You know, it's a shame no one will ever be close enough to you to see the lovely shade of blue your eyes become when you're angry."
"What?" Seto took a step back.
"But then again who would want to? I have to say I don't like what you've become, Se— Kaiba," Pegasus said. "You've always been stubborn and secretive, but your arrogance is intolerable. Weren't you taught to show respect for your elders?" Well, of course the boy had no respect for his elders: he had, after all, driven his adopted father to suicide.
"I give respect to those who deserve it," Seto said, running down the remaining steps to the nearest helicopter.
"And I don't?" Pegasus asked, hurrying after. "Not even as the inventor of Duel Monsters? Do you honestly think there's anyone else in the world who could have done it?"
Seto began re-packing the testing equipment the technicians had loaded behind the helicopter's seats. "You may be the creator of Duel Monsters," he said without turning around, "but I am their master. No duelist will ever surpass me."
The boy really needed to learn the meaning of humility. "Well, of course! Thanks to me you have the world's most powerful cards." Not entirely true, of course, but Seto need not know that.
Seto climbed into the helicopter's front seat and started the rotors.
Pegasus held down his hair and ducked. Why had Seto become so difficult, so ungrateful, so hurtful? What had changed? He had to find out.
He pushed into Seto's mind, his anger building. The silver-haired urchin girl blocked his path immediately, but he cast her aside—of course Seto was carrying his deck, he and his cards were inseparable—and pushed deeper into Seto's mind then he ever had before, past the chamber with the writhing lovers, through a shadowed doorway behind them, into a plaza blazing with light. Most of what he saw next went by too fast for him to process, but one image did stay with him: a hideous man with rotting flesh, long white hair, claw-like hands, and an eye of gold.
Pegasus withdrew. So, that hideous monster was how Seto saw him? How dare he! If anyone deserved to be cast in the role of monster it was Gozaburo!
Seto sat unmoving, his hands on the helicopter controls, his blue eyes unblinking.
"Kaiba has decided to stay to dinner after all," Pegasus shouted to the workers that remained. "He says to go ahead without him."
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It had been so very simple. Within an hour two rare card collectors were on their way, with the third assuring him that he was making arrangements to be there as soon as possible. Pegasus then called Saruwatari. "Take Kaiba-boy home," he said. Once the collectors had arrived he would release the boy's soul, of course, but by then Seto would be well on his way to Japan. By the time he realized that his precious Blue Eyes were gone the cards would be scattered to the winds, forever out of his reach. Pegasus was looking forward to the enraged call that would follow. "I don't have them, Kaiba-boy," he would be able to say, quite truthfully. "You're welcome to come back and search for them."
"What's wrong with him?" Saruwatari asked. "Is he high?" He poked Seto in the arm.
"Who knows?" Pegasus said. "Maybe he had too much champagne, or ate something that didn't agree with him."
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They are in the woods so that he can paint his shy goddess al fresco, sunlight and shade dappling the crown of his heaven. At his urging she unlaces her bodice bit by bit, but once it is open covers herself with her hands. He adores her blushing modesty, but still he sets down his brush and palette and goes to her, gently pulling her hands away, one at a time, kissing her palms, her wrists, and then her perfect breasts. Once she is revealed he tells her that Aphrodite herself could not have been so beautiful. Her aureoles are as soft as pale rose petals, even when they retreat from his tongue into tiny buds. She strokes his hair and then falls back with a sigh as his hand, questing, slips under the hem of her dress and her petticoats, hesitantly following the lace tops of her stockings, patiently waiting the eternity until her thighs part just enough to grant permission for him to trace the crease in her silk undergarments. As the fabric grows damp under his fingertips his own desire builds, and he knows that this time his ardor will not be easily controlled. She touches his shoulder and then shifts on the blanket, making room so that he can stretch out beside her, holding her face as he kisses her ardently, closing his eyes as she moves her arm to pull impatiently at his belt, her long nimble fingers undoing his buttons and boldly—
He opens his eyes in shock. The face between his hands had been Seto's.
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The artful indirect lighting softens and blurs the features of the men at the table. Except for their eyes: their eyes are sharp and attentive as wolves. They look, he thinks, just like the "uncles" and "business acquaintances" that used to visit his father. The ones that pretended to be surprised when told he wasn't a girl. The ones that used to ask his father, when told he was an artist, who would take over the family business.
"What can we do for you?" the bearded one—Daimon Kogoro—asks.
"I? I ask for nothing," he tells them, bowing as he places his business card on the table. "I am just a simple shareholder of Kaiba Corporation." Behind the men, through the wall of windows, he sees the lights of a descending airplane in the night sky. "Sadly, I was only able to purchase a single share. It was surprisingly difficult to find one to buy—and so expensive!"
The short man that looks like a penguin picks up the card, then passes it to Daimon.
"Good to see you again, Oshita-sama," Pegasus says to the large, heavyset man at the far end of the table. "My father sends his regards."
"Oh yes," Oshita says. "You're Crawford's son." He murmurs to the others, then says, "I see you acquired your venture capital after all. I hear your company is very successful: my congratulations."
"You flatter me," Pegasus says, bowing again. "But it is I who should give congratulations to you. I understand that the construction of KaibaLand is proceeding according to schedule. American gamers in particular are going to be very excited about SolidVision."
Oshita glances at the others. "Solid vision? What is that?"
"Oh, I completely understand," he says. "and I assure you, I have no wish to pry into your secrets. I merely came to offer my services—and my condolences. I know how difficult it must be for you to have lost an old friend only to find yourself at the beck and call of a teenager." He smiles at them, then adds with a laugh, "And not a very pleasant one at that, is he? Or so I've heard."
"We are very busy, Mr. Crawford," the thin-faced man with glasses says, the lenses flashing briefly as he looks down at the papers on the table. "We have a full agenda, with many items to address."
Pegasus does not tell them—not yet, at least—that he knows that they are not nearly as busy as they used to be.
Nor does he tell them that he understands that, like wild dogs and hyenas, they are always hungry, that they prefer an easy kill, and that they never, ever, forget a boot that has kicked them.
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~ The end ~
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Author's notes (will be expanded soon)
I hadn't actually realized when I originally watched the series that Saruwatari (aka Kemo) had been spying for Pegasus in the guise of being a bodyguard for the Kaiba brothers for quite some time, but in retrospect it makes sense. How else to get a kidnapped Mokuba from Japan to California without much trouble? Trivia: he's possibly named for Tetsuya Saruwatari, a mangaka that created violent action comics and manga with graphic martial arts fighting.
In the manga, Crocketts says at the beginning of Duel 29 (Duelist vol 4) that Seto had previously come to Duelist Kingdom island to celebrate the installation of the "battle boxes" (the Virtual Simulation System used prior to SolidVision, the "Hyper 3D engine.")
According to the manga, Seto had to retrieve the 4 BEWD cards from an American, a German, a Hong Konger, and Sugoroku Mutou. Kaiba took the cards belonging to the former three by either forcing the person into bankruptcy, by making deals with the mafia, or by driving the person to commit suicide. (Duelist vol 3, ch 27)
The big duel arenas are only seen in the anime, at Kaiba Corporation, KaibaLand, and Duelist Kingdom. In the manga Kaiba's "first generation" holotechnology is used in "Battle Boxes" a table and two seats inside a Lucite cube that projects small holograms.
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(05) 2 December 2013