WhiteAsukalover: Here he comes, here comes Speed Racer, he's the demon on wheels!... Alright, now that that's over with, thanks for the review! I didn't know I had done a good job on really expressing how pissed Seto was, but I'm glad I did now! Thanks!

AmePiper: Hahaha, yeah… I remember looking at the episode and being excited to write it, but then when I finally came down to it… I dunno, I was a little embarrassed. But it was such a cute scene, SO I JUST HAD TO WRITE IT!:] Anyways, so… I'M SUPER EXCITED FOR THE NEXT CHAPTER. We're FINALLY starting to move along and it's going to be AWESOME! Thanks for the review!

SereneShadows: Oh, it's quite alright. I go through random phases where I update at the speed of light, and others where I don't, so it's hard to keep up with, I'm sure. I know, Mokuba dueling was pretty much the greatest thing that's ever happened to me, ever. In regards to your PM, I have read your fic and I'll prepare a review for it, hopefully, very soon! I'm so sorry for the delay. In the mean time, sit back, relax, enjoy the chapter, and thanks for the review!

MythCreatorWriter: Yeah, I thought the last chapter went really well. A lot of that extra stuff I added in, the father realization and the comparison totally just came to me as I was writing it and I really liked it. I love having those random inspirations! I had another one in this chapter as well; I think you'll like it. Oh man, the show is about to get on the road! I'm so excited; I may start on the next chapter tonight! Thanks for the review and enjoy chapter 10!

Chapter 10: Beware of the Under Toe

-M-

After a while, a person could get use to that feeling of… well, how should I put it? The idea of being lost? A sense of hopelessness? The overwhelming feeling of confusion? Whatever emotions one might feel when being trapped in a virtual world by some random green-haired kid. In a way, a person can accept these feelings for what they are, and I think that was what I was feeling after a while. We were still walking along the beach, but I had taken a more casual approach.

I took off my shoes and socks and began walking barefoot in the sand, which is every person's favorite thing to do when they're on the beach. I didn't try talking to Seto, because I still wasn't sure if he had cooled off yet. Seto is the kind of person that you just have to leave alone sometimes; which is probably the reason why him and Yugi's gang would never work well together. They outwardly care too much, and always need to know what's up.

Not me… I just sort of, well, know. Seto's my older brother, there's really nothing more to it. I just know what's going on with him, and he doesn't have to say anything for me to get it.

So I left my brother alone and let him do his own thing as I would walk barefoot in the sand. Sometimes I would get overly excited, and start kicking sand in the air, or picking some up in my hand. Just doing whatever I could to really keep my mind at ease. The only thing a person had to worry about in the virtual world besides the Big 5 and losing your body is probably losing your sanity. Losing your sanity is up there in the high risk category.

"Mokuba, you're going to get sand in your hair." I stopped upon hearing my brother speak. I turned his way and looked at him.

"But Nii-sama, it's so much fun!" I replied back. I knew my brother would be okay with talking now that he had spoken first. That was the one indicator I had to tell if my brother was alright and ready to start communicating again.

Seto motioned me to come over to where he was standing. I sighed, dropping the sand I had in my hand, and walking over to where he was. He started messing his hands around in my hair, I could feel sand being shaken out of my hair. Seto frowned.

"Oh Mokuba, you already have a ton of sand in here."

"Sorry Nii-sama," I said, shrugging. Seto rolled his eyes. Seto attempted to get the rest of it for a good minute or so before giving my long hair one last shake before giving up. Seto patted me on the shoulder.

"Come on, we better keep moving." I nodded and ran up beside him to follow along. I started looking all around; my mind started pondering where we were or where we were supposed to be. I glanced at the sunset to my right and smiled.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" I said in a quiet voice, hoping not to disturb Seto if he wasn't interested in talking. He turned his head and looked at the sunset himself. His unchanged expression melted a little with the sight of the sun.

"Yes… I do suppose it is." I turned towards my brother again.

"Nii-sama, how come we never go to the beach?" I asked out of the blue. Seto looked away from the sun and returned to looking in front of him.

"I don't like water," Seto said in a completely serious tone, "It's dangerous." I stopped walking for a moment and stared at him. He stopped as well after a few moments and turned back towards me. "What? Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Dangerous?" I said, trying to hold back a laugh, "Nii-sama, it's the ocean, there's nothing dangerous about it."

"Since when did you become an expert on the ocean?" I gasped.

"Woah, Nii-sama… are you… scared of the ocean?" I said, trying to hold back chuckles.

"No… no, it's nothing like that!" Seto said, looking away and concealing his face. I began to laugh and ran up to him.

"You do! Don't you?" This was too good to be true. My big brother, the warrior, the man that could stare Gozaburo right in the face without flinching, was afraid of the ocean. Suddenly I felt a little better about the many silly fears I had developed over the years.

"No I don't, now be quiet!" Seto protested, trying to hide his shame. But I could see right through his act; he was embarrassed!

"How come you never told me you were afraid of the ocean? Come on, I'll show you that it's perfectly harmless!" I said, grabbing his hand and trying to bring him towards the ocean. Seto wouldn't budge and pulled away.

"That's quite alright Mokuba; I think we should both keep going this way if we plan to get out of here." I dropped my shoes to the ground and rolled up my pant bottoms. "What are you doing?" Seto asked, eyeing me suspiciously.

"If you won't come in and see that the ocean is fine, then I'll just have to show you myself."

"No… Mokuba, don't…" Seto said. I started walking towards the ocean, always looking back to see if Seto would finally give in and come in with me. "Mokuba, come on, you don't need to do this… let's just keep going." Seto looked uncomfortable, but it didn't look like he was going to budge either. I would just have to go in for myself.

"No way, I want to show you that the ocean is just fine…" I was about to jump in when my brother yelled.

"DON'T." My leg froze in mid-air, and I had almost fallen over from being unbalanced. I looked back at him.

"What?"

"Get back here this instant." I blinked for a moment, taken a bit off guard by my brother's scary-serious tone. "I mean it." I placed my foot back down and returned my balance. I looked from the ocean to my brother and I couldn't decide what to do. I had just wanted to show Seto that he didn't have to be afraid, just like he had done for me over the years. I thought maybe I could, in a way, be the big brother.

"But, I just wanted to-"

"You almost died." Seto looked away.

"What?"

"The first and only time we ever went to the beach, you almost drowned. It was with Dad, a year or so after Mom died. Dad wanted to do something fun; something to distract himself, so he took us to the beach. You were only four, and were playing in the water. I looked away for one second and suddenly the under toe had gotten you and pulled you out to sea.

"I didn't know what to do; I hadn't even seen it coming. That… was the worst part of it all. Not knowing it was going to happen, or when it was going to happen. When they pulled you back in, you weren't breathing and they were sure you were dead. I was terrified. A life guard ended up saving you and after that, I never let you go to another beach again." There was a silence.

I said nothing, rolled down my pants, picked up my shoes, and walked over to where my brother was standing. We started walking again, and all I could do was think to myself how strong my brother was. He didn't have fears, and if he did, it was only because he was afraid for me, because I was so weak. It didn't matter that I had won the last duel on my own, it didn't matter that I had survived Duelist Kingdom on my own because Seto would always be worried.

Seto knew I was too weak to survive on my own. Suddenly, I was starting to believe I was too weak as well.

-S-

"Look," I said, spotting something half buried in the sand nearby, "Over there." I walked towards it.

"What is it?" Mokuba asked, walking up from behind me. It was a television, and it was on. I knelt down in front of it, my eyes narrowed. "A television?" Noah appeared on the screen.

"Noah…" I said to myself quietly as I watched. Something was going on, I could tell. I watched the screen closely.

"Stop the duel this instant!" Noah yelled. I could heard Tea, even Wheeler, and possibly Yugi too in the back ground. The screen switched to, what appeared to be, a Judge Man. He had the voice of Johnson, one of my past associates. He was pleading for Noah to be on his side; he had always been spineless. I began to have an idea of what this would be about.

"I don't think so, Johnson, not after what you did."

"So, he is a cheater!" Wheeler proclaimed. I knew it. When Johnson had worked for me, he had always tried to find the easy way out. He would use any excuse he could to getting around doing the actual work, and he didn't care who would get in trouble for him. I became surprised I hadn't fired him earlier on in my career. Johnson was nothing but a scum bag.

"It's sad, but true," Noah said, that smug look on his face, "Johnson's a fraud; he's been cheating you from the very beginning. He's been using the virtual technology to change the outcome of your dice rolls." I mentally laughed inside when I saw this. First, it was because of Joey's surprised look and his out burst of anger. Anyone with eyes could've been able to tell that Johnson was nothing but a liar and a cheater. But no, Wheeler was too blind and stupid to see that.

The second reason I was laughing was because of Joey's poor decision in choosing cards that involved dice rolls to begin with. Dice rolling cards were useless in the long run, and couldn't be depended upon. They only relied on dumb luck, and every good duelist should know dumb luck won't always pull through for them. But I suppose this was just another thing Wheeler hadn't had the experience to realize yet.

"Noah, please don't do this! I can't stand living in this place, I need to get out of here!" I rolled my eyes. Johnson was such a whiner. I wasn't even sure why Noah hadn't wiped his memory out of the virtual database, it was clearly obvious that Johnson was nothing but a useless liar. At least Noah understood the decency of dueling and playing by the rules, unlike Johnson.

"That's enough. I brought you five into my world where I am the leader and you are my workers. You are to play by my rules and play them fairly. I hired you to bring down Seto Kaiba and his little friends, but if you cheat, then I can't prove that I am more deserving than him." I frowned and looked on.

"He thinks he's more deserving than me?" I said aloud, listening closer.

"For years, I've lived in Seto's shadow, trying to prove myself and show that I was fitter to run Kaiba Corp. than him. I think it's about time that I show Gozaburo Kaiba that he should've left the company to me!" My eyes widened and I gasped.

Gozaburo Kaiba? What did this kid have anything to do with my step father? Gozaburo had been dead for over five years. And what would Noah want to prove anything to that man anyway? What was his connection to my step father? I couldn't help but think this kid was not who he has let on to be. But then… who was he?

"What do you think Noah is talking about, Nii-sama?" Mokuba asked me. The television switched off by itself, and I stood there staring at it blankly.

"I'm not sure Mokuba, I just can't be sure. This makes me even more curious to find out who this kid really is, but now there's the question of how he relates to Gozaburo." I got up and started walking away from the television. I motioned for Mokuba to follow me. "We better keep moving, the closer we get to finding him, the faster we'll find out." Mokuba nodded in agreement and we continued out way down the sandy beach.

As we were walking, I couldn't help but find the same questions circling in my head over and over again. With this new addition of information, I became even more confused. But I think what was getting to me the most was the fact that he had mentioned Gozaburo, that he had spoke of him as if he had known him. How could Noah have known my step father? Who was Noah to that monster anyway?

If Gozaburo was about to be involved in this mystery, I knew things would have to get ugly. Gozaburo had to be the single worst man on the face of the planet, and I don't think there was another man I dreaded more than him. I suddenly became enraged that I still hadn't been able to figure out this mystery, and felt as though Noah, in some way, was trying to toy with my mind by bringing Gozaburo into the picture.

But it wasn't going to work. I knew the truth of the matter. And the truth was that Gozaburo was dead and gone. I was sure of it because I had seen it. I had watched that very man throw himself out of the window and come crashing down to his own death. It was a day I would never forget.

"Nii-sama! Look!" I was dragged out of my thoughts and looked up. I stared at it, just as I began to recall the place itself.

"That is Nesbitt's old Military Factory." I didn't give it another caring glance. It had always been a useless dump in my eyes. "I always hated that place, what a waste of money. I was glad to finally get rid of that dump the day I took over Kaiba Corp." I remember what a big deal Nesbitt had made about shutting down his factory, but it had been inevitable and quite frankly, useless. When I took over, we no longer had any use for weapons, so I had it taken down.

I looked up towards the sky and yelled, "You can't lead us around forever! We're not your dolls to play with, and when I find you, you'll never mess with anyone else again!" I stood there and waited, still half expected for Noah to make some sort of come back. But still, there was nothing. I didn't mind, Noah would pay in good time. Mokuba tugged on my shirt.

"Hey, don't worry about it. We'll find him, and we'll beat him too," Mokuba turned his head and looked towards the military factory in the distance, "Just like we beat Nesbitt. Together." I smiled. It was true, and that had been a glorious duel for us both, but mostly for Mokuba. He had proved so much to me in that last duel, I started beaming with pride once again.

Noah was somewhere out there, watching us, and probably laughing at us. But we would find him. I would travel a thousand beaches and nothing would stop me from getting him. And with my brother by my side, his newly discovered dueling skills in hand, we could do anything. And we would get ourselves out of here once and for all.

A/N: Whose getting excited? Whose getting excited?? I'm getting excited! We're finally starting to get close to the part of the Noah arc we all love and adore. Not to mention a very cool and intense motorcycle scene. But don't let me be the one to give it away! I think I might actually start on that next chapter right now. I can't even wait for what's coming up next! I hope you all enjoyed the chapter, and thanks for reading!