A/N

Five bucks to anyone who saw THAT coming last chapter.

Seto: …

For those who don't understand Ichimaru's name, "ichi" is "one" in Japanese, and "maru" is a common ending to male names. Together, you get a name that means "one," but is a name at the same time. Anyway, sorry to keep you waiting for this next chapter. But hey, it's not like I left you with any horrifying cliffhangers, right?

Seto: Actually-

You're not in a position to question me. Heh, would you guys believe me if I admitted I waited a long time intentionally, just to screw with your heads? 'cause that's honestly the reason this chapter took so much longer than usual. Funny story there, too. See, you'll probably notice that it's a tad shorter than usual. See, I went to bed, planning to finish it in the morning one day, only to forget it was still unfinished the next day. So I waited a little bit, went to publish, and… "SHIT! It's still not done!" So yeah, sorry guys. Next chapter will be out soon, I promise. My plan was screwed up by my own incompetence. Enjoy anyway! Oh, and because I kind of rushed this out the door in an "oh shit get this the hell published already" moment, the quality might be a little low, because I haven't yet re-read and obsessively fixed things. But hey, the grammar is pretty decent for something that hasn't had a beta, and the plot is advanced, right?

"Wh-what?" Seto said slowly, eyes widening with horror.

"Well? What are you waiting for?" Ichimaru asked, sitting back casually.

"Rape, sir?" Crow asked, blinking.

"Yes. Go on, what are you waiting for?"

"No, Crow! You can't!" Seto squeaked, sitting up and backing away.

"Very well. I will do as instructed," Crow said, nodding towards Ichimaru and approaching Seto.

"Stop! No, stop it!" Seto pleaded, back pressed against the wall. Weapon, weapon… I need something to defend myself with… But… Then I'd hurt Crow… "Crow, please, don't!"

"Conflicting orders," Crow said.

"Don't listen to him," Ichimaru said, waving his metal hand. "You only obey me."

"Yes, sir."

"Don't! Crow!"

Crow pinned Seto to the ground.

"STOP, CROW!"

"Sorry we took so long!" Ren said, laughing as she entered the building with a group of survivors. "We spent the night there because of someone's injury, but we're back now!"

"Great, now help us search!" Yuki said, panicked.

"What?"

"Seto, Crow, and Ume have all gone missing!"

"What?" she gasped.

"They disappeared the other day, but nobody noticed until nighttime! They haven't come back yet!"
"Do you know the last place they were?"

"I heard what seemed like an argument outside right after I went to bed to get ready for the next night shift, but I didn't think to much of it until I woke up, and now they're all gone, Ren!"

She put a hand to her chin, trying to think without losing her head like the others. "Let's take this slowly. Where could they possibly be?"

"Being eaten by vultures somewhere obscure!" Yuki responded.

Kikyo turned green at the thought. "That's disgusting, Yuki!"

"Don't lose your heads! We have to think about what we're doing!" Ren said loudly, shutting them both up.

"Hey!" someone called. "We found a wheelchair out back!"

"Seto's?" Ren repeated, running over to the one he rolled in. "Where was it?"

"Near the pool, in a spot out of earshot and out of sight."

"Okay, someone must have carried Seto off… But what about Ume and Crow?"

"Odds are, they were taken, too," Yuki said, distressed. "Now what do we do?"

Ren touched the chair. "Hang on. I think I might be able to get a general location if…" She picked up a piece of brown hair on the back of the seat. "Perfect."

Desperate, Seto tried pushing Crow off, to no avail; Ichimaru was holding his arms down. This is… Not happening.

"Ahaha!" Ichimaru laughed, finally letting go. "Stop it, Crow, I was just messing with him."

"Yes, sir."

"You're… Really gullible," Ichimaru snorted, while Seto just continued to lay down, his panicked breaths slowly going back to normal.

"That's not the kind of thing you joke about!" Seto said angrily, trying to get up.

"What? You didn't like my little demonstration? Crow is mine now! So are you!" Ichimaru giggled. "Now both of you, come on! I want to plaaaaaay!"

"Wh-what?" Seto said slowly as Crow helped him to his feet and immediately went to follow Ichimaru. "W-wait, Crow!"

Before he knew it, Ichimaru turned around and gave Seto a light shove. "Tag! You're it!"

"What the hell?" Seto gasped, confused. I don't normally swear… But this is ridiculous! However… He looked at his empty, weaponless hands. I've got no way to defend myself… "Crow?"

Crow shrugged. "You heard him. You're it."

"Please remember, Crow!" Seto said softly, trying to hug the boy.

With that, Crow backflipped out of the way. "You can't catch me!"

Seto dropped to his knees. "You really don't remember!" he said, trembling.

"Hey, hey, get up and play with me!" Ichimaru complained, strolling back. "Bad toy!"

"I'm not a toy!" Seto hissed. "And neither is Crow!"

"Hmph!" Ichimaru responded, kicking Seto lightly. "Why won't you play with me?"

"After all you've done?" Seto asked hoarsely. "You've killed people! You killed Crow!"

"Seto is stupid! Crow is right there, see?" Ichimaru said, pointing to Crow. Suddenly, his eyes widened. "Oh, I get it! We're playing pretend!"

"We are not playing!"

"Stupid, stupid, stupid! We have to play! I told you to!"

"You're just a brat!"

Ichimaru was visually taken aback. "You will play with me!" he snapped, quickly becoming hostile and grabbing Seto by the jacket. "Now!"

"Never!"

The doll sighed. "Puh-leeeeease?"

"Murderer!"

Crow knelt beside the two. "Seto is biological. Maybe that's why?" he suggested.

"Ah, that must be it!" Ichimaru agreed.

"That has absolutely nothing to do with it!" Seto responded, infuriated. "You're-"

"Shut up. Let's play 'doctor' now," Ichimaru decided, grabbing Seto's hair. "You don't want to play because you can't keep up, right? An operation can fix that."

"Wait, no! You're not going to-"

He was knocked unconscious.

"Oww," Seto murmured, opening his eyes. "Huh?"

"The patient is ready!" Ichimaru chirped, taking a knife in his hands.

Seto's eyes widened. "Hey, wait a minute!" he cried, tugging at the restraints on his arms that kept him from getting off the table. A quick glance around revealed a myriad of scattered objects that looked like limbs, but he quickly realized they were robotic parts. "Are those…"

"Spare parts! Sometimes I take apart my toys and make new ones!"

"B-but… That's…" Killing them!

"What? Sometimes they bore me after awhile," Ichimaru replied, putting the knife down and using a marker to draw a line on Seto's arm, near the shoulder.

"Wait, what are you doing?"

"Fixing you. Humans are so poorly put together. When you build new ones, they're always weak and helpless. You call them "babies," I think. But don't worry! I can change that!"

"But I want to keep my arm!" Seto said, horrified.

"Well, that's stupid. Why keep something when you can upgrade it?"

"Because it's mine!"

"But the new one will be yours, too."

"It's not the same!"

"Stop being dumb. Of course it's not the same!"

He was getting desperate. "But… If you replace my limbs, I could get away, couldn't I?"

"Heh, what do you take me for? An idiot? I can always shut them off; you'd be even more helpless than before, if that's possible."

"I-"

Ichumaru took Seto's neck in his hand and pressed lightly. "Now listen. You're my toy. You have to do what I say!"

Set pulled at the metal cuff around his other hand. "Where's Crow?"

"Is that all? He's outside. This won't take long. We'll be able to play tag soon!"

With that, Seto finally managed to squeeze his hand out of the cuff and tried to use it to hit Ichimaru in the face, only for the doll to catch it with his free hand, eyes darkening.

"You tried to hit me."

"You're a killer!"

The doll squeezed the hand that was around Seto's neck hard. "You think you're some kind of hot-shot? You're just one human." Meanwhile, the brunette opened his mouth, trying to breathe. "And I can kill you." With the other hand, he twisted Seto's wrist, causing the aforementioned boy to let out a choked cry. "But then again, you're just the same as those other humans, and they were also stupid. Maybe I'm expecting too much of you." He slammed the boy's hand back down on the table. "Maybe I should kill the others. You'd listen to me then, wouldn't you?"

"No!" Seto exclaimed the moment Ichimaru removed his hand from his throat.

"That's right, you forgot, didn't you? With one order from me, I can have all the remaining people in the world destroyed… And this time, it'll be for good."

"Please, don't!"

"Then shut up and let me finish this!" Ichimaru replied, locking Seto's wrist back into place. He picked up a knife. "Ah, that's right, you can't turn off the nerves in your arm, can you? What do you humans do to numb it? The last thing I need is you struggling and messing me up!"

Seto swallowed. "Umm…"

"Spit it out, or I'll have to do this without it!"

"A-anesthesia…"

"Right!" Ichimaru said, looking around. "Aww, I don't keep any of that around here, do I? That's too bad for right now. I'll send a drone out to get some. For now, though, it looks like you'll be stuck with the limbs you have now."

As the doll washed the marker off his skin, Seto breathed a quiet sigh of relief.

"Let's play a board game this time!" Ichimaru declared. "That way Seto can keep up… Kind of. Come on! I have some in my room!"

Seto blinked. "Board games?"

Upon reaching it, it turned out to be… Surprisingly colorful. There was a box off to the side that Ichimaru opened up and looked through. "Let's play Candyland!"

The brunette looked at the box. "For ages six and up," he read out loud. "Umm…"

"What? Is Seto too little?" Ichimaru asked.

"Of course not!"

"Then we can play! I know Crow is old enough! I built him several years before Glass Cage actually took place," Ichimaru chirped. "Anyway, the trail is a bunch of colored spaces! You draw a card, and whatever color the box on that card is, you go to the first space that matches! So if I draw yellow, I go to the first yellow space after the one I'm currently on! Get it? Unless you draw one of the cards with two boxes. Then you go to the second space of the same color as the one you have. Okay?"

"What about these spaces?" Crow asked, pointing to a space with a picture on it.

"Oh, if you draw a character card, you go directly to that space, even if it takes you backwards. So if I draw the peanut brittle card, I go to the peanut brittle space!"

This is a little kid's game, Seto knew immediately, but decided to say nothing.

"I go first! Then Crow, then Seto!" Ichimaru decided, picking up a red piece. "Crow, you're yellow. Seto, you be blue."

"Yes, sir."

"Umm, okay…"

Ichimaru drew a card. "Two greens! Lucky!" he said brightly, moving the piece to the second green space.

Crow picked one up. "One red."

Shakily, Seto picked up a card when Ichimaru turned to look at him. "Umm… The Ice Cream Queen?" he said, revealing the character card, and looking at the board. The ice cream space was close to the finish line.

"Character cards don't work on the first turn!" Ichimaru said, frowning.

Upon hearing this, Crow glanced at the rules. "Umm, sir, there's nothing in the rules about tha-"

Seto flinched as Ichimaru punched Crow in the face. "Crow!"

"I said they don't work on the first turn!"

"Yes, of course, sir."

There was a knock on the door.

"I got it!" Ichimaru said, running over. "Yes, 162?"

The skinless bot quickly whispered something into Ichimaru's ear.

"Well, deal with it, then!" Ichimaru replied simply.

"How so, sir?" Its voice was filled with static.

"Send a drone in."

"Yes, sir."

"Is something wrong with him?" Seto asked cautiously.

"I didn't upgrade his vocals yet. Old dolls used to have terrible voice quality," Ichimaru explained. "The software that allows our tone to change with our mood and what-not is complex. Before, it tended to sound like that."

"Oh."

As Ichimaru went to sit down again, Seto instinctively reached for Crow's hand and took it.

"Umm…" Crow began, unsure if he should allow it.

"Oh, let him. His whining gets on my nerves."

"I win!" Ichimaru said for the fifth time.

Never mind that you've been cheating the whole time, Seto thought, but decided to keep quiet.

"So," he said cheerfully, "what do you want to play, Seto?"

Seto remained quiet.

Ichimaru poked him on the forehead a couple times. "Seto? Seeeeetooooooo!" He thought for a moment. "Oh, I know! You're hungry! I'll get snacks! Both of you stay! Crow, make sure he doesn't leave!"

"Yes, sir."

"Good!" With that, Ichimaru ran off.

"I want to go home…" Seto said, quivering.

"Silly, this is home!" Crow replied.

"No, it isn't!" Seto whimpered, trying not to cry. He leaned into Crow's arms. "Ren… And Toshi, and Kikyo… What about Yuki? You two never did get along…"

"Ah, perhaps you could use some rest, Seto…"

"I don't need rest! I want Crow back!"

"I am Crow!"

"I want the real Crow back, damn it!" he cried. "I want the person I love back!"

"Does not compute."

Seto grabbed Crow's shirt and pulled him into a kiss.

"What was that?" Crow asked, tilting his head to the side when Seto pulled away.

"A kiss," Seto hiccupped. "You used to like them."

"Are we there yet?" Yuki complained.

"Shut the hell up!" Ren ordered. "Seto, Crow, and Ume's lives could be at stake!"

"We don't even know where they went!" Kikyo pointed out as they walked through the field. "There were no signs of any drones."

"Is it possible a human kidnapped them?" Meiko asked.

"No, I would have felt their presence leftover. Come to think of it… I've never been close enough to Ume to feel any sort of presence, and there wasn't any trace of it leftover at the hotel…" Ren said, eyes narrowing as she thought.

"Hey, wait a minute… Has anyone ever seen Ume eat?" Kikyo asked, putting a finger on her lips. "He said he was sick the first time, and every time after that he just said he ate really fast, before anyone else could get there…"

"Or sleep, for that matter," Yuki added.

"You don't think…" Meiko began.

"That Ume might be an android?" Ren finished for her. "We've got no way to know for sure, but don't discount the possibility."

"What if they're dead?" Kikyo said, worried.

"They're not dead, I'd know if they were!" Ren replied.

"Do you think we're close?" Meiko asked.

A robotic arm shot out of the ground.

"I think that means 'yes,' " Yuki said, holding up his golf club.

"Ah, sir?" a bot addressed.

"Yes?" Ichimaru asked on his way back to his room, holding a bowl of fruit.

"The drone you asked us to send out has come into contact with the humans searching for Crow and Seto."

"Good."

"What shall we do with them?"

"What do you think?" Ichimaru asked, putting a hand on his hip. "They're interrupting my fun!"

"So…"

"Kill them," Ichimaru replied simply.

"What shall we do with the bodies?"

"Hm, wait, hang on! Don't kill them!" Ichimaru said, changing his mind. "Not yet. Capture them. Send out four more drones to that location to make sure they're successfully detained."

"What do you plan to do with them, sir?"

"He's my toy now, but… I did promise I'd make him suffer, did I not?" Ichimaru said, smiling. "Humans have the strangest kink in their programming. In most cases, it's so much easier to make them suffer by hurting the people they care about than it is to make them suffer by hurting them themselves. I want Seto to see me destroy them."

"Yes, sir."

"Oh, by the way, tell Ume to put a blanket in Seto's room. And a pillow. And some bread and water. Just in case he gets hungry."

"If I might be so bold as to ask why, sir?"

"I don't want him to die. Speaking of which, make sure there's a guard there. One who doesn't have to sleep to charge. Someone to escort him to the bathroom and make sure he doesn't try to escape, or commit suicide. Hmm, how about Ume?"

"Yes, sir."

"This is boring!" Ichimaru announced. "Crow, you go charge. I want to play with Seto alone!"

"Yes, sir."

Seto looked at Ichimaru. "What are you doing?"

"Play with me. I want to play…" Ichimaru began, thinking. "Chess!"

Memories of a game he played and always lost at with the old man he used to live with rushed back to Seto. "Chess?"

"Yeah!" Ichimaru said, already setting up the board. "You can even be white! White goes first in this game!"

"Alright…" Seto agreed quietly, trying to remember how the pieces moved. Slowly, he pushed a pawn forward. The doll immediately countered by moving a pawn of his own.

He moved out his knight. The doll moved another pawn.

Seto thought for a minute, and moved his knight to take Ichimaru's pawn. Said doll proceeded to take the knight with another pawn.

"Man, you really suck at this," Ichimaru remarked.

"What are you talking about? We both lost a piece."

"A knight is worth waaaaaay more than a pawn!"

"But they're all chess pieces. Why can't they be equal?"

"Knights are more powerful. Pawns suck," Ichimaru said simply.

"They all play a roll!"

"You're right, and pawns play the roll of taking up space."

"That's not true!"

The game lasted only ten more minutes before Ichimaru took Seto's king. "Stupid. You can't beat a supercomputer!" the doll giggled. "I'm superior in all ways. I'm stronger, faster, and smarter!"

Seto found himself unable to argue those points. "You don't have sympathy."

"Sympathy? Why should I feel bad for other things?" Ichimaru asked, genuinely confused. "That's stupid. Name one thing 'sympathy' has helped you with."

The brunette looked up from the game. "If nobody ever felt for anyone but themselves, there would be no friends in the world."

"Friends? I don't need friends, I have toys!" Ichimaru replied, laughing.

"Alright, that's that!" Yuki gasped, taking a deep breath after the bot was finally taken down. "I'm exhausted!"

"It can't get any worse though, right?" Meiko asked, relieved.

"Don't say that!" Kikyo insisted. "Then it will!"

"What? This isn't a movie; that stuff never happens in real li-"

Several more robotic arms shot out of the ground.

"At least now it can't get any-" Meiko began hesitantly, only for a bolt of thunder to make itself known, and for rain to start falling.

"Don't!" Yuki growled, covering her mouth before she could say it again.

A/N

And they all lived happily ever afte- oh, wait, what do you mean the story isn't over yet? Right… See you next chapter!