Minor spoilers for the "Shot in the Dark" storyline for the core story of GI. Just a warning if you haven't read it but intend to do so.

I know it's been a while. I apologize for the hiatus, but I've been creatively drained for a little while. I don't do well in Summer; heat makes me bitter. Living in California doesn't help. Neither does an internship which requires the wearing of button-down shirts and ties. Nearly all the "good" clothes I own are dark, thick, and sweltering.

All this is to say, I'm sorry. I'm getting back into the swing of things, and with that comes this: another glimpse into Seto's days as an orphanage bodyguard.

Nobody bothered to ask Seto Yagami what book he was reading this time, or why he was always reading in the first place; it was as commonplace as furniture by this point. Since the staff had even less of a chance of engaging the young genius in conversation than the other children—whom he generally seemed to detest; only a couple of exceptions existed—they didn't take much notice, either. He was typically reading textbooks far beyond his grade level, or else certain types of fiction novels that were probably inappropriate for a twelve-year-old.

The elder Yagami was seated in the courtyard with a huge hardbound tome in his lap, and every so often he would look up to check on his brother, who was playing with a soccer ball someone had donated a few days before. Little Mokuba tossed the ball in his brother's direction at one point, calling out, "Nii'tama! Play!"

Without looking up from his studies, Seto snapped out one foot and sent the ball sailing into the air, eliciting a squeal of excitement from his tiny sibling, who went scrambling to catch it. Kristine Hathaway couldn't help but smile as she watched them together. She and Daniel Elliot sometimes seemed to have taken over the role of the Yagami children's missing parents. Both knew that they weren't supposed to play favorites, but they also thought that the Yagamis were a special case, and so they were most often found focusing their attention on Seto and Mokuba.

She watched them today, and instantly went tense as David Whittaker came sauntering up. She didn't particularly blame the boy for having…social issues. She didn't blame any of them. But she couldn't help but worry about David. His parents had been caught in the crossfire of a gang shooting, and his grandmother—who had taken him in afterward—had died of a massive stroke not six weeks later. Of course he was going to be unbalanced.

But he took out his frustration on the younger children, and Kristine couldn't abide by that.

Mokuba was throwing the soccer ball into the air, and David caught it on the way down. "Didn't your mom ever teach you to share?" he asked with a sneer, and Kristine flinched as she saw the look on Seto's face—calmly focused before—instantly harden into the mask of a statue. At Mokuba's blank, confused stare, David snickered. "Oh, that's right. You don't have a mom. She probably decided to off herself 'cuz you're so ugly."

"David!" Kristine snapped, near to panicking as Seto set his book aside and stood up. "That is enough."

"What?" David asked innocently, tossing the ball into the air with one hand. "Just saying, little Yagami here was probably a mistake. Obviously nobody wanted him, or his dad wouldn't have abandoned hi—"

"Whittaker."

Kristine had started forward, but she froze.

The sound of Seto Yagami's voice had never before frightened her.

"Hey, I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news, Yagami, but—"

Seto sent a fist straight into David's middle; the older boy let out a grunt as the air was driven straight out of him. The thin, antisocial bookworm stepped to the side and sent a kick into the back of one knee, driving David to the ground. Seto hopped back, and a sick thump echoed in the air as one sneaker collided with David's forehead. He crumpled, unconscious, to the ground.

"…Mister…Yagami…"

Seto turned with a blank expression on his face to Kristine Hathaway, and bowed. "I apologize for my conduct," he said. "I don't tolerate people talking to my brother like that." Looking back up at her, he said, "I believe there will be some kind of correctional effort? Something to deter me from acting like that again?"

He had never taken a punishment looking quite so smug.

David Whittaker never tormented Mokuba Yagami again after that.

Years later, after Seto Kaiba had rebuilt the Domino Children's Home from the ground up and set Kristine in charge, she found herself sitting in her office with David Elliot and Ruth Linden. Ruth seemed to remember something, and she said, "Have you heard what happened last week? With the Kaiba boys?"

Kristine frowned. "Siegfried von Schroeder?" she asked.

Ruth nodded. "They're saying Seto Kaiba killed him."

"I heard," Daniel murmured quietly, cryptically.

"I…I can't believe he would do something like that."

Kristine and Daniel looked at each other.

As one, they said, "I can."

Seto is a dangerous person. He's an angry person, and he's an arrogant person. These are not a savory combination, and if not for the fact that the first glimpse of him I had was during his duel with Pegasus in Duelist Kingdom, I might be rather disturbed by him. Guy's kind of unhinged.

But that's why we love him, don't we? He does what we all wish we could get away with, sometimes. And as shown here, it's because he already factors in the consequences ahead of time. He laid the proverbial smack-down because he already knew he'd get in trouble, and decided it was worth it to prove a point.

Do I agree with his choice of action? Not particularly.

Do I think it was worth it? I'm not sure.

Do I admire his willingness to "man up," as it were, and take his punishment without complaint?

Hell, yes.

Everybody from the US of A, have a happy Fourth! Everybody from the rest of the world, have a happy Monday. What? They exist, I swear.