Duelist's Point
Chapter 21: Temporary Truce
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"Do you ever get lonely, Kaiba?" Jounouchi wondered, as they returned to their quest after a night of rest. Kaiba glanced at him sharply in surprise.
Last night, the two had shared a peaceful dinner of granola bars, neither speaking much. Jounouchi had talked like the wind all day, but he had become nearly silent by nightfall, his mind seemingly occupied. Kaiba had made a smart remark about it, but Jounouchi hadn't responded with his usual indignation, instead telling him that he was worried about Shizuka. Kaiba hadn't said anymore, thinking about Mokuba as well. This morning, when they had woken up, Jounouchi had been less morose but still not as cheerful as the foolish amateur duelist that Kaiba was accustomed to seeing. He decided that his anxiety for his sister must be affecting him severely, and then he decided that he could care less—even though he could empathize, feeling slightly out of the element because of Mokuba's mysterious kidnapping. A kidnapping that had been committed without any ransom or terms of release, as Kaiba was accustomed to. It was bizarre and worrisome, to say the least.
"No," he answered promptly, "I don't have time to get emotional over stupid things like friends: I have a company to run. And before you suggest anything, the people I work with are all idiots."
Jounouchi looked at him sadly. "That's a shame. There's always time for friends."
Kaiba snorted. "That's just the kind of pointless spiel I'd expect from Yuugi, mutt. Don't waste my time with such nonsense."
"How about a temporary friendship? Do you have time for that?"
He was met with a raised eyebrow. "Temporary?"
Jounouchi grinned easily, nodding. "Yeah, you know, lasting for a short time?"
"I know what the word means," Kaiba said in exasperation, rolling his eyes.
"Well," Jounouchi began, resting his hands on his neck and gazing thoughtfully up at the sky between the trees, "you're not running a company right now. In fact, right now, all you're doing is walking. So do you have time for a friend right now?"
Kaiba raised an eyebrow. "Are you trying to befriend me?"
"Well…" Jounouchi's grin widened. "Just temporarily. Until we get out of this mess and you have to get back to your big fancy company and 'don't have time for friends'," he explained, framing his last words in quotations.
Kaiba gave him another look but didn't say anything. Jounouchi had already considered his proposal rejected when Kaiba suddenly asked, "And how would I benefit from this temporary alliance?"
Jounouchi blinked. Was he serious? "Uhh…" He hesitated. "You get to laugh at me and call me whatever names you want, and I won't get mad at you," he improvised.
Kaiba chuckled—chuckled! "But that takes all the fun out of it," he replied, his tone strangely alien. Jounouchi stared at him, trying to decode his ever-impassive face. Was the snob actually teasing him? As in, joking? "Try again, mutt."
"I'll listen to what you have to say."
"What if I don't have anything to say to you?"
Jounouchi frowned. "You can depend on me to help you when you're in trouble," he said, thinking of the way that he and Honda had always defended and fought for each other.
"I can get myself out of trouble just fine," Kaiba retorted. Jounouchi's frown deepened.
"That's not true," he accused. "There have been plenty of occasions where we've come to your rescue. And to Mokuba's, too."
"Hmph," Kaiba grunted, disliking the implication that he was incapable. Jounouchi felt bad for ruining the brief, light atmosphere that had settled between them; Kaiba was clearly offended by his accusation. He sighed. The guy really needed to get rid of the stick that was jammed up his ass.
After at least another hour of trudging through the forest, Kaiba suddenly said, "I've been considering your proposal, mutt, and I think that accepting it would make for an amusing experiment."
Jounouchi blinked. "Are you serious?"
Kaiba raised that annoying eyebrow for the hundredth time that day. "Do I look serious?"
"No, you just look like a prick," Jounouchi grinned, feeling a weight that he wasn't even aware existed lift itself from his heart. Kaiba would be much easier to deal with without the hostilities, although he didn't know if there was any escape from his "holier-than-thou" attitude.
Kaiba shook his head at the idiocy of the other, but felt peculiarly grateful that he was not alone in this journey.
Shadowcat spent the morning scouring the forest for his victim and his blond friend. At last he found them, within a day's journey on foot to the castle.
"Hello, boys."
They whipped around, eyes searching the area for the source of alarm before landing on the translucent spirit swathed in the black clothing that the Winged Knights customarily wore in addition to a hood. His wings were folded behind him. Jounouchi yelped, hiding behind Kaiba.
"A ghost!" he pointed, voice escalating an octave in fear.
"Who—what are you?" Kaiba said, ignoring Jounouchi quivering behind him.
Shadowcat raised an eyebrow at Jounouchi's antics. "I am Shadowcat, from the world of Callias."
"You're like that winged thingy that took Shizuka and Mokuba!" Jounouchi exclaimed. "Are you guys working for Pegasus or what?"
Nodding, Shadowcat proclaimed, "We are the Winged Knights and have allied ourselves with the Earthling Pegasus to further our goals."
"Goals?" Kaiba repeated sharply.
"Ah, to usurp our king's throne, but those matters are none to concern yourself with, Earthling."
"Are you all ghosts?" Jounouchi asked, apprehension still laced in his voice.
Shadowcat smiled bitterly. "No, my body was lost a long time ago in an, ah, accident. But enough talking," he declared. "Kaiba, you must come with me."
"You're not taking him!" Jounouchi proclaimed, stepping in front of Kaiba with his arms spread wide.
"Really, Earthling?" Shadowcat shuffled through a deck that he had retrieved from his pants, selecting a monster card with delight. "Cosmo Queen! Enter this realm as my servant!"
A dark vortex appeared in front of him, and from it emerged a large purple monster swathed in crimson robes and an enormous yellow headdress. Her eyes glowed red as she hissed, crackling with energy.
"Attack the insolent sidekick," he ordered, pointing to Jounouchi. The monster reared and threw itself at the blonde boy, who screamed as the too-real purple hands blazing with energy surrounded his head, suffocating him and zapping him with electricity.
"Jounouchi!" Kaiba shouted, running towards the other boy. Jounouchi collapsed to the ground, holding his head in his hands, blood running down the side of his face.
"No, that will not do," Shadowcat said, smiling serenely as Cosmo Queen blocked Kaiba's path, hovering in front of Jounouchi's prostrated body.
"What do you want?" Kaiba growled, turning to him angrily.
"You, Kaiba, you," Shadowcat said simply, eyes glowing red as he directed Cosmo Queen to attack Kaiba.
"Not likely. Blue Eyes White Dragon!" Kaiba called, playing the card on his Duel Disk. A blinding light appeared in the sky, and the majestic blue dragon roared, shooting white lightning out of its mouth and destroying Cosmo Queen.
Gripping his chest as his monster's defeat spurned waves of pain through his ghostly form, Shadowcat murmured, "He can do magic?" in shock at the grand visage of the Blue Eyes that was much, much more than a mere hologram. "But he possesses neither Regalia nor Millennium Item…"
Shadowcat watched as Kaiba ran to Jounouchi and shook him, repeating over and over, "Jounouchi? Jounouchi! Can you hear me? Jounouchi!"
"There's no use. He's gone," Shadowcat said, amused at Kaiba's persistence.
"What do you mean, 'gone'?"
"No need to panic; I've simply put him to sleep for now. This is between you and me, Kaiba."
"What do you want?" Kaiba bit out, the Blue Eyes White Dragon hovering at his side.
"You," Shadowcat said again, muttering under his breath as a ball of magic materialized between his cupped hands. When it heated up, he threw the energy at Kaiba, who called on his dragon to defend him. It shattered with a bestial cry. "It's no use, Kaiba. If you won't cooperate, then we'll just do this the difficult way." And with that, he charged at Kaiba, chanting rhythmically in some foreign dialect. Kaiba dodged out of the way, but Shadowcat flew right back and entered his body.
Kaiba didn't go down without a fight. He clawed at his own face and gripped his hair violently, screaming and fighting the intrusion with all his might. But Shadowcat, having gone through the procedure hundreds of times, willed Kaiba's spirit down and silenced his soul, locking it away in a remote corner of his heart.
Kaiba's eyes went blank.
"When will anyone learn that disobedience is not the answer?" Shadowcat muttered to himself. He glanced at Jounouchi's fallen body. "How pathetic," he pronounced before he too collapsed on the ground, both magical and physical energy spent.