It's been a while, hasn't it? Well I'm pleased to present to you all: a new chappy!

*dances like a maniac*

This chapter is slow in the beginning; I'll admit that. But it escalates rather quickly, trust me!

Enjoy! ;3

*the number for ambulance or fire in Japan is 119, rather than 911.

Emergency number info from: japan-guide. com


Seto Kaiba was indeed a busy man.

Such a fate was meant for one who owned their own company and it could be vouched by any number of successful men he knew that the job was not at all an easy task. As if running a multi-million dollar business and a hit television show wasn't enough to shave off a few good years from Kaiba's life span, the one and only Pegasus J. Crawford, CEO of Industrial Illusions, just had to go and stack more onto the man's plate.

The foppish fruit had emphatically insisted that Kaiba and he host a tournament. On the surface, the proposal didn't seem too invidious; however, when Pegasus had offered for the two of them to do so, what he really meant was for him to bring it up, announce it nationally, then leave Kaiba to do the real work. Damn that stupid, toon-loving nitwit.

Kaiba wouldn't complain too much though. Pegasus was funding the majority of the event. That at least took one stress factor away.

And just when he thought the four month alleviation from his show would lighten his work load. Alas, life just couldn't be that simple.

Kaiba tapped his thumb rhythmically against the top of his closed laptop as he only halfway listened to whatever one of his employees was rambling on about. He and a large number of men who worked for Kaiba sat dully around a large, rectangular table in a meeting that, the more he thought about the more he decided, was atrociously pointless. It was a monthly meeting that they were all required to attend, but nonetheless Kaiba wanted nothing more than to disappear from the room when he thought about how much work he still needed to do.

The brunette slowly brought his hands up as he propped his elbows onto the table in front of him. He wove his long fingers together with an unnerving silence and stared at the man coldly, hoping the gesture of impatience would cause the man to stop his senseless babbling about how "Kaibaman" should be equipped with some sort of weapon next season. It seemed to work well enough; the man's words quieted and quickened in pace as he attempted to finish his sentence with newfound nervousness lacing his voice.

"…and make it a more exciting experience to watch." the man finished as he scratched behind one of his over-sized ears in wait for what Kaiba had to say in response. Kaiba only stared at the man for a moment, noting how his large nose and ridiculously thick man chops made him look somewhat like an ape. Befitting for someone so imprudent.

"Saru." Kaiba finally began. "He is a fictional character on a television show aimed toward young children. We are not giving him a gun." he said sternly with a calmness that was deadly. The ape-man hurriedly sat down in his seat at the quick dismissal, remaining there with a statue like stiffness until Kaiba spoke up again.

"Now," Kaiba stood from his seat, the remainder of the men in the room following suite not long after, "if you all are done wasting my time, I have much more productive things to attend to. As do the rest of you. Dismissed." he barked out harshly, glaring hard around the room at its occupants.

Everyone filed out of the room in such a rush, you'd think there was a fire or something. Kaiba shrugged the thought away and gathered his things as he set off to leave for his office. He never really was good at hiding his anger and frustration, he'd admit that.

Kaiba's thoughts were already heavily weighed down on plans for the tournament by the time he'd made it into an elevator and punched in a button corresponding to the floor his office vested in. After a short while of being lost in thought as the narrow chamber climbed up nearly each floor of the tall building, the metal doors quietly stretched open and Kaiba stepped out into the long corridor. His heeled shoes quickly clicked down the hall as he trotted to the end and threw a pair of double doors open. The wheeled chair at his desk squeaked in defiance when he threw himself down onto it before he yanked the laptop out of his briefcase and began to boot it up.

The familiar sound of the Apple MacBook Pro's starting up jingle barely registered in his brain as Kaiba continued to ponder the tournament. In less than a few days, the young CEO had been successful in planning out an extravagant and over the top event and he was sure that the idea he'd concocted would be more than enough to please Pegasus.

A city-wide tournament—that was sure to grab some attention. And attention grabbing was just what he wanted, be it good or bad. Both good and bad attention got people talking, which made news spread just that much faster. Kaiba was quite aware that some people would find the tournament a nuisance and a bother to their daily schedule seeing as how nearly all of the roads would have to be blocked off to make it happen. But the amount of people that found the idea convivial would greatly out way those that didn't. That, Kaiba was sure of.

If he could get this tournament to go just as he wanted, people from around the world would flock to Japan just to be a part of the action.

But that was a big if. To do something that huge, he had to get consent by more than just Pegasus. He needed to get the okay from the person who ran the city: the mayor of Domino. Kaiba had heard from numerous people that the man was a force to be reckoned with; he was as stubborn and unwavering as a mule. Still, Kaiba knew his way around people like that, being a rather stubborn man himself. And if there was one thing he'd learned since being in the world of business, it was that money talks. And he had a feeling that the mayor would be more than willing to listen.

Fueled by his determination, Kaiba hammered away at the keyboard of his laptop; typing each word carefully in the e-mail he planned to send to the mayor and structuring each sentence as eloquently as he could muster. It had only taken him about twenty minutes to write the long message out and, after checking over it for mistakes, he sent the letter. There was no point in spending more time on it, he figured. He'd stated what he wanted, there wasn't much more to it. Besides, the offer would bring in so many tourists to the city, the man would be fool to refuse.

Pleased with what he'd done, Kaiba moved on to another task that involved the discovery of some sort of bug in the new Duel Disk models that made the holograms become wispy and static-like if the devices were used in a duel too close to another. He glowered at the message on his computer screen. Whoever had been in charge of the final testing of the machine was sooo getting fired. Yet again, Kaiba would have to take things into his own hands to fix whatever the hell was wrong with it.

Hours filled with developing a plausible reason as to why the Duel Disks were acting up, devising a plan to fix said reason, calculating the cost it would be to fix it, receiving a call from Mokuba telling him that the boy was going to the arcade with some friends, and firing a particular useless employee that would cost his business money because of his incompetence whipped by in the blink of an eye to Kaiba. Now he sat uninterestedly at his desk again reading an e-mail from some news company asking him for an interview about the problem with the Duel Disk. Kaiba rolled his eyes and clicked the little "x" at the top right corner of the message, not even bothering to respond. The reporters should know by now that Kaiba wasn't particularly fond of being interviewed, and he sure as hell wasn't going to keep reminding them.

Kaiba was about to click to the next e-mail that he was sure was some more junk mail, but stopped about halfway to doing so as he suddenly realized something. Even though he'd expressed many times his detest to an interview of any kind, the request for one by every news company around still never ceased to pop up fairly often. And the absence of a request for one based around the accusation of Kaiba being homosexual puzzled him to say the least.

He had more than expected Kisara to spill every bit of information on the topic to the next person she'd seen after what had happened between her and Yami about a month ago. He'd been prepared for it too. Had anyone so much as breathed a word hinting at the fact, the rumor should have reached nearly every corner of the planet by now. And yet, not one reporter had confronted Kaiba about it or plastered it across every magazine, newspaper, and billboard they could get their hands on. Kaiba furrowed his brow as he finally clicked the next e-mail, which was indeed just another piece of junk mail.

He just didn't understand. With such a scandalous piece of information and even evidence to back it up, it only made sense that she would expose Kaiba. Damage him. Hurt him. Hurt him like Yami had hurt her. But instead—nothing.

In fact, the more he thought about it, the more he realized that the white-haired woman had been considerably quiet as of late. Ever since she stormed out of the room that day Yami had gone off on her, he hadn't heard one peep out of her. Maybe the teen had damaged her pride beyond repair. Kaiba smirked at the thought, darkly finding it humorous. His smile quickly disappeared when his mind switched over from Kisara to Yami.

Like Kisara, Yami had also seemed to have vanished from existence since that day. Unlike Kisara, Kaiba was actually concerned about why. His disappearance had been so sudden and unexplained. The boy had seemed fine when he'd left that day. Kaiba leaned back in his chair as his thoughts wandered.

As much as he hated to admit it, he missed the petite teen. Nearly every day since then, on his way home from work, he would find himself peering desperately out of his window. Searching. Hoping that maybe—just maybe—he'd catch sight of that spikey head, climb out of his limousine, and make a big deal about having to drive the runt home again like he always did. Unfortunately, his search had always been in vain. Yami was never anywhere to be seen. Kaiba should have been happy that the boy's abnormal nightly walks had ceased, but there was an uneasy feeling nibbling at the back of his head that he just couldn't seem to shake.

What really distressed Kaiba was that not even Mokuba knew where Yami had seemed to have gone. The two of them appeared to have become awfully close, and the fact that Yami had cut off contact with the boy all of a sudden was unsettling. Mokuba had claimed that he hasn't even seen Yami lately. This was strange considering that Yami had to pass by Mokuba's school on his way home. That meant that Yami had to have been taking a detour to avoid doing so. Either that or the teen had just quit going to school altogether for some reason.

Kaiba rubbed his head in distress. He was starting to get worried. What if something had happened to him? No, if that was the case then he would have at least told Mokuba. Did he have to move suddenly and didn't have time to say anything? That seemed more probable than the latter, especially since he didn't even own a cell phone. Still, the fact that he wouldn't have contacted either of the Kaiba brothers in some way to tell them seemed off…

Distractedly, Kaiba shut down his laptop after discovering what time it was. He had a four o' clock meeting with Pegasus and a few others he needed to get to so they could discuss the tournament some more.

'I need to focus on what's important.' he told himself. With that, he ventured off, but not without that feeling still gnawing on his mind.

xxxXxxx

It came out of nowhere really.

A sickening feeling started creeping up through Kaiba's body not long after he'd made it to Industrial Illusions headquarters for that meeting. His head ached a bit and he had a feeling in his stomach that reminded him of the way it felt after spinning around several times once he made it inside the luxuriously built edifice.

By the time introductions were over and Kaiba had explained in great detail his plans for the tournament, his condition had worsened. His head throbbed with such intensity, he wasn't sure if any amount of Aspirin could help. His stomach churned uncomfortably and an odd and painful strain had formed in his chest and crept deviously up his throat, making it difficult to speak without feeling like he would run out of breath. He struggled to remain focused on the conversation around him and answer questions.

Finally, it seemed Pegasus had taken pity on him and cut the meeting short, telling Kaiba, "You should go home early and get some rest. The stress of the tournament is probably starting to get to you."

Kaiba growled as he shut the door of his limousine, getting a slam that was disappointingly quieter than he intended. He massaged the temples of his head for a bit, deciding to just sit there for a few minutes before giving his chauffeur any orders to drive. He breathed in and out deeply to calm himself and hopefully settle his stomach down enough to be able to say something without blowing chunks. It was just when he felt his digestive system relax into a bearable uncomfortableness when:

"Hmf!"

Kaiba had to hunch himself over and clench his jaw to keep himself from crying out. He wrapped his arms around himself as he felt a sudden and unexplainable panic rush through his body. Though it might have sounded melodramatic, he literally felt some sort of impending doom closing in on him. He could feel danger looming ominously over him. The thing was, he didn't feel that he himself was in danger per se.

Quickly, and without missing the strange look his driver was giving him in the rear-view mirror, Kaiba whipped out his phone and punched in the first number on his speed dial.

Now, by no means was Seto Kaiba a superstitious man. He didn't believe in ghosts or spirits or having some kind of "sixth sense". No, all Kaiba knew was that the last time he'd had such a strong and painful feeling of imminent demise, his brother had been dying in the next room.

It had happened not long after the two of them had been adopted by Gozaburo. Kaiba was studying silently in his room under the bastards orders when he suddenly felt himself panic out of nowhere. He had felt a sense of extreme urgency scream at him to dash out of his room, and so he did. He could hear some rustling around come from the room next to his once in the hallway and bravely investigated despite the fear that was engulfing him. Inside the room, Mokuba was sprawled out on the floor gasping and wheezing for air. He'd had an allergic reaction to a candy bar one of the maids had sneaked to him, causing his throat to swell.

To this day, Kaiba still swears he had been sure to inform every person there that Mokuba was allergic to peanuts. The imbeciles.

"Nii-sama?"

Kaiba breathed a sigh of relief when the boy picked up his phone.

"Mokuba." he forced himself to mutter in a low voice, still not feeling very well. "Where are you right now?"

"Still at the arcade…"Mokuba answered unsurely. "Did you…want me to come home now?"

Kaiba thought for a moment, unable to shake the still painfully strong feeling.

"Yes. I'm coming to pick you up now."

"Oh…okay. Um, are you feeling alright Nii-sama? You don't sound very good." he heard Mokuba ask, worry prominent in his voice.

"I'm fine. Just feeling a little under the weather." was all Kaiba dared to explain.

"Oh. Okay. Well, I'll see you when you get here."

"See you."

Kaiba slid his slim phone back into his pocket, then quietly ordered the driver to take him to the arcade, feeling incapable to speak any louder at the moment.

When Mokuba saw the state Kaiba was in, the boy had ardently persisted him to go home as well.

Kaiba didn't bother to argue. He actually preferred doing so, for that tension in his chest and disastrous feeling had yet to subside.

It was only when about an hour had gone by after the two of them had safely gone home that Kaiba started to feel more at ease. The nausea had finally gone away, replaced with a strange coldness. Though it was odd, he favored that over the feeling that he could hurl at any moment. His head didn't hurt anymore, but the tightness in his chest was still noticeably present. Still, it was something he could live with for the moment. Mokuba wasn't in any danger like he'd thought. He was just over reacting.

'Maybe it was from stress.' he mused. Well, whatever it had been, it was gone now. Kaiba figured that he had nothing to worry about.

That was, until he got the call.

He was in his room when he received it, playing a game of checkers with Mokuba.

"Seto Kaiba?" he heard come from the other side. The voice had a familiar accent that caused Kaiba to scowl and snarl irately.

"Siegfried?" he spat crossly, but also confused. "What the hell do you want?"

"Kaiba! You need to listen to me!" the man demanded, his German accent thick and rich as ever.

"No, you listen to me, Schroider. I thought I made it clear that day I beat your sorry ass into oblivion when you tried to ruin me at Kaibaland's Grand Opening that I want nothing to do with you or whatever issues you have with me. Never call me again, do you hear me? Goodbye." Kaiba spewed, instantly angered by the man's sudden intrusion in his life. Sure, he was a bit curious as to why the pink-haired lunatic had called, but not enough so to stay on the phone any longer.

"Wait, dammit! This isn't about me, or you, or either of our damned companies! It's about your friend, Yami!"

Kaiba felt his heart beat quicken at the mention of the boy's name, but not because he had a crush on him or anything like usual. No, this time his heart raced from fear. And Kaiba almost didn't want to know why.

Slowly, he brought the phone back up to his ear.

"…What about Yami." Kaiba probed. Mokuba looked up from the game of checkers at the boy's name. He could hear Siegfried take in a breath in preparation for what he was about to say.

"He's in the hospital."

Kaiba didn't even need an explanation.

He didn't have to ask why Yami was there.

He didn't have to ask why Siegfried knew before Kaiba did.

He didn't have to ask why Siegfried knew, period.

No, the only thing he wanted to ask was why his Nissan GT-R just didn't seem to go fast enough.

Kaiba sped into the parking lot of the Domino City Hospital, disregarding any other cars' beeps for driving so recklessly. He swerved to park right in front of the building, the car jolting forward from the motion. Mokuba practically leapt out of the vehicle before Kaiba even had the chance to finish parking. Kaiba was so distracted that he almost forgot to take the keys out of the ignition before exiting himself.

He followed the boy into the establishment, albeit with a calmer composure than Mokuba. The smell of rubbing alcohol and latex levied into Kaiba's sinuses once he entered. It was a discomforting smell, especially so when he thought about how Yami would be forced to breathe the scent in for however long he would be there.

He quickly noticed Siegfried over in the corner of the room, flagging him and Mokuba down.

"What the hell happened Schroider?" Kaiba demanded, doing his best to ignore the stares he was getting. He hadn't really thought about throwing on a disguise before leaving, so the fact that he was Seto Kaiba was incredibly prevalent at the moment. Nonetheless, no one dared bother the man. It was a hospital after all; it wasn't exactly the kind of place you asked for autographs in. "How the fuck are you even out of jail?"

"Ah, yes. I'm sure you have many questions for me. Like why I'm here, right?" Siegfried took a deep breath. "I'll do my best to explain. I'll start at the beginning." he said, flipping back his incredibly long hair.

"Being as powerfully rich as I am, I was able to pay my way out of jail with ease considering the crime I committed wasn't very serious. When I did get out, I took some time to reflect on what I'd done. As much as I still despised you, the words your friend had said to me that day kept playing over and over again in my mind. 'You can't change the past'. After some time, I came to realize that he was right. The past is irreversible. And the fact that I kept dwelling on it was weighing me down."

"When I'd finally decided to let the past go, I felt all of that weight lift from my shoulders. It burdened me no more. I started planning so many things for the future. Projects, inventions; I can honestly say that I do have a bright future to look forward to, just as your friend had insinuated. Before I can get anything done, though, I need to move back to Germany. And I planned to. I still plan to. But a certain piece of information kept me from leaving today like I had planned."

"My younger brother, Leonhart, has been living in Japan for some time now, you know. And only recently did I find out that he's been getting bullied at his school. He told me himself, and he explained that a teen boy with spikey hair and red eyes that went to the public high school had witnessed his misfortune and hadn't hesitated to stand up for him. It didn't take me long to figure out that the person he'd described could be none other than that young friend of yours that had talked me out of my determination to devastate you and your company."

"I was moved. So much so that I just had to thank that boy Yami in person. When I was able to locate his house, I wasted no time in getting there. I went there earlier this afternoon, around four I want to say. Anyhow, when I got there and knocked on the door, no one had answered. I figured that maybe no one was there, so I turned to leave, but I noticed through an open window that there was a television on. So, I tried knocking again, but still received no answer. I wiggled the door handle out of curiosity, and, to my surprise, the door opened. Now, I suppose it counts as intruding and you can judge me if you want, but I went inside. I called out a few times but still didn't get any answer, which I thought was weird since the TV was on and there was a can of soda on the coffee table. I tried calling out again and walked in a bit further until I was in front of the kitchen. What I saw there was something…something horrible."

There was silence for a moment, save for the low murmur of chit-chat around them from other conversations.

"Yami was lying on the floor with blood pooled around him." The man took a pause to collect himself. "I wanted to help him, but I was afraid that if I moved him I might make whatever happened to him worse. There was so much blood. I called *119 as fast as I could. The ambulance just didn't seem to get there fast enough. There was just so much blood…It wasn't until I got here that I called you. I figured you should probably know."

Kaiba swallowed to get rid of the lump in his throat. He didn't look down at Mokuba to see how he was taking the story. He didn't think he could handle it.

"How did he get injured?" Kaiba asked, allowing the force of the story to seep in.

"That, I do not know." Siegfried admitted. They haven't come out from his surgery to tell me anything yet."

Surgery. Yami. Blood. To Kaiba, those words just shouldn't be associated. He didn't like it. Kaiba sank down into a nearby chair settled against the wall, as did Mokuba, as he felt the cold feeling in his stomach spread through his body. He felt a tug at the end of his sleeve as Mokuba held onto it. Kaiba sat up as straight as he could and did his best to keep his face relaxed. He had to be strong right now. Strong and calm. No matter how much he wanted to march over to the front desk and demand which room Yami resided in.

The three of them sat in heavy silence as they waited for news on Yami's condition. It was a long wait. Kaiba wasn't sure how much longer he could stand just sitting there. But that's all he could do. Just sit there. He hated the feeling. The feeling of hopeless helplessness. He'd only experienced such a horrible feeling once in his life: when his mother and father had been in the accident. The accident that had killed them both in the end after all of that damned waiting.

Kaiba shook the thought away. This time it would be different. It had to be different. Maybe if he was lucky, Yami had only gotten a paper cut that had just gotten out of control…

Kaiba could have smacked himself in the face for concocting such a ludicrous idea. But, damn it all, he had to come up with something to keep hope alive and himself from slipping in front of Mokuba.

"Are you all here for Yami Mutou?"

Kaiba's eyes shot up from the spot on the floor they'd been glued to for the last hour or so at the sound of Yami's name.

"Yes." Siegfried answered quickly before Kaiba had had the chance to. The man who'd imposed the question smiled weakly at the three of them, doing his best to brighten his grim smile when he noticed Mokuba there.

"Ah, I see." he said. He flipped through a few pages on the clipboard he held onto, scanning over it a bit before returning his gaze back to them.

"What's his condition?" Kaiba asked impatiently. He stood from his chair. Mokuba did as well, then Siegfried.

"Well, he certainly lost a lot of blood, but he's not in critical condition anymore." Kaiba felt his chest clench again. That meant that he had been in critical condition at some point.

"There was a gash down his entire forearm. The wound nearly went down to his bone, and there were multiple lacerations around it like it had been slashed at several times." There was a contemplative pause. "I don't have to guess to tell you that the injury was self-inflicted." he stated, shaking his head. Kaiba's throat constricted at hearing what he had been afraid to even think about. He heard Mokuba gasp next to him, the boy haven known nothing of Yami's bad habit of self-harm.

"Can we see him?" Kaiba strained to ask. The doctor shook his head.

"I'm afraid he isn't conscious at the moment. And our visiting hours will be over in less than another half hour. I'm sorry." he informed.

"But! You have to let us see him!" Mokuba cried out loudly, stepping toward the man.

"Mokuba." Kaiba said as calmly as he could. "It's alright. We'll come back tomorrow."

"But…" Mokuba looked up at Kaiba, tears brimming his large, gray eyes. Kaiba didn't know what to say past that. All of this must have been a shock to the boy. Hell, it was a shock to Kaiba. He hugged Mokuba tightly before leading him out of the building. He'd hoped that the gesture would calm the boy, but once they made it into the car, the boy just broke down.

The drive home was painful.


Yami! No!

Yeah, this chapter is relatively a Yami-free chapter. Sad face.

Geez Siegfried! That man sure can talk! No one asked for your effing life story!

So, do you all think that our so called "sixth sense" can be that powerful? I dunno, I kind of do. I'm curious to know what you think!

Anyhow, thanks a bundle for reading!