"Kidnaping Mokuba Kaiba takes a lot of forethought and a veritable team of experts. So of course I haven't got him yet, Yuugi. It'll probably be weeks before I can get my hands on him, especially because I'm not involving a team of experts."
Ryuuji Otogi walked a six-sided die back and forth over his fingers as he paced the room. This was one of his most favored anxious ticks whenever Yuugi called him now. Yuugi was always calling with some kind of terrible news, some new revelation that changed everything and ruined their perfect plan. Who the hell was Seto Kaiba to go around believing shadow magic still existed? Who did the guy think he was? Ryuuji had assumed far too much. He'd thought he'd known who Seto Kaiba was, and he'd been wrong. Now things were going to get messy.
"What do you need Mokuba for anyway?" asked Yuugi. "Surely there's some other way? Something easier?"
"The only easy way was the one where I blew it and didn't realize Kaiba would listen to a shadow magician, much less know one well enough for them to get close enough to get two words in."
"Ryou said the shadow magician was Kaiba's assistant. The guy named Isono."
"I'm aware. You told me," said Ryuuji. He looked at the magazine in the corner, the one he'd bought that morning because it had photos taken by the paparazzi of Seto Kaiba lounging around at home in a tracksuit. Apparently there was some kind of vitally important debate over the brand, because Seto had never worn the tracksuit out in public. All that the world had was a collection of long-range photos showing blue and white fabric and no clear logo.
Ryuuji didn't give a damn about the tracksuit, though he'd hazarded a guess on the phone with Yuugi as to which brand he personally believed the tracksuit might be. What mattered more was the person in the background of two photos. Ryuuji recognized him without clearly remembering having ever met him, Seto's assistant and right-hand man, the infamous Mr. Isono. Ryuuji then searched online to find closer up images of the man in the background of videos of Seto Kaiba giving speeches. His presence pervaded nearly all of them.
While images proved simple enough to find, there wasn't much anyone really knew about Mr. Isono. Supposedly he was competent in Magic & Wizards and certified as an international arbiter of duels. Ryuuji was surprised to realize he'd even seen Mr. Isono in action first-hand during Battle City. Unfortunately, it'd been years, too long for Ryuuji to remember if anything had ever really stood out to him about the man. Apparently nothing about Isono ever did. It was kind of fucking amazing. What a damn professional.
"Kidnapping Mokuba makes me nervous," said Yuugi. "Is there some other way to connect to Kaiba's aura?"
"I mean, maybe something super important to him, like his three Blue Eyes White Dragons. But, trust me, Mokuba's way easier to get your hands on than a fucking Blue Eyes. At least Mokuba is out of Kaiba's sight for more than a few seconds at a time. Hell, I'm not even sure which is more effective, Mokuba or the Blue Eyes. Heaven forbid Kaiba's ever forced to choose between the two."
A dim tone began to sound over the call. Ryuuji look at the screen to see there was an incoming call from Ryou Bakura. Again. He sighed and let it ring out, telling Yuugi who it was as he waited for voicemail to pick up.
"Ryou's still trying to reach you?"
"Yeah. He doesn't leave any messages when he does, though. It makes me nervous, especially after what he told you last night."
"Do you think he suspects you?"
"I have no idea. I want to say no, because he told you to give up the shadow magician to Kaiba's people. Unless, of course, you're his favorite out of the two of us. In which case, well…."
Yuugi laughed imagining Ryou picking favorites of all his friends. If anything, they all knew it'd be Jounouchi, though none of them were totally sure why.
"How am I supposed to stay clear of Kaiba's men for the weeks it's going to take you to kidnap Mokuba? Should I just move in with Jounouchi now? I'm pretty sure he'll get suspicious after I spend more than week following him around twenty-four seven."
"I dunno…maybe if I can try to put a mind control spell on this Isono guy. He can't be that strong, right? I mean, he hasn't launched any counterattacks. You'd think Kaiba would be all about counterattacks…."
"You're asking me?" said Yuugi with a nervous laugh. "I don't know how to judge how strong people are at shadow magic. I don't even know how strong you are."
"Probably not strong enough to control a person's mind, now that I think about it," said Ryuuji. His voice broke and he had to sit down. "Look, I'm just floating the crazy ideas right now, okay? I actually have no idea what to do. I have no idea. I'm very sorry to have got you roped into this. We're both dead. Shadow magic doesn't work miracles. In this instance, Kaiba himself is probably way stronger than we are just because he's got his own private police force. Shadow magic kinda sucks at being a useful thing that's applicable to your every day life and defensive needs. There's just…so many conditions on it. It's not an easy thing to do. That's why the Egyptians made portable artifacts to control it. Otherwise, it's almost impossible to use practically. What the hell was I thinking?"
"Calm down, Ryuuji. I'm sure we can figure something out."
"But, I mean, how am I even going to get close to Mokuba Kaiba to kidnap him? I don't even know him, and now that Kaiba's on to you, he's not going to let you near his little brother, either. And it sucks because there's all this shadow power built up in anticipation of a huge, giant spell, and now…what do I do? Release it into the world? People will start seeing ghosts."
"Wait, what? Ghosts?"
"Maybe you could just turn yourself in, tell Kaiba it was me, we resolve this together, and once the shadow energy is all cleared up, I say goodbye to you all because no-one will ever see me again…."
"Ryuuji…."
"I don't want to hurt people. I didn't bring so much shadow power into the world not expecting to use it up and send the shadows back. I just wanted to change this one thing about the world that I didn't even think was asking too m—wait."
"Wait what?"
The other end was silent.
"Ryuuji? What am I waiting for?"
Finally, there was a rustle of sound as Ryuuji brought the phone back to the side of his face.
"I gotta go, Yuugi. Someone's at the door."
"Who?"
"I dunno. Maybe it's that weird Isono guy ready to take me out. Although if he knows anything about shadow magic, he ought to know death ends nothing when it comes to a huge fucking spell."
"Are you serious, Ryuuji? At least check who it is before overreacting."
Yuugi could hear someone knocking now. Ryuuji had entered the front room where the sound was louder.
"Like, look through the peephole in the door, Ryuuji."
"But in movies they always shoot the person who looks through the peephole."
"They're going to shoot you in your apartment in broad daylight for all your neighbors to hear? That's what you think is going to happen? I mean, it's Seto Kaiba. He'll probably interrogate you first to figure out how to use shadow magic to improve his next product line or hostile takeover."
"You're right. Slowly tortured to death while all my arcane knowledge is extracted from me is way preferable to getting shot through a peephole."
"Just check."
Ryuuji inched to the door, keeping out of the frame. He stopped and nervously waved his hand over the peephole in order to block the light and perhaps give the impression that he was standing in front of it. Getting shot through the hand was probably survivable. It beat getting shot through eye at any rate.
Nothing whatsoever happened. Outside in the hall, someone sighed and slumped against the opposite wall. Ryuuji heard the scratch of the metal fastenings on the mystery person's coat as they slid down the wall to the floor. He then heard the sticky tap of loud and annoyingly unmuted typing. It went on for a while. The message—no, the veritable magnum opus of unceasing text—being written was slow and deliberate, punctuated by occasional flurries of hurried backspacing and the hints of increasingly exasperated sighs.
Ryuuji listened with batted breath to the click of each letter. Finally, he heard the hollow sound of the message being sent. To Ryuuji's shock, his phone dinged soon after.
"What was that?" asked Yuugi, who'd been waiting patient and silent on the other end of the call for the past five minutes Ryuuji had spent listening to someone type on a phone.
"Shhh," whispered Ryuuji. He checked his phone and saw he had a message from Ryou. He clicked on it. It was long as fuck.
"Oh, it's Ryou outside," said Ryuuji. He hopped over to glance thought the peephole and saw a familiar mane of pale hair bundled in wintry layers when it was only the first few weeks of fall. "He sent a long message complaining how he can hear me moving around in the apartment, and he's very disappointed that I'm not answering the door."
"Answer the door, Ryuuji. He's been looking for you for two days. I'm starting to feel bad for him. It's kinda sad."
"Fine," said Ryuuji. "Hopefully he's not Kaiba's shadow magician."
"I seriously doubt it."
"Same."