Disclaimer: Have things opened up yet? Eh, doesn't matter, I still don't own "Yu-Gi-Oh!".
Author's Note: Well, well, well, an update that's relatively on time! Would you look at that… Who are you and what have you done with Rena? Naw, it's really me guys, shocking as it may be, lol. Though I don't think I'm THAT bad when it comes to updating. I normally keep it around a month between chapters… Which come to think of it, is shocking considering how long this story has become - and we're still not done! So let's get on with it shall we? I want to pick up where I left off! ; )
Terms -
Go figure, none today! Just the title.
The title for today's chapter admittedly was a new word for me, so hopefully I'm using it correctly. My various dictionaries (I checked them all) state that the word means "Daily life or daily routine", similar to the "day in, day out/constantly" or "mundane" type feel we might associate with a daily schedule. I debated between this one and "予定" (Yotei) which literally means "Schedule", however, if my dictionaries are correct, this one is closer to what I was going for - that feeling of just getting through the day via a set schedule, but not necessarily because that schedule is interesting - more like something that just has to be done. It was compared, in one of my dictionaries as the "four cardinal behaviors of walking, standing, sitting, and lying (down)" - which I think sets the tone well here.
-YGO-
"Far longer than forever,
I'll hold you in my heart,
It's almost like your here with me,
Although we're far apart."
-"Far Longer Than Forever", sung by Michelle Nicastro and Kenneth Cope
Chapter Thirty-Two: 行住坐臥 (Gyoujouzaga)
"Thank you for coming."
The response was almost mechanical sounding, even to herself, as she watched the last two patrons of the day leave. Once they were out of sight, she let her shoulders slouch. She liked the Game Shop's customers, but some of them just seemed to continue conversations exponentially, with no real direction. She couldn't fathom why. At least now all that was left to do was to close up shop... Heading around the edge of the counter, Kisara slid herself over to the door, her slippered feet barely lifting as she walked. She couldn't tell if that was because she was tired or just bored. Locking the door and turning the sign around to read 'Closed', she found herself leaning her head against it, resting her eyes, when she screamed as a sudden sensation startled her.
"Not nap time yet, girl!"
Kisara gasped as Joey, who had come up from behind her and lifted her up around the waist, let her go, "Joe-Joey- Don't-"
Joey grinned and laughed before letting her go, "Wow, you were really out of it, weren't you?"
Kisara grabbed her chest, her heart beating rapidly within it, "Wha- what was that for?!"
Joey shrugged, "Couldn't resist. You've been such a space cadet today, figured I had to wake you up somehow."
"So... you choose... to scare me at the end of the day?!" Kisara demanded to know, still catching her breath a bit.
He grinned, "Well, it was effective."
Kisara eyed him incredulously before shaking her head and moving past him to go to the register to count the cash. Joey watched her, feeling the cold shoulder coming on a bit too strongly and raised a brow.
"Hey, I'm sorry," He said, "I didn't mean to upset you."
Kisara looked up at him from counting the cash before looking back down at the task before her, "It's fine. You didn't."
There was silence and Joey knew it was a lie. Edging closer to the counter, the only sounds of paper rustling back and forth in Kisara's hands filling the room, Joey dared to speak.
"Hey," He said.
She glanced up again at him. He was at the counter. Rubbing the back of his head, he continued, "You uh..."
She waited as nothing came out of his mouth. Joey inwardly groaned. He was so bad at this. But she... he didn't like seeing her so down.
"Do you... do you want to take a day off and just hang out together?" He asked.
"Huh?" She asked.
"You just... I know Yugi and S-, I mean, you just... you... frowning doesn't suit you," He said.
"I... I'm not frowning," She said slowly.
Joey rolled his eyes, "Have you looked in a mirror recently? I mean, not that you have to, you're always pretty, but, I mean, uh..."
Kisara watched as Joey flustered around trying to find the right words, "I just mean, why don't I give you the day off and we take some time to just hang out, away from it all? It might uh... I think it would do you a world of good."
The statement, however awkwardly hung in the air for a moment. Kisara's eyes flickered away, down to the glass cabinet below her, Duel Monsters cards reflecting back at her with a glossy gleam.
"Um, ok..." She said slowly.
"Really?" Joey asked, "Okay, well, uh, what about this Saturday?"
She paused, hesitating for a moment, before nodding, "Yeah... alright. Sounds good."
-YGO-
Seto sped to a halt in front of Industrial Illusions. Getting out, he didn't even bother to give his keys to the valet. He wasn't about to trust Pegasus' creeps to handle his car. They could deal with it parked in the middle. Striding inside, he quickly towered over the receptionist, a tall foreigner with short, shockingly electric blue hair who looked like she was doing a million things at once. He waited to be noticed, but it took a while. Finally, she put the phone down.
"Thank you for waiting," She said, "I'm Ellie. Welcome to Industrial Illusions. You're here for the CEO, right? He's on his way."
Surprisingly brief and to the point. As expected of a foreigner though and he actually rather appreciated it. Moments later, the doors to the elevator opened and out came the man himself.
"Kaiba-boy!"
He was never going to stop calling him that, was he?
"Pegasus, you said it's done?" Seto said, catching to the chase.
Pegasus halted his motions and then nodded, "Yes, the preliminary design is anyway. Come on, I'll take you to my gallery."
Seto followed behind Pegasus, his eyes darting around himself out of habit. He could never be too cautious with Pegasus. Following Pegasus into the elevator and up to one of the higher levels of the building, Seto felt the familiar sensation of his ears popping at the quick ascent. Finally, the door opened revealing Pegasus' private gallery.
"I took into account your preference for having your face covered," Pegasus started, "Frankly, I was a little surprised by that request, but I think this does the trick."
Walking up to a piece hanging up on the wall, Pegasus unmasked the inked and revised version of the card. Seto's eyes rose a bit in surprise. It was very similar to the last version, with one distinct change. The card's character was wearing a helmet of sorts, but what was curious about it was the shape. It was nearly identical to the head of the Blue Eyes.
"It looks like you're trying to become a dragon."
Seto blinked and looked down, "It's fine."
Pegasus did a double take, "R-really?"
"Yes, go ahead with it," Seto said in a monotone.
"Well... well, wonderful! I'll have it painted and then we'll get ready for production," Pegasus said joyfully, "Would you like to commemorate the occasion? It will be the first in the series after all. Why not host a party; your manor is quite the empty sight isn't it? Would be nice to get some laughter and sound roaming through those halls right?"
Seto glared, "Fine, whatever. I have other things to deal with today, so if you'll excuse me."
"K-Kaiba?" Pegasus asked, but before he knew it, Seto, briefcase in hand, had already made it to the elevator, pushed the button, and shut the doors behind him.
The familiar hum of the elevator's engine running quickly as it descended sounded. It had been a week. One week of having lunch alone. One week of solitude. One week of idiots and morons coming in and out of his office with nonsensical ideas and suggestions needing correction.
One week of having lunch alone.
Seto shut his eyes and sighed. It had to be the single longest week of his life. Or at least one of them. Perhaps it was because his routine had been interrupted. Or maybe it was because he was back to being in his office all day long. But it had been irrefutably long.
The elevator pinged and the doors opened. Seto strode out quickly.
'Just keep with your routine,' He thought to himself, 'Focus on work.'
After all, what else could he focus on? There was nothing. Nothing else.
-YGO-
"She's the key, you know."
"No..."
"Get rid of her, and all of your problems will be gone..."
"You're the problem," Ryo spat back, gripping the table he was leaning over.
"Oh, don't be so coy... you know it enthralls you, the empowerment of it all..."
"No..."
He felt something hot and salty pass out of his eyes and onto the silver table. It pattered and he could barely see his reflection gazing back up at him through it.
"I won't..."
"How do you think I got here?" He said, "She's an opening…. A way back..."
His head felt like it was splitting. It wasn't a sensation he was unfamiliar with, but nor one that he particularly cared for.
"Why then, would you tell me this?"
There was the slightest hesitation, before the sensation of a ghost like pain wrapped itself around his extremities and up to his neck, around his head... Ryo choked.
"You dare doubt my sincerity? After all that I saved you from in the past?!"
"You... you didn't..."
"From obscurity, from that rotting life following around delusional parents in the desert, how about keeping you ffrom being left behind? I gave you purpose!"
"But... wha... what would you gain from this?!" Ryo demanded, the pain released him and he had the most dreadful sensation of something evil behind him.
"Nothing, my boy," The voice inside of his head rattled, "Just your happiness."
"No..." Ryo repeated, "You're a liar, a manipulator."
The presence seemed instantly perturbed. He could feel it, a hot burning in front of him, the pendant hanging from his neck, practically fuming with anger.
"Fine..." He heard, though he knew no one else could hear the words, "You got me. I want to go back. You think I stayed away all this time and wasn't busy? Her release into this world brought with it many other openings, openings that took me away from my time, my armies. I'm here so that I can reclaim what I lost when I was sucked from my time."
"So it is to help yourself," Ryo managed.
"Yes, but what do you care? We both get what we want this way," The voice echoed, "I get my army, you get rid of me and everything else for good. Isn't that what you wanted?"
Ryo hesitated. But that was all it took. The slightest pause. It was just enough. Just enough to let the monster in. And inwardly, he screamed.
-YGO-
The familiar beep of the full depletion of his life points sounded and Seto looked at the ground as the monsters around him dissipated. He'd been at it for nearly 5 hours now. He hadn't won once. Mokuba played on his phone against the wall, charging it as it had long lost the ability to remain charged on its own for more than an hour or two. He glanced up at his brother, the same sight again.
Seto moved to reload his deck and restart the simulator, when he heard Mokuba speak, "You think that's enough?"
He glanced over to see Mokuba standing up, "You look exhausted."
Seto glanced over at the simulator, "One more game."
Mokuba rolled his eyes, "Fine, but after that we're going home and you can be a hermit there instead."
Seto glared at him, but said nothing, the simulator coming to life on the 'Exponential' mode. It was the only mode that had ever provided him a challenge. Normally, he could beat it in some way. But this... this had been another string of unsuccessful failures. His mind, half blurry, refused to work it seemed. He could figure this out though, he knew he could - how to beat this thing...
It started up again, linking to the Saikou Disk. Mokuba looked at his watch. This... sadly, shouldn't take too long. The familiar process started. Seto drew several cards while the simulator went first, setting up a strong offense. He'd seen the pattern so many times today. But this time around, he couldn't help but notice... something off with the display in front of him…
The holograms just seemed so... grainy. Pixelated... that wasn't how they were supposed to work. But as his brother dueled, Mokuba realized that this wasn't his eyes playing tricks on him. The holograms indeed weren't clear. They didn't even look stable. Again, his brother lost.
Mokuba sighed, "Alright, let's go home."
Seto said nothing, but removed the Duel Disk from his arm, taking his cards and placing them back in their box. He scanned through them quickly and, after checking that they were all there, followed Mokuba towards the elevator, where an awkward silence followed them.
Continuing to say nothing until they got to the car proved to be no challenge at all, at least for Seto, who found himself trying to push through his mental 'to-do' list. He was so caught up in attempting to focus on what he still needed to get done that day that when Mokuba spoke again, he almost didn't notice.
"-is it?"
"Hm?" Seto said, when his eyes darted up and he slammed on the breaks, suddenly aware of the car in front of him.
Mokuba gripped the door as they came to a halt and stopped. He let out a breath of air, "You… you want me to drive, Nii-sama?"
"No," Seto said after a moment.
Not even a snappy come back... "Well... are you going to answer my question or...?"
"I just did," Seto told him as the car in front of him moved.
"No, not about driving," Mokuba said, "I asked if the Saikou was prone to graininess. Cause if not, we need to look over its rendering programs."
"Why?" Seto said, brought back to the present.
"Because as you continued to duel, the visuals got worse, didn't you notice?" Mokuba asked.
Seto thought about it for a moment, running over the programming files and what he had seen on the field, "Yes... but... I don't think it's the Saikou's fault."
"Why?" Mokuba asked, curious.
Seto hesitated before continuing, "The Saikou relies in part upon the wearers' native mind imagery to create the holograms, particularly the fighting tactics."
"So... your own imagination?" Mokuba filled in.
Seto nodded, "I was getting tired... so... it likely faltered for that reason."
"Shouldn't we fix that? Place a backup or default program in there just in case something like that happens to other wearers?" Mokuba prodded.
Seto shrugged a bit, "Not a bad idea..."
He was so passive tonight. Mokuba sighed before leaning back in his seat, watching the buildings go by out his window, though secretly casting glances at his brother every now and then. Seto... wasn't tired, even if he did almost just get into an accident. He wouldn't drive if he was. Well, maybe he would but... Mokuba couldn't help but feel like Seto wasn't being completely honest with him. Rather, it seemed more so to Mokuba that his brother's heart just wasn't in it.
This didn't even touch on the fact that neither of them had even mentioned the thing that they both had to have noticed during Seto's duels tonight, even if Seto was glazing over things. The odd occurrence? The fact that Seto hadn't managed to summon the Blue Eyes. Not even once. The chances were just so low... As the minutes passed, Mokuba found himself feeling sick and with soccer tomorrow and his make up test... When they got home, he slipped away from his brother as seamlessly as he could and made his way up to his bedroom.
By the time he reached his destination and collapsed upon getting there, he felt guilty for having not followed Seto to his own room to make sure he was indeed going to sleep and his mind was now bereft with worry. He had to get in touch with Kisara. This whole thing, Seto's whole mood... it had to be linked with that. He just knew it. He knew it. The change in Seto's mind set was too drastic not to notice and it had all started a week ago. He just needed to confront her about it. Her and Yugi….
And maybe, even though in the back of his mind, he knew that it sounded crazy, maybe she and Yugi could explain the statistical anomaly that was plaguing his brother with every draw.
-YGO-
A/N: I sure hope there's a past reader who got the reference to my past story "Custody" in this one and appreciated it. ; ) Yes, Teen Titans and the Yu-Gi-Oh! franchises ARE in the same universe (haha, but not really). If you didn't, not to worry (but if you DO like Teen Titans - that's my best one if you're looking for something to do over the weekend, lol). Anywho, let me know what you thought! Let's hope Mokuba does what his brother is unwilling to do soon. Thank goodness for cute little anime brothers am I right? Stay awesome!
Later,
~Rena