A/N: So sorry for such a long wait! I genuinely don't mean to give this story year-long hiatuses, but please rest assured this fic will not be abandoned, even if it takes a while to get the chapters out!

Enjoy the new update!

/Text/ Yami to Yugi

/Text/ Yugi to Yami

Chapter 6

"So this Kamora didn't seem like a favorable character," said Detective Soto. "Was there anyone else that seemed suspicious to you when you first arrived?"

Téa shook her head and looked to the others. "I don't think so? I mean, I didn't really pay attention to the other staff members too much. It just seemed weird that that guy was watching Kaiba and Mokuba as if he had some big issue with them, and neither of them wandered even close to the front desk."

"But we never saw that guy again afterwards, did we?" Yugi asked. "I certainly don't remember, but I didn't get too good a look at him in the first place."

"I didn't," said Téa. "But we didn't spend a lot of time in the hotel lobby after checking in, and I didn't particularly go looking for him. But I did tell Roland about him, so I don't know if he followed up on it or let the whole thing go."

"I can follow up with him later," said Detective Soto. "So one disgruntled employee aside, walk me through your experience at the hotel. Did anyone else have an ill intent towards you or Seto Kaiba?"

"Well, we knew Kaiba was there for some business conference," said Tristan. "So we sometimes caught him at breakfast and that was it until the meetings were done for the day. We spent about all of our time with Mokuba, and if he noticed anything weird, he certainly didn't say anything."

"And our first day up there was kinda nice," said Joey, "can't really think of anythin' bad that happened that's worth tellin'."

"But something that doesn't mean anything to any of you might be a crucial detail to someone else," said Detective Soto. "So for the sake of this interview, just pretend that you're recounting your vacation to a friend, and I'll just chime in gently if I have questions."

"So what we did all day…everyday?"

Detective Soto nodded. "Anything and everything you can remember. We'll start with your first full day. What did you all get up to?"

"We were going to go skiing, or learn how anyway," said Tristan. "But the lessons didn't start until the afternoon…."

He had been prepared to walk into the hotel room, see two tiny beds inside, and submit to sharing one of them with Joey and let Yugi have the other one. It wouldn't have been the first time he shared a narrow sleeping space; on Kaiba's blimp, he and Duke bunked in with Joey, and managed to squish themselves on the mattress in a tangle of limbs.

To Tristan's surprise (and delight), their hotel room was larger than double his bedroom back home, with two large beds in the center. Plenty of room for all of them. So while he and Joey weren't stuck pretzeled together, he did have to contend with him snoring all night.

Yugi was at least a quiet sleeper.

But despite sometimes hearing Joey' noisy nasal passages, it was still the best sleep he had in a long time. He woke alert and refreshed, and while Joey still snoozed on, Yugi was already awake and dressed, sitting at the chair by the window and watching the snow fall.

"Morning," Yugi said brightly.

"Hey," said Tristan, and he stretched his arms out, purposely knocking Joey in the shoulder. Joey grumbled, rolled over, and buried his face even further into his pillow to the point where Tristan didn't even know how he was even breathing.

"Hey man, wake up!"

Joey mumbled something unintelligible under his breath.

Tristan glanced at the clock on the center nightstand, on Joey's side of the bed. 7:42am. "Dude! Get up!"

A pillow suddenly careened into his face. "Dammit, Trist' it's not even eight!"

"Look man, I get it – the bed's comfy, but do you really want to waste your day here when there's so much to do?"

Joey propped himself up on his elbows. "It's early!"

"And breakfast is only until 9:30," said Tristan.

"Mokuba said it was a buffet. Plenty of food," Joey muttered.

"Yeah? And how much you want bet all the best stuff is the first to go?"

"Alright, alright!" Joey said, just as Tristan tossed the pillow back into his face. "I'm up! Don't be so noisy, you're gonna wake Yugi."

Tristan snickered as Yugi gave a friendly little wave from his spot at the window. "I'm already up, Joey!"

Yugi laughed and got up, tucking his phone back into his pocket. "Téa's already awake so I'm gonna wander next door. Just knock when you guys are up and ready to go eat and we'll meet you downstairs."

"Sure thing," said Tristan, and he had his back turned to his best friend just long enough for him to pelt all the pillows on the bed right for his head.

Joey cackled. "Maybe we ought to have a pillow fight later."

Tristan managed to catch the last pillow gunning for him and flung it back. "Maybe you should get a move on. You think we're going to be the only people who want to sign up for ski lessons?"

"Trist', this place is probably crawling with suits. We got plenty of time."

"Yeah, well, even the boring old suits need something to do when they're not trying to profit off each other," said Tristan. "And I'd rather have a beginner's class with just us than with a bunch of strangers."

"Okay, okay, I'm up," Joey grumbled and threw the blankets back. "You better let me sleep in tomorrow."

It was a good thirty minutes later when he finally had Joey dragged out of the room, picked up Yugi and Téa, and they rode the elevator down to the second floor. The entire floor was much more open than he expected it to be. The grand sweeping staircase that went down to the lobby was off to the right of the elevators, and he recognized the small tables that lined the glass balcony wall. But there were so many more grouped around the three long buffet lines, and even across the floor past the end of the dining table cluster were even more of the couches from the lobby.

Directly across the way, past all of the dining was a standee sign pointing towards a hallway, and it wasn't until they started towards the buffet line that he could read it, pointing the way for the conference attendees to the meeting rooms that must take up the rest of the floor.

Téa reached the starting point first and began passing plates down the line. "There's a lot more here than I thought."

Joey rubbed his hands together and then took the plate Yugi offered him. "Excellent. Gonna need all my energy to hit the slopes."

"So long as you don't barf it out," Tristan said casually, and then caught a familiar mop of black hair at a table in the corner. "Oh look, there's Mokuba."

Joey tried peering around a family hoarding the waffle irons. "Can't see; is his brother there too?"

"Not at the table, but if Mokuba's here, then you know Kaiba can't be far behind."

Tristan moved through the lines, slowly shuffling after some old man in the ugliest pinstripe suit that he had ever seen wearing far too much cologne for even three people. There was far too much to choose from, but he grabbed only from the first row of offerings and started searching for a table to fit all of them.

Most of the larger tables were already gone, but there was enough room for them all at the one Mokuba had snagged, so it was either one of the only options available whenever he made it downstairs, or he was planning to let them join him, regardless of Kaiba's mood. He pulled out the chair on the opposite side of the table and took a seat. The cushion was one of those weird leather-ish ones that made a loud suction-like noise once he settled in, and he was glad it wasn't the middle of the summer or it'd cling to his legs.

Mokuba snickered at his obnoxiously loud chair. Little snot!

"Fancy meeting you here," said Tristan.

Mokuba smiled wide around his mouthful of pancakes. "HI!" he said after a swallow.

Téa and Yugi wandered over next and sat across from each other, making sure to leave the empty chair beside Mokuba empty. Neither of their seats were as atrociously loud, and Tristan had to wonder if he had really sat down on a booby trap probably meant for Joey.

But no. Just one crinkly leather chair.

"Good morning," Téa said warmly.

"Morning!" Mokuba said, "how was your night?"

"Oh, it was heavenly," Téa said, "I think that was one of the most comfortable hotel beds I've ever stayed in. Any chance we can bribe this place to let us sneak a mattress home with us?"

Mokuba blinked. "I don't think we can fit it on the train. Luggage racks are kind of small."

"We're resourceful," said Tristan, waving his fork in the air, "I mean, after everything we've been through? I'm sure there's a way to smuggle one back home."

"Did you sleep well?" asked Yugi.

Mokuba nodded. "Uh huh. And Seto even went to bed at a human hour, so brownie points for me!"

"Where is Kaiba, anyway?" asked Téa, and she peered back towards the buffet lines. "You're not here by yourself, are you?"

"No, he was off…over there somewhere." Mokuba vaguely gestured with one hand towards the bar behind one of the buffet tables where several different hot drink carafes were stationed. "But who knows. Some suit probably stopped to harass him."

"That happen often?" asked Tristan.

Mokuba shrugged. "Depends who's here. Pegasus thinks it's funny to bother him at almost every possible opportunity."

Joey finally arrived to take the last empty seat that purposely wasn't being left for Seto, and somehow managed to balance not one but two full plates and his drink without spilling anything. His chair also made a squishy air-whooshing sound when he sat down but no one paid any notice to it, all honed in on the entire buffet stacked precariously on the table.

"…Hungry?" asked Mokuba.

Joey shrugged. "Eh. A little."

"You…uh…do know how buffets work, right?" asked Téa. "You can go up more than once."

"Had to make sure they didn't run out of the good stuff before I could go back."

"Uh huh…"

"Soo…." Mokuba began, "I signed us up for ski lessons today, but there wasn't an open spot until the afternoon. I don't know what you guys want to do in the meantime."

"I want to take a look around," said Téa, "but I know the boys mentioned an arcade yesterday, so I'm sure we'll end up in there at some point."

"I want to see if there's anything else to do outside besides ski," said Yugi. "The area we passed through on the way here looked charming – I wonder if there's a shuttle so we can explore around!"

"It's worth checking out," said Tristan, "I mean, we're going to be here for a while."

The chair beside Mokuba was suddenly dragged out and then Seto sat down with a plate that had a near fraction of one of Joey's two hauls. "Mokuba, I see you've picked up the strays."

Joey scowled as best as he could with his mouth full, cheeks puffed out imitating a chipmunk. But before he could swallow and spit out something actually audible, Yugi smiled and beat him to it.

"Morning, Kaiba."

The only acknowledgement any of them received in return was a brief nod, a raise of his coffee mug almost in a mock toast before knocking half of it down his throat.

"What happened to you?" asked Mokuba.

Seto cradled his mug between both of his hands. "I got accosted in the coffee line."

Mokuba's eyes widened. "Really?" He twisted around to peer back, and sure enough a number of suited individuals were hovering near the coffee bar. "It looks like there's plenty over there. Did you really have to wait that long?"

"Decaf and light roasts," Seto muttered, and barely suppressed a visible shudder.

"You were gone for like fifteen minutes! I'm almost done eating already!"

Tristan eyed him through narrow, suspicious eyes. "How much you want to be that wasn't your brother's first cup?"

"Oh, I know it wasn't," said Mokuba. "How many times did you fight the corporate herd over there to feel alive this morning?"

"Twice," Seto said shortly. "Because one cup is not enough to be able to handle the group at this table before 9am."

The comment went by surprisingly without Joey returning a few jabs of his own, and the rest of breakfast passed by in a strange awkward limbo. Yugi and Mokuba carried on pleasant conversation with everyone, and both he and Joey went back for seconds (or in Joey's case, thirds?), but there was still the floating sense of unease with Kaiba at the table; a delicate balance that hung in the air. Kaiba also seemed to be incredibly tense, and Tristan couldn't exactly fathom why, because he definitely didn't believe it was because he was surrounded by people he didn't like.

"Do you have a schedule yet?" Mokuba asked, turning away from them to acknowledge his brother, and to Tristan's surprise, managed only a sigh. "Should I try to meet up with you for lunch?"

"Lunch is brought in for us," said Seto.

"Dinner?"

"Dinner. The last speaker finishes at three. Just come back to the room whenever you're all done with whatever you're doing."

Seto got up and ruffled Mokuba's hair. "Be careful on the slopes – I expect videos."

Mokuba nodded. "I will, I promise!" He waved at his brother before going back to finish the remnants of his breakfast, and in doing so, missed the frigid glare that swept through the rest of the table. Seto didn't need to say anything. The meaning was clear.

Do not fail him again.

Tristan swallowed uncomfortably. He had at least a vague idea to why Kaiba seemed so….leerily with that icy look. The last time they were trying to watch over Mokuba, he got kidnapped right out from under their noses…because they were too busy watching Yugi win a duel. So he couldn't blame Kaiba for remembering that and being mildly distrustful – the least they could do here was make sure Mokuba had a good time and didn't…fall off the ski lift or something.

Yugi's eyes met Kaiba's head on and lingered there for a few seconds, and Tristan could only wonder what sort of conversation the two dueling titans were having with each other by just staring, but whatever it was didn't last long before Seto departed back towards the elevators.

The moment he was well out of earshot, Joey leaned forward into the center of the table. "Okay, what was that all about?"

Mokuba pushed his plate away and sighed. "Don't mind Seto too much. He's just on edge."

"Oh yeah?" said Joey. "Why's that? He hasn't been around enough stupid people to piss him off yet."

Mokuba sighed. "He's always this way whenever he has to go to one of these and be stuck with Pegasus because he likes to make a habit of getting the drop on him…and he hasn't shown up yet."

"What about after he shows up?"

"Eh," Mokuba said half-heartedly, "Pegasus knows how to make my brother's life miserable without looking like he's doing it. He puts way more effort into the initial surprise."

"Aren't they business partners though?" asked Téa.

Mokuba inhaled sharply and stared down at his empty plate. "Yeah…but…there are some bridges that can't be rebuilt. And I really don't want to talk about it."

Tristan bowed his head. Pegasus redeemed himself to all of them – more or less – between the stint with that weird Pyramid of Light mess, and during the Orichalcos crisis. He initially thought that the peace offering would have also extended to Kaiba and Mokuba, but perhaps that wasn't the case.

Or Kaiba refused it outright. It wouldn't be far from him to harbor a grudge and stew on it forever. Especially if he was still bitter with them over Duelist Kingdom.

"Fair enough," Yugi said quietly.

"Well, how 'bout we get outta here?" said Joey, shoving back his chair. "I bet there's a million games in the arcade waitin' to be trounced!"

"What do you say, Mokuba?" asked Tristan. "Maybe you'll find something for your brother to blow off steam with later? Didn't he used to hold all the arcade records at home?"

"Uh huh," said Mokuba. "But yeah. Let's go. Maybe I'll even bamboozle a few of you, too!"

"That's the spirit!" said Joey, "And hey – I'll even fork the change over for your first game, just so I can watch you pound Tristan into the dirt."

"Hey!"

"…and I'm guessing that nothing strange happened in the arcade," said Detective Soto.

"Nah," said Joey. "Kid's ruthless though. You know how embarrassing it is to be showed up all morning by a munchkin?"

"I've never been bet against so much in one day," said Tristan, "by my own best friend!"

Téa cleared her throat. "Well, while those three went off for video games, Yugi and I wandered back to the lobby to see if there was anything to do in town or around the resort while we waited for our ski lesson. And Yugi noticed something almost right away, that at the time was nothing." She turned to him. "Remember the woman at the front desk?"

Yugi nodded.

"What was up with the front desk lady?" asked Joey.

"Nothing, really," said Téa, "She was very nice about helping find us the shuttle schedule in case we wanted to visit the town. I was really hoping to find the guy from check-in – the one with the stink-eye for Kaiba, but he wasn't there."

"She had a Duel Monsters pin on her nametag," Yugi said. "And I asked about it. I guess because of the gaming conference that was going on, they were wearing game pins that represented the companies attending."

Joey raised his hand and waved his index finger back and forth, while he worked to pluck a fleeting memory from the air. "You know…after lunch – when I went off to that ski rental desk to make sure we didn't have to pay for the loaner equipment? The dude behind that desk had a Duel Monsters pin too! I remember chattin' him up cuz it was my pal Jinzo!"

"Yeah, well the lady had a Nightmare Penguin on hers," said Yugi, "and she said she picked it because she likes penguins, but had never played the game, and didn't recognize the name of the card when I mentioned it to her." He glanced back at Téa. "I guess we thought it was just a coincidence."

Téa frowned. "I wish I got a better look at that Kamora guy's badge to know if he was wearing a pin too."

Detective Soto resettled against the back of the desk chair. "Is there something of significance between those two cards?"

"On their own, no," said Yugi, "but…uh…." He scratched at the back of his head. "Um, how much do you know about the game, Detective?"

She laughed quietly. "Oh, not as much as I'm sure you all do. I have a niece that collects the fairy cards for the artwork, but that's about it."

"Okay," Yugi said, and started again. "Well, we all have a signature monster. Mine's the Dark Magician. Joey's is his Red Eyes Black Dragon, and Kaiba has his Blue Eyes White Dragons. Well, when Kaiba first took over from his stepfather, his first board of directors, the Big 5, also each had a signature card. And Jinzo and Nightmare Penguin were two of them."

"Does that have relevance to the case?" asked Detective Soto.

"Well, not just on its own like that," said Yugi, "but the Big 5 have tried to…hm." He took a deep breath, to try and think his words through carefully. To say that they tried to trap Kaiba in a video game and again in a virtual world, even though it was the truth, may be a bit too outlandish for the sake of the testimony. It would probably have been just as believable if he had gone to the authorities to report Pegasus had taken his grandfather's soul through their television with a magical eyeball and trapped it in a trading card hundreds of miles away.

"They've tried to kill him, twice. But they were never really caught for it," said Téa, "So it was a coincidence that their signature cards ended up here, and then at the same time someone tried to kill Kaiba."

"Where are the Big 5 now?"

"Eh…" Joey started and looked questioningly at the others. "No idea. No one's heard from 'em after the Duelist Kingdom tournament."

"Kaiba will know more about the Big 5 than we will though," said Téa, "but they couldn't have been behind it." How could they, when Noa's fortress exploded and sank into the depths of the sea thanks to that missile? "I mean – it's been such a long time since anyone's heard from them, and the woman wearing the Nightmare Penguin pin wasn't even a member. It really could have been just a chance encounter that it showed up alongside a Jinzo."

"Jinzo is a pretty popular card," said Tristan, "We've seen a couple of duelists use it."

"Regardless, I'll still follow up on it," said Detective Soto. "Did any of the other Big 5 cards show up?"

Tristan scrunched up his nose. "I…don't remember seeing one."

Joey and Téa both also shook their heads, but Yugi merely stared down at his lap, brow wrinkled, deep in thought over something.

"Yugi?"

/Yugi?/

Yugi glanced up, and found himself no longer in the hotel suite with the others, but in the corridor between his and the Pharaoh's soul rooms. Yami stood right in front of him with a hand resting comfortingly on one of his shoulders.

"What is it?" asked Yami.

"I was just trying to think…of the people we saw Kaiba interacting with before the attack…and if they had any Duel Monsters pins. But I just can't remember."

"There was that character that Kaiba ran into those couple of times, before the attack."

Yugi nodded. "Yeah. I know. I didn't get a good look at his face those times though. Kaiba seemed to recognize him, but he definitely wasn't a member of the Big 5. That's impossible."

He heard Téa call his name and then slunk back out of the mind link. "There was someone," he said to the group, "but I don't remember him being in the hotel, and I don't know if he was one of the guys who attacked the hospital or not. You wouldn't happen to have those photos or anything do you? For me to pick out of the lineup?"

"I'm afraid I don't, not at the moment, but I'll bring them the next time," said Detective Soto.

Yugi nodded. There were technically two people he remembered. But only one of them was actually in the hotel with them at the time. The other one didn't appear until after he and Kaiba were attacked, and that was the one that Roland seemed wanting to keep Mokuba in the dark about, and he wasn't sure if saying the man's name around his friends would inevitably get back to him.

"I was off with Kaiba on two separate occasions…before we were attacked. Once the first night and then right before…."

Yugi trailed off and rubbed at his arms. "…And each time someone passed by that made him stop and do a doubletake. He was certain he remembered them from somewhere, but I don't know if he ended up remembering or not, because he never gave them a name. The guy gave Kaiba dirty looks both times we passed by, but nothing else really came of it."

"Did Kaiba say anything about him?" asked Tristan.

Yugi shrugged. "I mean he stopped and stared at the guy for a little while, but then I guess he shrugged it off. I'm sure there were a bunch of people at the conference that didn't like him."

"What about Maximillion Pegasus? You said there was bad blood between them," said Detective Soto.

"Oh, well there is," said Yugi, "but apparently something happened and Pegasus couldn't make the conference."

"Dude," said Tristan, "I've never seen Kaiba so happy to even be around us after the first day. Mokuba had him sit with us for dinner that night, and he didn't even put up a stink!"

"He was almost smiling," said Joey. "It was actually kinda terrifying."

Detective Soto jotted down a quick line in her notepad. "Would you say it was oddly convenient for Pegasus to have skipped on the conference, after everything that's happened?"

"No," said Yugi, "Kaiba and Pegasus had a falling out years ago, but Pegasus wouldn't try and hurt him."

At least…not like this…and not anymore.

"I see," said the detective, and she scribbled another note.

Joey frowned. "Outside of all that…I don't think anything else weird happened that day."

"And the following day, we went and explored the town before skiing again," said Téa. "so we barely even saw Kaiba at all. But the third day…."

She trailed off and looked nervously at Yugi.

Detective Soto nodded. "I see." She paused the recording and got up. "Okay, how about a little break. I'd like to look into a few things on my end, and bring the photographs for you to look at, and then we can continue."

Yugi nodded.

Detective Soto glanced at her watch. "I'll be back in a few hours?"

Téa smiled. "That'll be fine, thanks."

Tristan got up to show the detective out, and the moment the door closed behind her, Yugi sagged back into the couch and let out a heavy sigh.

"You okay, bud?" asked Joey.

Yugi's palms splayed flat against his knees. "Yeah…I think so. Talking about it is going to be a little weird. But it's important, you know?"

"Yeah…"

"We'll be right here with you," said Téa. "You don't have to go through it all again alone."

Tristan folded his arms across his chest. "Unless you don't want us to be here when you talk to her again. We can be left in the dark like Mokuba. Not saying I'd be happy about it, but I won't question you on it either."

"No!" Yugi blurted out, "You can stay. But…I'm worried about Mokuba too. Roland isn't telling him anything, probably on purpose. So…there has to be a reason behind that, right?"

"I would think so," said Téa. "I mean…if their positions were reversed, I certainly don't think he'd be withholding information from Kaiba about Mokuba. So he must be trying to protect him from something."

Yugi bit his lip and stared down at his hands. Or someone. "I…whatever I say…whatever happened in that warehouse…just please don't tell Mokuba. I think he's worried enough right now."

Joey and Tristan side-eyed each other. "How you gonna make the kid worry any more than he already is?" asked Joey, "Is he gonna know the guy that kidnapped you?"

The silence that followed through the room was telling enough, and Tristan raised an eyebrow. "Huh. Maybe we would too. Who was it?"

"…It don't matter," said Joey. "We can probably figure it out just by all them coincidences that probably weren't coincidences in the first place. And the cop lady is coming back with photographs. We're gonna know exactly who it was later."

"…That's what I'm worried about," said Yugi quietly, and he folded in on himself.

Téa perched herself on the edge of the sofa and squeezed his arm reassuringly. "…That we'll find out? Will it put us in more danger to know?"

"…No…" Yugi said after a long pause, and he tilted his head back up to look out at them all, eyes wide. "It's the pictures themselves. I'm worried that they won't be the right ones. And the people responsible are still out there."