"YOU!"

Marie screamed as the door to her office was thrown open with a loud 'bang' that rattled the walls. She couldn't believe her eyes, she really couldn't. A wild-eyed dragon clad in a pair of denim capris and a silk blouse with a towel wrapped around its head was standing in her doorway, breathing fire!

Scratch that.

It was just Mizumi.

Mizumi began to march towards her and Marie hurriedly reached her in her desk to find something to protect herself with. It'd be nice if she could grab hold of a wand and Petrificus Totalus this bitch seven ways to Sunday but all she could find was a half-empty glitter pen.

The man who she had been interviewing - Brian - for the Myspace account management jumped out of his seat at the sight of the approaching woman and scurried over to the wall. Before she could stop her, Mizumi had run around Marie's desk and yanked the plug to her laptop from the wall.

"I don't wanna hear any more from you," Mizumi said, shutting Marie's laptop with a loud snap. Water dripped from Mizumi's towel and slid beneath her hot pink sunglasses studded with (fake or possibly real) diamonds. There was a steaminess about her and Marie realized that she must have just gotten out of the shower. She wondered what in the big, blue world would have made Mizumi rush out of the shower and come straight to the KC building.

"Zip, nada, zilch, Marie," she continued, waving the plug around like the neck of a decapitated snake. "Don't you dare post anything on any KC account unless I tell you. No FaceBook, no Instagram, no Twitter Twatter Twiddle whatever the hell it's called, don't even send a fucking email until I give you the green light. Got it? I want you to practice radio silence like your job depends on it...which it does."

"Uh, but what about-" Brian tried but Mizumi turned on him with the wrath of a hundred suns.

"GET OUT!" She roared. Brian squealed and ran for the door.

"What? No! Brian, get back here!" Marie yelled. "That's my interviewee! You can't just send him out! Brian, you can stay."

"I don't give a fuck! Brian, you can leave!"

"Brian, stay!"

"BRIAN, LEAVE!"

"BRIAN, STAY!"

"I can just-" Brian started but Mizumi flung herself away from him.

"You know what," she said. "I think it's time you took a vacation, Marie. All work, no play et cetera et cetera. I heard that the dumpsters out back are looking real nice this time of year."

This is it, Marie thought, Mizumi's finally cracked and has gone Psycho Crazy Bitch Mode. Never before had she seen the woman so out of control.Maybe this was the boss level and Marie had encountered Mizumi's final form. Maybe she would really have to find herself a wand and go Harry v. Voldemort mode. Or maybe a gun would be better. Or maybe a cross with a sharpened end.

"Jesus, does everyone in KC just go crazy after a while? What even is your title anyway? KC's very own Bloodhound? Wait-" Marie said, standing up. "Is this because I went to Kaiba's house last night?"

"You went to Kaiba's house?" Mizumi said.

"You went to Kaiba's house? The Seto Kaiba?" Brian repeated in awe. Marie turned to him.

"Brian, I think you can go now. I'll call you with the results of your interview tomorrow."

"Right, good idea," he said as he opened the door. "I got a baby in the oven anyway."

He slammed the door and Mizumi was left glaring down at her. "What the hell were you doing at Seto's house?" She hissed.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"Try me, bitch."

Ooh, jealousy, Marie thought, she wears it well. "I was counting out the hairs on his chinny-chin-chin, what do you think?"

"You're gonna regret that," Mizumi said. She leaned over and spread her fingers across Marie's desk. "Look, I don't have time to play mind games with you. Stay off of the social media accounts, you, and all your goons. This is not an option."

"Tell me why."

"We have a bit of a problem."

"I know. I'm looking at it."

"Funny girl," Mizumi snapped. "I see why he likes you. Don't. Post. Anything. Got it? Don't bother deleting the hate comments or responding to any messages. This is bigger than you think. And no, it has nothing to do with your little...liaison, sweetie. If I had a dollar for every time some pretty little thing tried to make me jealous by claiming that they slept with Mr. Playboy I'd be rich enough to buy the company ten times over. Au re-fucking-voir, Marie!"

With that, she stormed out the door and slammed it heavily in her wake. Marie waited around in the suffocating silence of her office and then dashed out the door. Something was going down. And whatever it was, it was too good to be ignored. She figured that since she had been essentially cut off from her duties, she had to be productive somehow. What better way than to fill the time by stalking Mizumi?

She crept through the KC building after Mizumi, quick to duck out of sight whenever the other woman turned around. Mizumi came to a large glass-walled conference room filled with a bunch of men in suits and typed a code into the door. Marie stopped before the glass and tried to peak in. They were all looking towards the upper left corner of the room at an advertisement on the TV. Mokuba was there, along with Seto who was sitting in their midst. She tried the handle. Locked, of course, without proper security clearance. She recognized the gelled curlicues of the back of Ryo's head and gave a furtive knock. He turned around, spotted her, and put a finger to his lips before pushing open the door.

"Hey," she whispered as he let her in. In one hand, he was carrying a trayful of Starbucks coffee. He handed her one and gestured for her to hide behind the large potted plant in the corner of the room. He tilted his chin at the TV and mouthed the word "look."

An announcer on tv in a sharp blue suit sat grinning beneath several cartoon banners. In his hand, he held a device that she recognized as a Duel Disk. But it was different from the ones that she was used to being sold out of KC. It was sleek, compact, and very sexy.

"-and remember to pick up our new Duel Disk Version 2.5 at any of our local Aronnaxx distributors. Aronnaxx: bringing you tomorrow, today."

Someone pressed a button on the remote and the screen faded to black. Ryo, Marie, Mokuba, Seto, Mizumi, and the several suited men surrounding the table stood in silence. Marie had no idea what she had just witnessed, but whatever it was, it was bad judging by the shocked look on Mizumi's face.

"Seto-" Mizumi said, turning to him. But whatever she was about to say was cut off as Seto sprang up with a roar and swept a tray of water glasses off the table. There was much screaming and ducking as the glasses splattered and painted the wall a new color. Seto clenched his bleeding fists and then slammed them against the table.

"How did this happen?!" He yelled. "Which one of you sold my blueprints to Aronnaxx?!"

"With all due respect, Kaiba, sir, we've only sold the blueprints that you gave us."

"If that were true," Mokuba said. He stepped forward, a tiny body against the towering adults, and looked around with a surprisingly cool eye. "Then Aronnaxx wouldn't've been able to release a functional Duel Disk of Seto's design."

"You calling us liars, kid?" One of the suits said.

"Watch your mouth when you speak to the owner of this company," Seto growled and Mokuba crossed his arms. "Mizumi. You were supposed to have this all under control. What happened?"

"Whatever it was, it happened off my time. You know I would have never let-"

"Liar!"

They all turned in surprise and stared at Marie. Ryo put his head in his hands and muttered 'no' as she stepped around from behind the potted plant.

"You dirty, no-good liar," she continued, stomping towards Mizumi. Mizumi's fists clenched and she stuck her hand in her pocket. "This all happened because of you! You're the mole, Mizumi! How dare you sit up here with your pretty silicone nose and perfect tits and tell Kaiba that it's not your fault. It is! It really fucking is! And you know it!"

"What gives you the gall-"

"I heard you in the bathroom of the karaoke bar," Marie said, getting closer and closer to the other woman. One of the suited men reached out and pushed her back. "That woman offered to pay you big bucks for Kaiba's blueprints. I know you told her no, but you probably went back and changed your mind. You're sneaky like that...you're a snitch! Seto," she said, squirming around in the suit-clad man's arms. "Didn't I warn you?! I knew something like this was gonna happen!"

Seto wasn't listening, or at least that was the impression that he was giving off. He had his hands tented in front of him and was scratching the back of his fingers again. Seeing his fingernails rake along the tracks of dried blood on his hand was highly disturbing to her. Wherever he was, he was far away from the conversation at hand. Mokuba pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket and set it on the table in front of his brother.

Mizumi smiled. She gave a pitying 'hmph' and began to laugh. Her chest began to bounce as she cackled, louder and louder until the room rang with the sound of her lunacy. Everybody stared at her in alarm, wondering if she had actually lost it this time. Mizumi shook her head, chuckled, and ran a finger beneath her sunglasses.

"Fine. Okay. You got me. Your sleuthing skills sure are on point. You want a medal or something?"

"I wanna hear you say it," Marie said. Ryo took her arm and called her name but she pulled away. "Tell Seto. Tell everyone. Right now. That you're the mole."

"Alright," Mizumi said with a temperate shrug of her shoulders. "I'm the mole."

"Get out," Seto said so quietly that at first, nobody heard him. Then, "Get out!"

The suits began to shuffle out one by one. Ryo grabbed her arm and tried to tug her away but Seto stopped him.

"She can stay."

"Wha-" Ryo stuttered. "But, sir, I-"

"This has nothing to do with you. Get out of my sight."

Ryo cast her a look that was hard to read and then slunk out of the door. That left her standing there with Mizumi, Mokuba, and Seto. Mizumi set herself on the edge of the table and stretched her legs out in front of her until they gave a faint 'pop.' She didn't seem worried at having just been outed for her treachery. Maybe she knew that it was all over and there was no use in fighting anymore.

"What do you wanna do," Mizumi asked. Kaiba still hadn't opened his eyes nor had he stopped scratching the back of his hand. There was a vein pulsing in his temple. Marie wanted to reach out and smooth it down.

"Give her the boot, right?" Marie asked. Mokuba sighed and shook his head.

"Uh, Marie. There's something we're not telling you," he said gently.

"What? Just what the hell is going on here?"

Mizumi looked at Kaiba then, seeing no response, huffed and crossed her arms. "I'm the mole, but not in the way that you think. I work for Aronnax as a mole for KaibaCorps."

"Wha-" Marie thought for a moment. Somewhere, a clock was ticking in the distance, counting out every beat in her moment of confusion. "On some double agent type shit?"

"Bingo, doll. So maybe now you can stop with the Blame Game, huh, sport?"

"I don't believe you-"

Mizumi growled and pulled a pen from her pocket. She wielded it above her head and would have no doubt jabbed it down into Marie's skull had Kaiba not stood up and pushed her hand away.

"Remember what I told you about stabbing people with company pens?" He said.

"Right...sorry. I'll use my own next time."

"Guys, can we bring it back for a moment?" Marie said. "Break it down for me, real slow. ELI5 style minus the stabby pens."

Mokuba looked to Kaiba who gave a delicate shrug. His mind was still racing on some far-off planet, she could tell that much. "Well, it wouldn't hurt at this point, would it, Seto?" Mokuba said. "We can trust her."

"Nuh-uh," Mizumi said. "The brat knows too much already. Who knows what she'll do with the information we already gave her?" She put her hand on Marie's shoulders and tried to push her out but Marie was quick to use the height discrepancy to her advantage and weasel herself away.

Kaiba shook his head. "I trust her, whether you like it or not. She has a strong sense of morals and loyalty to the company, she's already proven that. And unbeknownst to her, I've already put her through a test. You remember that manila envelope that I gave you," he said, his sharp blue eyes sliding over to where she was standing. She gulped.

"Yeah."

"You saw what was inside, didn't you?"

She had. The manila had been filled with several sheets of blueprints and instructions, written in Kaiba's very own hand. There was no way around her guilt. "I might have taken a little peek."

"Anybody with half an iota of brain cells would have known that that sort of information could fetch a pretty penny from any one of my many competitors. You could have made off with that information and lived the rest of your life in a tropical paradise on the other side of the Earth, drinking cocktails with pretty pink umbrellas. But you didn't."

"That's true," Marie said slowly. Admittedly, the idea had briefly crossed her mind at the time. "But you don't know for a fact that I didn't copy that information down and sell it. Not saying that I did, but...there's a glaring lack of oversight."

"Marie," Kaiba said. He turned away from the window and graced her with a small smirk. "You know me well enough by now, don't you?" Mizumi's eyebrows could have hit the ceiling, they had jumped so high. "There's never a lack in my oversight," he continued. "I've been flooding the field with counterfeit blueprints since I took hold of this company years ago." He walked back around the table, took a seat, and tented his fingers again. "Each one has included components that are unique to each blueprint. That way, I can keep track of what's being leaked where."

"I don't understand," Marie said.

"Let's put it like this. I give both you and Mizumi one dollar to buy whatever you want. Except, Mizumi's dollar is marked with a black cross in the corner and yours has a red circle. You each go to separate stores and spend your money. Now I can go to the stores around the city and take a look at their registers. The Entertainment Emporium has a dollar bill with a black cross and the cafe downstairs has a dollar with a red circle. Using this information, tell me which store you went to."

"My dollar had the red circle, so I've been at the cafe," Marie said. "Mizumi's had the black cross...so she's been to the Entertainment Emporium."

"Correct," Kaiba said. "That's how these counterfeit blueprints work. I hand them out to the men that you saw here and keep track of who's doing what with my information. Sometimes, I'll let one slip into a random employee's hands just to see what they do with it, like I did with you."

"So then...how do you know where the information is ending up?"

"That's easy," Mokuba chimed in. "All the blueprints are faulty in some way. But the competitors don't know that. They're just happy to get their hands on illicit information. Then, when they put the product out, that's when they find out that it doesn't work. It keeps them distracted and desperate. That's been the tactic for the past few years. Plus, we have intel in the factories themselves, just to make sure that these competitors are focused on the fake blueprints. Each personnel has specifications that they have to look out for that'll warn us if they've gotten their hands on the real deal."

"I think I get it," Marie said. "Let's say I stole a hundred dollar bill from your vault that's marked with a blue star. You'd have moles working around the city in different shops. If any one of them comes across a hundred-dollar bill with a blue star then they'd report back to you that your money has been stolen. That's the idea, right?"

"By Jove, she's a genius," Mizumi muttered as she unwrapped the green towel from her head. Kaiba snickered.

"Exactly," Kaiba said. "You said that Mizumi's the mole, and you're partly right. She's been feeding Aronnaxx fake blueprints ever since they approached her years ago. She was a good catch, in their eyes. A jaded employee who was close to me by all means of public appearance."

Well, shit, Marie thought to herself. That added a whole new layer of depth to Kaiba's relationship with Mizumi. No wonder everybody thought that Kaiba and Mizumi had a thing. He had wanted them all to believe that, just to make her an alluring option to hungry competitors who wanted to get as close to him as possible. She was bait - attractive in more ways than one - and Aronnaxx had snapped her up with relish.

Mizumi was watching her. It was possible that she had seen the revelation unfurl on Marie's face. She put her hand on Kaiba's shoulder and gave Marie a look that clearly said you don't know everything. Marie thought back to the comment that she had made about seeing Kaiba's boner in his leather pants and cringed.

"But that's the issue, isn't it, bro?" Mokuba said. "Aronnaxx got their hands on the real thing, right under our very nose!"

"But you said that each blueprint is uniquely identifiable in some way," Marie said. "So you should be able to track down those who had access to it, right?"

"That's the thing," Kaiba growled. The vein was beginning to pulse again. "Nobody had access to this one. There was no need to mark it."

"Shit," Marie hissed.

"Another thing, Seto," Mizumi said. "Aronnaxx has never spoken about their products in terms of versions before. I think...I mean...I get the impression that they're implying another version in its wake, an updated one. Is there another blueprint? One that's more advanced than this one?" Kaiba said nothing to this and Mizumi jabbed her finger at him. "That's what you're on the verge of launching, isn't it? For the tournament between you, Yugi and Aigami?"

The name Yugi was familiar to Marie, but she couldn't quite place it. An image of perfectly coiffed hair and a baby face came to mind. He was a duelist, and one helluva good one at that. But she had no idea who Aigami was.

"My exact thought," Mokuba said. "But how would they even know that there was another version? There's not a lot of people that you've told."

Mizumi was busy floofing her wet hair with her hands. Marie noticed Seto watching her, his fingers raking across the back of his hand. Was it possible that he was thinking the same thing as her, that maybe Mizumi was a double double agent? All this talk of Marie deflecting suspicion and yet there was another within their midst who could have actually been doing it.

But no, Marie thought. It wasn't possible. Despite everything that she had been told - the gossip, the lies, the assumptions, the fear - she realized that Seto had purposefully gathered the three of them there. He actually gave a flying fuck about every single person in the room. That's why he had sent everybody out and had chosen to be so open, so vulnerable in front of her, Mokuba, and Mizumi. This made her happy in a bittersweet sort of way. Because at some point during all of the madness, Seto had decided that she - along with Mizumi and Mokuba - was worthy enough to keep close to him.

This made her see Mizumi in a new light, through his eyes. Mega Mizumi with her funny sunglasses and perfect calves and pierced tongue. Mizumi, who rode around in sportscars and bet on horse races during the weekend. Mizumi who had been Seto's sledgehammer, his red right hand and - yes, she saw it now - closest friend. Betrayal by her would cut a wound in him that would be hard to heal over, Marie could see it in his eyes.

Mizumi looked over and caught her staring. "What? You wanna kiss or something?"

Marie blushed. "What? No - I…"

"So whaddya think, Seto?" Mokuba interjected and she thanked her lucky stars. "You wanna blow these Aronnaxx guys out of the water or what?"

Seto smiled, but in a different way than she had ever seen before. It seemed like this was a smile only meant for his brother, full of pride and admiration of Mokuba's zest. "I like that idea," he said. He pressed a button on his phone and told the receiver to send Team Lead Sara Suzuki to the conference room, stat. Then he turned to Marie. "You have a bunch of dummy accounts, don't you?"

It was less a question and more a verbal affirmation. Of course, Marie had created dummy accounts for the sole purpose of bolstering KC's online persona. Upon joining KC, she had immediately been given the task of creating as many fake accounts as possible. The purposes of these accounts ranged from anywhere between supplying KC with high praise and talking down competitors. Some of them were inactive and merely acted as surplus, and some she used every day. On some days she was Alfreda Eliza, a veterinarian and home chef on FaceBook. On other days she was Tapio Dawa, a basement-dwelling college kid who was a genius at Dueling. And every few weeks she got to be her favorite: Kei Yuuki who was a DnD inspired camgirl.

"I've got hundreds, sir," she said. The door opened behind her and Sara stepped in. She was looking fresh as ever in her pressed white uniform, her black wig shining bright and a smug smile on her lips. She gave Marie a surreptitious smack on the butt and then stepped forward with her arms crossed neatly behind her back.

"Mister Kaiba, sir."

"I want you to help Marie with a little project," Seto said. "She's going to use her dummy accounts to flood the web with gossip about Aronnaxx's new duel disk. And don't hold back, Marie, I want blood. Put it out there that an Aronnaxx's disk blew up on someone's granny. Say that an Aronnaxx employee was caught smoking cigarettes in a cancer ward. Allude to evidence of problematic tweets, mind-control conspiracies, child labor, whatever you have to do to convince the public not to buy the new disk. Sara, I want you to make it all seem believable. I don't want anyone questioning the legitimacy of the dummy accounts. Make them go back years, decades if you have to. I want forged receipts and proof of credit card transactions in the Aronnaxx system, everything. I want you both to play dirty like the owner of KaibaCorporations isn't looking. You got that?"

"Aye aye, captain!" Marie said with a salute.

"Sure glad that you kept me on board, Mister Kaiba," Sara purred. Mokuba giggled.

"And you, Mokuba," Seto continued. "I want you to pull together our legal team and have them play a little game with Aronnaxx. Put just enough pressure on Aronnaxx to make them sweat, but not enough for them to know that we're onto them. If we make the wrong move, they'll double down on their defenses and lawyer up. Push them to the brink of insanity, tap the managers' phones and have them followed. Threaten, bribe, insinuate, whatever you have to do to have them turning on each other internally and quaking in their shoes. Then, just when they're about to fall apart, hit 'em with all we got."

"You got it, bro! But...what're you going to do?"

"I'm going to get my blueprint back," he said as he stood up, adjusting his coat. "You guys can go now."

Sara and Mokuba began to move towards the door. But Marie stood still. She was staring at Mizumi, who was staring back at Kaiba.

"And what do you want me to do," Mizumi said, tugging at a glossy strand of hair.

"Nothing, for now. I put you at the head of a smokescreen operation that ultimately failed. Lay low, for a while."

"You don't trust me," Mizumi said in a voice uncharacteristically high. Mokuba and Sara hesitated at the sound of her accusatory tone and looked back. "You don't trust me anymore," she said again, angrier now.

She began to walk towards Kaiba. He was holding her gaze steadily, his expression cold and calculating. Marie felt like she was watching two lions eyeing each other before a battle. The tension was so thick that it could have been cut through with a knife.

"Let's go," sensing trouble, Sara grabbed Marie's arm and pulled her out the door. Mokuba had already disappeared beyond the hall. But Marie couldn't take her eyes off of Mizumi's back, for some reason. It seemed as if she was unbuttoning her blouse. But if she was, Seto's eyes betrayed nothing. Or maybe they did and Marie just didn't want to see it.

"Remember what I told you about trusting me," Mizumi said in a low voice.

But whether or not he remembered, Marie didn't hear, for Sara had yanked her out of the room and slammed the doors closed. Marie looked back, just in time to see Mizumi's blouse fall free of her shoulders before the windows to the conference room went suddenly dark, obscuring everything from view.

"Is it just me," Sara said as she pulled her through the hall. "Or did it look like Kaiba's life was about to get spicy? I'm talking real kinky shit."

"Jesus," Marie said, the image of Mizumi's lacy black bra strap still burning in her mind. "I don't even wanna think about it."

"I hope they clean those conference tables," Sara said with a giggle, oblivious to the strain in Marie's voice. "And that's all that I'm gonna say about that."

X

Ending Author's Notes: Ugh, go away, Mizumi, I don't like you. I can't wait to kill you off in the sequel.

(Says the person who created her.)