Chapter 23: Sit Down and Shut Up

Joey couldn't believe his plan was going to work. There he was, sitting next to Minato on the train, heading to the Kaiba Corp. headquarters on a Friday afternoon for an on-the-books meeting with Seto Kaiba. It just so happened that the 2pm timeslot was open for Seto's schedule and, even though Joey had to beg Fumiya for the afternoon off, he managed to get it. Joey had to admit that he did feel a little suspicious… it seemed like it was almost all too easy to set this meeting up. Perhaps Seto was as bored with the competition as Joey was? He had no idea, but he was grateful that everything was coming together for his plan.

"Isn't this our stop?" Minato asked, getting up from her seat.

"Yep, good catch!" Joey replied, jumping to his feet so they could exit the train together. Joey reached over to loop his fingers through Minato's as they approached the Kaiba Corp. building which wasn't far from the train station. Minato immediately pulled away.

"I didn't agree to hand holding" was Minato's response.

Joey held up his hands in defeat, "Sheesh, sorry! Didn't mean to annoy you. I just thought we could sell the dating story better if we were holding hands."

"Let's just get this over with," Minato sighed, rolling her eyes and turning back towards the Kaiba Corp. building. Joey sped up his walking so that the two were walking beside one another, making sure that they were walking in tandem but with some distance between them as they approached the rotating front door. Joey let Minato go in front of him into the massive lobby. There were several men and women dressed in business attire shuffling around in all directions. Joey made his way towards the front desk where there was a familiar face behind a computer.

"Hey Risa, how ya doing?" Joey said, "We're here to see Kaiba. I actually have an appointment this time!"

Risa looked up from her computer, "I'm well-aware of your appointment with Mr. Kaiba, Dog Boy. He's ready to see you now so you can make your way up to his office."

Minato turned to Joey, confused. 'Dog Boy?' she mouthed to Joey. Joey shrugged to Minato and silently cursed Seto for having told his assistant to call Joey by a dumb name a couple of days earlier. Joey didn't respond to Risa; instead, he motioned for Minato to follow him to the elevator and the two rode up in silence. Joey kept shooting glances towards Minato and looking away the moment she noticed. He didn't know if it was him or something else, but Minato had been acting strange ever since they met up at the train. Joey tried to put those thoughts out of his mind as the elevator arrived.

"Right this way," Joey said with confidence, trying to act as though he had walked down this hallway many times before to Seto's office. Seto's door was open when Minato and Joey arrived.

"Come on in," Joey heard Seto call out from within the office. Minato and Joey walked in together and over to Seto's desk on the other end of the room.

Seto rose to his feet from behind his desk and approached Minato with a smile, "So this is the girlfriend that Wheeler has been telling me all about. It's very nice to meet you. I'm Seto Kaiba."

"I know who you are and, might I say, you're much more handsome in-person than you are on the TV," Minato said before greeting Seto with a bow. Joey looked visibly annoyed by Minato's comment as he followed her over to Seto's desk.

"That's very kind of you to say. Why don't you both take a seat so we can chat?" Seto gestured towards two chairs that had been arranged in front of his desk.

"I have to ask you, Mr. Kaiba, what was with the front desk lady calling Joey 'Dog Boy'?" Minato asked the moment she sat down. Joey shrank in his seat. Why did she have to ask?!

"Dog Boy? Oh yes… that's based on an inside joke from the office. I assure you that Risa is only teasing."

Minato leaned forward, "Wait… you're telling me that Joey really does work here?"

"Of course," Seto said with a smile, "Wheeler has been working here for a while now."

"Minato is just playing around. She knows I work here," Joey said, followed by a forced laugh.

"What exactly does Joey do?" Minato asked, leaning forward with immense interest.

"He's a beta tester for the latest duel disk system! I'm surprised Joey hasn't told you. How long have you two been dating anyway?" Seto replied.

"Kaiba's right! I have been testing out the new duel disk system that's in the works," Joey added, "And the only reason Minato doesn't know is because I thought I signed an NDA, don't you remember? You told me that you didn't want the news of the new duel disk features getting out to the wrong person. Besides, Minato and I don't talk about work. And we've been dating for about a month now."

"Oh, definitely not that long," Minato said, crossing her arms and looking around, "And I'm surprised to hear that Joey is working on something so important that he had to sign an NDA."

Joey's eye twitched with frustration. Why was Minato being so contrarian? Joey crossed his arms as well and looked down at his feet to gather his thoughts. He needed to try and keep it together somehow.

"Beta testing is incredibly important work. Joey is one of our most highly regarded beta testers since he represents our dumbest demographic. If he can figure out a duel disk feature, than we know it's dummy-proof!"

Joey jumped up from his chair, "Alright Kaiba, what the hell is your problem!?"

"Whoa Joey, is that how you always talk to your boss?" Minato asked, standing up and putting one hand on Joey's shoulder. Joey ignored her question and shook off her hand.

"I wanted you to say I worked here, not to have you insult me in front of my girlfriend, Kaiba," Joey said with a snarl.

"Oh, would you shut up, Joey? I'm not even your girlfriend," Minato said, "I don't know why you wanted to jump through all of these hoops to try and convince me you have a job at Kaiba Corp."

"So… you're not Wheeler's girlfriend?" Seto asked, unfazed by the reveal.

"Nope, we just sleep together occasionally. If you'd like me to be your girlfriend, please feel free to hit me up," Minato grabbed her purse and slung it over her shoulders, "Have fun with your fake boss, Joey."

"Wait, where are you going?!" Minato didn't respond as she left the room and slammed the door behind her.

Joey turned to Seto and yelled, "Again, I have to know, what the hell is your problem!?"

"Why are you mad at me? Minato was the one with the problem and she's the one that just left! And you were the one that said you didn't have a job here, not me."

"You embarrassed me… and you barely attempted to convince her that I worked here," Joey growled, crossing his arms.

"What was I supposed to do? I told her you had a job here. Did you expect me to tell her you had the most important job? I'm not sure what else I could've done," Seto continued with a smirk, "Besides, are we not going to discuss the fact that Minato was pretending to be your girlfriend so that you would win the competition? If Minato wasn't even your girlfriend to begin with, what was the point of having me lie about you working for me?"

Joey opened his mouth to reply when both he and Seto heard the office door open. Seto sat straight up in his chair and the smirk disappeared from his face.

"Minato, I'm glad you came back because Kaiba has a lot of explaining to do…" Joey trailed off when he saw two large men, both dressed in black from head to toe and brandishing guns, come into his line of vision. The larger of the two men walked right up to Joey, grabbed his right arm and twisted it behind Joey's back before shoving him chest first onto Seto's desk. Joey frantically looked around to get a good visual on the other man, but his eyes met with Seto's instead. Seto mouthed, 'Let me handle this.'

"Well, well, well, to whom do I owe the pleasure of this visit?" Seto asked, rising to his feet from his desk. He took a few moments to really observe the traits of the intruders; the one holding down Joey had long, black hair that was pulled into to a tight bun in the back. The other had short, dark brown hair and had a large tattoo on his right arm. Seto couldn't make out what the tattoo depicted as the intruder approached with his gun pointed right at Seto.

"Seto Kaiba, you should take a seat and stay put." Seto sat back down as the man instructed. He then turned to his partner and said, "This was way too easy, Taiki."

"Is it just me or does this guy's too old to be the kid brother? What do you think, Aoi?" Taiki said.

Seto laughed, "You thought Wheeler was Mokuba? Now I really need to know who sent you."

"Shut up! We aren't here to take orders, we're here to give them," Aoi said with a booming voice, turning his head and examining the rest of Seto's office, "Now tell us where those Blue-Eyes White Dragon cards are or else."

"Or else what? My brother hasn't been kidnapped yet, unless you're waiting to reveal that information?" Seto asked, raising an eyebrow, "Or would you rather convince yourself that Wheeler is my brother to see if that gets me to talk?"

"Wait… is Mokuba Kaiba not here?" Taiki asked, putting more of his weight on the one arm holding Joey down to keep him from squirming.

"Mokuba doesn't work here anymore."

"We have people on standby, Seto Kaiba," Aoi replied, walking over to where Seto was sitting, "We have our team waiting outside the Kaiba Mansion for when Mokuba comes home from school and I can assure you, he will be in our possession within the hour."

"Come home from school…? Do you think he still goes to high school. My brother is a university student now. Don't you idiots do your research beforehand?"

"What about if we hurt this guy?" Taiki asked, using his free hand to smush Joey's face against the desk, "I'm sure you don't want to see this guy get hurt."

Seto's face became stone cold, a slight change to his cunning facial expression from moments earlier. "I wouldn't do that if I were you."

"Oh yeah? Does that mean beating this guy up will get you to talk?"

Joey tried to kick out his legs and trip Taiki but the legs of his capturer didn't move. They were thick like tree trunks and planted firmly on the ground. That, combined with the fact that Taiki was twice Joey's size and weight, did not leave Joey with much hope that he could get out.

"Could you ease up over there?" Joey asked, craning his neck to get a better look at Taiki, "Your cinderblock of a body is taking away my ability to breathe."

"You sound like you're breathing just fine, blondie," Taiki said with a huff. He looked over at Seto, "What if something happened to this guy? We don't have your brother but maybe this is an important business associate or something."

"I don't care what you do to him. Wheeler means next to nothing to me so hurting him would be a waste of energy," Seto laughed, "I suppose if you have nothing better to do, feel free. It might be entertaining for me to watch at the very least."

"Kaiba, what gives?! I thought you don't negotiate with terrorists!"

"Calm the hell down! We're not here to negotiate," Aoi yelled, raising his gun and pointing it towards Seto, "Where's your phone?"

"Sure, it's right here," Seto responded, reaching into his pocket and glancing over at Joey. Joey's eyes were shifting around the room, looking for a way to escape. When his eyes were met with Seto's, Seto shot another stern look towards him, as if trying to communicate a message. Seto looked away before Joey could interpret what the message meant. "It should be known that if you think my phone is the key to finding my Blue-Eyes cards, you're wrong."

Aoi reached for the phone in Seto's hand, "Just unlock your phone and give it to me."

Seto unlocked the phone before sliding it across his desk. Aoi caught the phone with his left hand while holding the gun towards Seto with his right. Aoi started swiping through the apps and Seto took a moment to really observe these two strangers in his office. The bigger one, Taiki, was definitely concerning from a physical standpoint. He wasn't much taller than Seto, but he was larger than both he and Joey combined in terms of width and muscle. Seto could tell by the way he was keeping Joey pinned down with only one arm. It was clear that Aoi was supposed to be the brains of the operation which was why he was the one with the gun. Seto knew, however, that these two couldn't have been working alone… there was someone else giving the orders.

"Are you working for Zigfried? Because if he wanted to talk, he should've just tried to email me. I really hate when someone schedules a meeting that could've been an email or call. Although I do have his phone number saved as 'DON'T ANSWER' and his number is blocked so he couldn't call me even if he wanted to," Seto stated.

"Here it is," Aoi said, tapping something on Seto's phone and then holding it up towards Seto. The phone was ringing out for a video call, one that was answered within two rings. Mokuba's face appeared on the other side of the video call.

"Hey Nii-sama, what's up? You caught me just as I got back to my dorm," Mokuba said, holding up the phone to his face but looking around as he moved about to find a spot to sit down.

Seto remained silent with a blank face. Mokuba plopped down on his bed and looked back at his phone. It was clear Seto was in his office, but something seemed off. It also wasn't like Seto to call Mokuba out of the blue without having a very specific reason, especially not a video call.

"Oh no, Nii-sama. Is this because you're still thinking about designing that Blue-Eyes White Dragon bathtub again? I told you already that I thought that was stupid, but you know you can do whatever you want with your money. I told you how I felt after you had the Blue-Eyes White Dragon jet made and my opinion on the bathtub is no different."

Joey burst with laughter, "Kaiba, you can't be serious! A Blue-Eyes bathtub?"

"Is Joey there with you?"

"Alright, this is taking too long," Aoi flipped the phone camera around so that his face was on screen, "Listen kid, we're holding your brother and this random guy hostage until we get what we want and what we want is his Blue-Eyes White Dragon cards. Kaiba isn't cooperating and I can't guarantee his safety if we don't get what we want."

"Wait… what?"

"Look, I don't want to explain myself, so I'll let this do the talking for me," Aoi brought his gun into view of the video call, "Now are you going to cooperate, or do I need to escalate the conversation I'm having with your brother?"

"Hold on, is this a prank or is this real? Put my brother back on," Mokuba demanded.

"It's real, Mokuba," Seto called out from the background.

"That's so funny! I've never been on this side of the phone call," Mokuba said before having a fit of laughter, "I'm pretty sure my brother is going to be just fine. Talk to you later, Nii-sama!" Mokuba then disappeared from the screen.

"Did he really just hang up on us?" Aoi asked, dumbfounded, and walking around Seto's desk over to hand Seto his phone back.

"The day that I'm in any real danger is the day that Mokuba receives a call that I'm dead. He knows that."

Joey rolled his eyes and said with a heavy sigh, "Kaiba, you are so dramatic…"

Taiki leaned forward on Joey, digging his elbow deeper into Joey's back, "Shut it."

Seto took a deep breath and took a moment to think through his options. He knew how to deal with Taiki and Aoi, but he really wanted to know who the mastermind was first. The fact that Joey was prone to being a hot head in intense situations like these didn't leave Seto with many options either. He was going to need to think fast before someone got hurt.

-YGO-

A/N: Well, it's been over a year since I last updated. Whoops! A lot has happened since last September, but I won't bore you with the details. I did start writing this chapter in 2021 but then I got a new job and life got busy. The funniest part is that I was stuck on how to write the very next scene of this story and when I finally figured out how the scene should go this past week, it ended up getting moved to the next chapter. My apologies for leaving you on a bit of a cliff hanger but I do hope to start updating on a more regular basis. I really do miss writing and updating this story… so we'll see how it goes. Hopefully I can get a couple more chapters out before 2022 is over!