Yami Bakura was still playing pool when he heard someone come up behind him.
"Yami?"
The thief whirled around to see Bakura standing there, looking angry.
"What is it now, you fool?" Yami Bakura snapped. "I told you to stay away from here!"
Bakura stepped closer, his eyes flashing. "Yami, I'm tired of your insults!" he cried furiously. "And I'm tired of you telling me what to do. You are not my father! You have no right to order me around like your mind slave!"
Yami Bakura felt slightly amused. "Ah, so you do have a backbone," he commented with a smirk.
Bakura fumed, grabbing the thief by his shirt and yanking him forward. "I'm serious, Yami," he said in a dangerously low tone. "If you don't start treating me better, you will have to face a power far more threatening than anything you can conjure up!" With that he shoved the tomb raider backwards across the pool table and stormed out.
Yami Bakura stared after the boy, suspicion starting to show in his eyes. Bakura's tirade had been humorous at first, but his last comments gave the thief a strange feeling. The boy would never threaten anyone; that kind of behavior just wasn't like him at all. Something was amiss.
****
Seto, meanwhile, was hiding behind a column in the dining room, trying to overhear what his employees were talking about.
"Are you sure this is gonna work?" the first asked. "I mean, Kaiba's probably got wise to us by now."
"He's a kid," the second one retorted. "You can't expect a teenage kid to be right all the time. Heck, he's probably still chasin' after that Vivalene person thinkin' that she's the only one behind the embezzling."
"Vivalene's dead," the first one stated flatly. "Kaiba knows that." He leaned back in his chair. "And all we have to do now is find her secret hideout, collect her share of the money, and add it to what we've already got."
Seto, listening in and recording the conversation with a miniature tape recorder, decided that now was not a good time to confront them. He would wait until they left the dining room and then come upon them in the hall.
****
"Where could Bakura have gone?" Yugi said in confusion, looking around worriedly.
"Hey," Tea exclaimed suddenly, "isn't that him over there?" She pointed ahead to where the silver-haired boy was playing pinball in one of the recreation rooms.
Quickly the teens ran over. "Bakura!" Joey cried. "Where the heck have you been?!"
The boy looked up, blinking. "Oh, around," he said vaguely.
"Are you feeling okay?" Tristan asked, seeing a odd look in the other boy's eyes.
"Quite alright," Bakura said with a smile. "And I think I'm ready to play this mystery game." He held up his own envelope. "Why don't we go back to Yugi's room and read over the rules?"
"Sounds good to me," Joey shrugged. "I'm tired of workin' on the real mystery. Maybe solving a fake one will give us some ideas."
****
Before long the teens all had gathered in Yugi's room while the boy read the instructions in the envelope aloud.
"It says here," he told them, "that we just go up to various people on the ship and try to find out more about their characters and where they were during the robbery. Some will have alibis and some won't, just like in a real mystery. And some of the others will eventually get around to questioning us," he added.
"It sounds easy enough," Tea said slowly.
"It also says that there will be twists, turns, and dangers," Yugi read on.
"Real dangers?" Joey's eyes went big.
Yugi shook his head. "They couldn't do anything that would endanger anyone. It will only look real," he tried to explain.
"So we should just go out and start questioning people?" Bakura said slowly.
"I guess so," Yugi said, folding the paper up again and replacing it in the envelope. "Or we could visit the crime scene." Though he was trying to be cheerful and to concentrate on something fun, he couldn't stop thinking about the real mystery they needed to solve. He hoped that maybe they would meet up with Shadi while they were playing the game and be able to talk to him.
Tea couldn't seem to concentrate on the game either. She was worried about what Seto might be getting into. She knew the boy was perfectly capable of handling problems—like he always said he was—but she also knew that he often encountered ruthless criminals and got himself hurt fighting with them. "Lamebrain," she whispered softly, wishing that Seto wouldn't always take so many chances.
Joey blinked. "Did you say somethin', Tea?" he asked.
Tea snapped back to the present. "Oh . . . it was nothing," she replied with a shrug.
****
It wasn't long before the two KaibaCorp employees got up and headed for the door. Seto perked up, his eyes narrowing as they went into the hallway. Now he would follow after them. He waited until they had reached a more deserted corridor before revealing his presence.
"Gentlemen."
The two men whirled around as their boss addressed them coldly.
"Well, if it isn't Seto Kaiba," the second one sneered. "I never expected to see you on board."
"What I do with my time is none of your concern," Seto replied, stepping closer. "Unless, of course, it involves your treachery."
The two men looked at each other, then back at him. "What are you talking about, sir?" the first one asked innocently.
Seto wasn't impressed. "I'm not as dumb as you seem to think I am. I know that you're mixed up in the whole embezzlement scheme and that you're going to collect the money that Vivalene already embezzled before. But as long as I'm around, that's not gonna happen." He crossed his arms and faced them sternly.
"This isn't really the place to settle things, is it?" the second man said with a sneer, seemingly undaunted at Seto's knowledge of their plans.
"You know we're older and stronger than you are," the first one chimed in.
Seto stood his ground. "Age isn't everything. And I certainly do not intend to let you get away with your crimes." He paused. "But if you do something to me, everyone on this ship will know it and then you'll have no way of escaping."
"I told you he was gonna find out about our embezzling!" the first one muttered.
The second man was still unconcerned. "We have the advantage. If you try any funny business, Kaiba, your brother gets it." He pulled out a gleaming knife.
Seto wrenched the man's arm around. "Don't even think about threatening Mokuba," he hissed.
****
Mokuba, meanwhile, was waiting in the room like Seto had wanted—but he wasn't happy about it. He wanted to be able to help his brother fight the embezzlers and was just about to head out to do just that when the telephone rang.
"Who would be calling here?" he said aloud as he picked up the receiver. "Hello?"
There was a long silence, but Mokuba could hear breathing on the other end.
"Look, if this is a crank call, I'm hanging up!" Mokuba said firmly.
"Is your brother there?" a nasty-sounding voice spoke up at last.
Mokuba blinked and then his eyes narrowed. "Why should I tell you anything?" he said defensively.
"You'd better tell me," the voice hissed.
"Not until you tell me who you are!" Mokuba shot back.
There was another long pause. "That's not important."
"If you won't identify yourself, I won't tell you anything about my brother," Mokuba retorted, feeling annoyed.
"Alright," the voice said finally. "Just tell your brother that Darby is on the line."
Mokuba took a deep breath. "Seto's busy. I'm taking messages for him."
"Then also tell your brother that he's getting in over his head," Darby said and then hung up.
Mokuba sat back, his gray eyes wide and frightened. What did it mean? Was Darby good and sending a warning, or was he bad and sending a threat? And was Seto really going to be overwhelmed chasing down those embezzlers, or was it just Darby's opinion?
Too many questions. Mokuba wanted to find Seto immediately. He wondered if his brother had his cell phone with him and he was about to try calling him on it when he heard the sound of the doorknob turning.
"Seto?" the boy called hopefully, but there was no answer. Whoever was coming in was not his brother—and they were probably up to no good. Mokuba had to hide . . . and fast!
****
Yugi and the others, meanwhile, had been playing the mystery game for a couple of hours now—but no matter how hard they tried, they couldn't seem to get their minds off the real mystery.
"Man, this is ridiculous!" Joey cried in frustration. "I can't stop thinking about Shadi and the golf balls and all these other weird things!!"
"I'm sure you will find the answers you seek," Bakura said calmly.
Joey blinked. "Aren't you seekin' for them, too, Bakura?" he asked.
Bakura shrugged. "I have all the answers I need."
"For Pete's sake, Bakura!" Tristan burst out. "If you know what's going on, why don't you clue us in?!"
"Oh, I never said I knew what was happening here," Bakura replied smoothly. "I only said that I have all the answers I need."
Yugi stared at the silver-haired boy. "Are you sure you're okay, Bakura?" he asked.
"Yeah," Tea chimed in. "I mean, you've been acting kind of strange ever since we found you at the pinball machine."
"Oh really?" Bakura didn't look fazed. "I hadn't noticed."
"If something's bothering you, pal, you know you can tell us," Tristan said.
Bakura stood up to get a soda from the vending machine. "That's very kind, I'm sure, but I can't imagine why anything would be bothering me," he answered.
"You just do not seem yourself today," Marik spoke up, his eyes narrowed in contemplation.
"How odd. I feel perfectly like myself." Bakura chuckled softly as he began to drink the soda.
The other teens exchanged looks. It was obvious that Bakura had changed since they had last seen him—but what could have happened?
Now Bakura threw the empty can into the garbage and turned to go. "Well, I must be off," he said.
"Where are you going, Bakura?" Yugi said in surprise.
Bakura shrugged. "Oh . . . I have to meet with someone. It's nothing that you need to worry about."
"But you didn't tell us about any meeting," Joey declared.
"I didn't feel that I needed to," Bakura replied as he disappeared down the hall.
The teens stared after him.
"Something is definitely wrong," Tea said at last. "Bakura doesn't normally act like this!"
"I know," Yugi nodded in agreement. "There's only one thing to do—we have to follow him!"
Quickly and quietly the teens crept down the hall after their elusive friend. Bakura turned around a corner and then around another one, and then he stopped and stood still in front of a porthole.
"What's up with him?" Joey wondered low. "Do you think maybe that's really his Yami and not Bakura at all?!"
"I guess it's possible," Yugi admitted, watching Bakura curiously. The other boy had now brought his hands together and was humming in a low, steady tone.
"Man, he's freaking me out!" Tristan cried.
"Shhh!" Tea scolded, elbowing him sharply.
Suddenly a bright light glowed around Bakura and he vanished abruptly, just as Shadi had earlier!
"Yami?"
The thief whirled around to see Bakura standing there, looking angry.
"What is it now, you fool?" Yami Bakura snapped. "I told you to stay away from here!"
Bakura stepped closer, his eyes flashing. "Yami, I'm tired of your insults!" he cried furiously. "And I'm tired of you telling me what to do. You are not my father! You have no right to order me around like your mind slave!"
Yami Bakura felt slightly amused. "Ah, so you do have a backbone," he commented with a smirk.
Bakura fumed, grabbing the thief by his shirt and yanking him forward. "I'm serious, Yami," he said in a dangerously low tone. "If you don't start treating me better, you will have to face a power far more threatening than anything you can conjure up!" With that he shoved the tomb raider backwards across the pool table and stormed out.
Yami Bakura stared after the boy, suspicion starting to show in his eyes. Bakura's tirade had been humorous at first, but his last comments gave the thief a strange feeling. The boy would never threaten anyone; that kind of behavior just wasn't like him at all. Something was amiss.
****
Seto, meanwhile, was hiding behind a column in the dining room, trying to overhear what his employees were talking about.
"Are you sure this is gonna work?" the first asked. "I mean, Kaiba's probably got wise to us by now."
"He's a kid," the second one retorted. "You can't expect a teenage kid to be right all the time. Heck, he's probably still chasin' after that Vivalene person thinkin' that she's the only one behind the embezzling."
"Vivalene's dead," the first one stated flatly. "Kaiba knows that." He leaned back in his chair. "And all we have to do now is find her secret hideout, collect her share of the money, and add it to what we've already got."
Seto, listening in and recording the conversation with a miniature tape recorder, decided that now was not a good time to confront them. He would wait until they left the dining room and then come upon them in the hall.
****
"Where could Bakura have gone?" Yugi said in confusion, looking around worriedly.
"Hey," Tea exclaimed suddenly, "isn't that him over there?" She pointed ahead to where the silver-haired boy was playing pinball in one of the recreation rooms.
Quickly the teens ran over. "Bakura!" Joey cried. "Where the heck have you been?!"
The boy looked up, blinking. "Oh, around," he said vaguely.
"Are you feeling okay?" Tristan asked, seeing a odd look in the other boy's eyes.
"Quite alright," Bakura said with a smile. "And I think I'm ready to play this mystery game." He held up his own envelope. "Why don't we go back to Yugi's room and read over the rules?"
"Sounds good to me," Joey shrugged. "I'm tired of workin' on the real mystery. Maybe solving a fake one will give us some ideas."
****
Before long the teens all had gathered in Yugi's room while the boy read the instructions in the envelope aloud.
"It says here," he told them, "that we just go up to various people on the ship and try to find out more about their characters and where they were during the robbery. Some will have alibis and some won't, just like in a real mystery. And some of the others will eventually get around to questioning us," he added.
"It sounds easy enough," Tea said slowly.
"It also says that there will be twists, turns, and dangers," Yugi read on.
"Real dangers?" Joey's eyes went big.
Yugi shook his head. "They couldn't do anything that would endanger anyone. It will only look real," he tried to explain.
"So we should just go out and start questioning people?" Bakura said slowly.
"I guess so," Yugi said, folding the paper up again and replacing it in the envelope. "Or we could visit the crime scene." Though he was trying to be cheerful and to concentrate on something fun, he couldn't stop thinking about the real mystery they needed to solve. He hoped that maybe they would meet up with Shadi while they were playing the game and be able to talk to him.
Tea couldn't seem to concentrate on the game either. She was worried about what Seto might be getting into. She knew the boy was perfectly capable of handling problems—like he always said he was—but she also knew that he often encountered ruthless criminals and got himself hurt fighting with them. "Lamebrain," she whispered softly, wishing that Seto wouldn't always take so many chances.
Joey blinked. "Did you say somethin', Tea?" he asked.
Tea snapped back to the present. "Oh . . . it was nothing," she replied with a shrug.
****
It wasn't long before the two KaibaCorp employees got up and headed for the door. Seto perked up, his eyes narrowing as they went into the hallway. Now he would follow after them. He waited until they had reached a more deserted corridor before revealing his presence.
"Gentlemen."
The two men whirled around as their boss addressed them coldly.
"Well, if it isn't Seto Kaiba," the second one sneered. "I never expected to see you on board."
"What I do with my time is none of your concern," Seto replied, stepping closer. "Unless, of course, it involves your treachery."
The two men looked at each other, then back at him. "What are you talking about, sir?" the first one asked innocently.
Seto wasn't impressed. "I'm not as dumb as you seem to think I am. I know that you're mixed up in the whole embezzlement scheme and that you're going to collect the money that Vivalene already embezzled before. But as long as I'm around, that's not gonna happen." He crossed his arms and faced them sternly.
"This isn't really the place to settle things, is it?" the second man said with a sneer, seemingly undaunted at Seto's knowledge of their plans.
"You know we're older and stronger than you are," the first one chimed in.
Seto stood his ground. "Age isn't everything. And I certainly do not intend to let you get away with your crimes." He paused. "But if you do something to me, everyone on this ship will know it and then you'll have no way of escaping."
"I told you he was gonna find out about our embezzling!" the first one muttered.
The second man was still unconcerned. "We have the advantage. If you try any funny business, Kaiba, your brother gets it." He pulled out a gleaming knife.
Seto wrenched the man's arm around. "Don't even think about threatening Mokuba," he hissed.
****
Mokuba, meanwhile, was waiting in the room like Seto had wanted—but he wasn't happy about it. He wanted to be able to help his brother fight the embezzlers and was just about to head out to do just that when the telephone rang.
"Who would be calling here?" he said aloud as he picked up the receiver. "Hello?"
There was a long silence, but Mokuba could hear breathing on the other end.
"Look, if this is a crank call, I'm hanging up!" Mokuba said firmly.
"Is your brother there?" a nasty-sounding voice spoke up at last.
Mokuba blinked and then his eyes narrowed. "Why should I tell you anything?" he said defensively.
"You'd better tell me," the voice hissed.
"Not until you tell me who you are!" Mokuba shot back.
There was another long pause. "That's not important."
"If you won't identify yourself, I won't tell you anything about my brother," Mokuba retorted, feeling annoyed.
"Alright," the voice said finally. "Just tell your brother that Darby is on the line."
Mokuba took a deep breath. "Seto's busy. I'm taking messages for him."
"Then also tell your brother that he's getting in over his head," Darby said and then hung up.
Mokuba sat back, his gray eyes wide and frightened. What did it mean? Was Darby good and sending a warning, or was he bad and sending a threat? And was Seto really going to be overwhelmed chasing down those embezzlers, or was it just Darby's opinion?
Too many questions. Mokuba wanted to find Seto immediately. He wondered if his brother had his cell phone with him and he was about to try calling him on it when he heard the sound of the doorknob turning.
"Seto?" the boy called hopefully, but there was no answer. Whoever was coming in was not his brother—and they were probably up to no good. Mokuba had to hide . . . and fast!
****
Yugi and the others, meanwhile, had been playing the mystery game for a couple of hours now—but no matter how hard they tried, they couldn't seem to get their minds off the real mystery.
"Man, this is ridiculous!" Joey cried in frustration. "I can't stop thinking about Shadi and the golf balls and all these other weird things!!"
"I'm sure you will find the answers you seek," Bakura said calmly.
Joey blinked. "Aren't you seekin' for them, too, Bakura?" he asked.
Bakura shrugged. "I have all the answers I need."
"For Pete's sake, Bakura!" Tristan burst out. "If you know what's going on, why don't you clue us in?!"
"Oh, I never said I knew what was happening here," Bakura replied smoothly. "I only said that I have all the answers I need."
Yugi stared at the silver-haired boy. "Are you sure you're okay, Bakura?" he asked.
"Yeah," Tea chimed in. "I mean, you've been acting kind of strange ever since we found you at the pinball machine."
"Oh really?" Bakura didn't look fazed. "I hadn't noticed."
"If something's bothering you, pal, you know you can tell us," Tristan said.
Bakura stood up to get a soda from the vending machine. "That's very kind, I'm sure, but I can't imagine why anything would be bothering me," he answered.
"You just do not seem yourself today," Marik spoke up, his eyes narrowed in contemplation.
"How odd. I feel perfectly like myself." Bakura chuckled softly as he began to drink the soda.
The other teens exchanged looks. It was obvious that Bakura had changed since they had last seen him—but what could have happened?
Now Bakura threw the empty can into the garbage and turned to go. "Well, I must be off," he said.
"Where are you going, Bakura?" Yugi said in surprise.
Bakura shrugged. "Oh . . . I have to meet with someone. It's nothing that you need to worry about."
"But you didn't tell us about any meeting," Joey declared.
"I didn't feel that I needed to," Bakura replied as he disappeared down the hall.
The teens stared after him.
"Something is definitely wrong," Tea said at last. "Bakura doesn't normally act like this!"
"I know," Yugi nodded in agreement. "There's only one thing to do—we have to follow him!"
Quickly and quietly the teens crept down the hall after their elusive friend. Bakura turned around a corner and then around another one, and then he stopped and stood still in front of a porthole.
"What's up with him?" Joey wondered low. "Do you think maybe that's really his Yami and not Bakura at all?!"
"I guess it's possible," Yugi admitted, watching Bakura curiously. The other boy had now brought his hands together and was humming in a low, steady tone.
"Man, he's freaking me out!" Tristan cried.
"Shhh!" Tea scolded, elbowing him sharply.
Suddenly a bright light glowed around Bakura and he vanished abruptly, just as Shadi had earlier!