The Last Farewell

Chapter 2

Seto walked down the street carrying his suitcase. It was raining, and he had his hood on and he was carrying an umbrella. It was freezing cold, the sky was dreary and gray.

" Kaiba?"

Seto turned around. Jou was standing there. He had no umbrella or hood, and his hair was drenched. He was staring at Seto with a confused look, and shivered from the cold. Seto studied him for a moment before approaching Jou and shielding him from the rain.

" I would think you would have used my cards by now, along with your Red Eyes Black Dragon."
" I was wondering why you gave them to me in the first place. You could have given them to Yugi."
" Your Red Eyes was one reason."
" What do you mean?"
" People called me the Dragon Tamer." Seto answered, his voice oddly warm. " You were the second. After all, the Red Eyes could rival the Blue Eyes."
" But...Yugi had the Curse-"
" The Curse of Dragon? Please! It's nothing compared to the Red Eyes." Seto smiled. " What are you doing out here in the rain?"
" Saw you."

Seto paused.

" Yugi called you. He said you acted strangely."
" Really."
" Why don't you want to tell them?"
" There were many things I have to do."
" How did you become like this?" Jou blurted. " Were you always..."
" Iie." Seto's blue eyes became clouded as he stared off into some unknown memory. " It was terrible, Jou. A terrible way to die."

Jou shivered. It seemed like a bad idea to ask now. The way Seto had said it...it seemed to be horrible indeed.

" It was late at night." Seto said softly, his eyes dazed. " I tucked Mokuba into bed and was going out for late night work. I had a lot of work to do that night, and I planned on staying at the building. Several drunken men grabbed me as I arrived. They were drunk, they were strong. I could not fight them, try as I might. Deep fear welled in my heart, as well as confusion. Had they been waiting there all along? They laughed. They knew not who I was. I could not cry out for help. There was no one nearby. Up ahead in the darkness I could make out two large pieces of sturdy wood, perpendicular to each other. There were more men around it. They threw me on the wooden pieces."

Jou blinked. " It was a cross?"

" They took out hammers, and huge, thick iron nails. They pulled my arms apart and drove the nails into my wrists and ankles. I screamed and they laughed. Gradually the pain lessened, Jou. Because I was unconscious. I woke to find the cross had been raised. There was a burning pain everywhere. The sun was beginning to rise. Someone pulled me, nails and all, down the cross. The nails held on, and ripped through my hands and feet. I screamed. There was blood everywhere, and someone was hammering a nail through my head. One, two, three..."



Mokuba screamed and wailed when he realized what happened. He grabbed on to me, sobbing, and clung on as if I would disappear if he didn't. I almost regretted telling him the truth, but I felt he must know.

" Ni-san! Oni-san!" He cried. " Onegai! Tell me it's not true! I don't want you to leave me! Not like Oka-san and Otou-san! Onegai! Don't leave me!"

I bent down to his level and took his hands into my cold ones and smiled sadly at him. He was trembling, his tearfilled eyes gazing pleadingly at mine. It was strange, when something like this happens he doesn't use his puppy eyes.

" I'm not going to leave you Mokuba. Not if you don't want me to." I told Mokuba. " But...it will be hard to stay here-"
" I want to go with you! I don't care if I die!" Mokuba cried, clinging to me again. " Oni-san!"
" Are you sure about that?" I asked, uncertain about how quickly he had made his decision.
" I won't be anything without you!" Mokuba wailed. " I can't go on if you leave me!"
" Mokuba," I bent down to his level. He stared at me with his tearfilled eyes, " You can always come with me. You know that. But if you do, you will never come back again, not as yourself, probably not as my brother. You'll be leaving Yugi and everything else you know to enter a world full of strangers and things beyond your understanding. Are you sure you want to do this? Are you sure you want to abandon everything?"
" If I stay here I would be abandoning everything." Mokuba's eyes turned hard and his jaw was set. " I'm not going to leave my brother for a bunch of friends. I care about you more than anyone else and it had always been that way. It always will."
" You might have a second chance if you stay." I told him. " Perhaps you'll be someone successful. You'll be famous-"
" I don't care!" Mokuba sniffed. " Oni-san, you know I don't care about fame or money or success. I just want to be with you. Before, you always go to work and we barely had time to spend together. But I always took comfort because I knew that whenever you were able you would spend time with me. Now if you're going you still would try but you won't be able to and I'll never see you again. I'm not going to let that happen!"



" What about...what about Mokuba? Are you going to leave him?" Jou asked. " Or are you going to stay here?"
" I'm not going to stay here. No ghost stays here for long." Seto answered. " Mokuba will not stay here long either."
" You're going to murder him?" Jou cried, incredulously.
" Murder?" Seto cocked his head, slightly confused. " Who speaks of murder? Murder is to kill someone without their will and without right. I am not killing Mokuba without his will. I told him he will never return. He wanted to be with me. And besides," Seto smiled, and that smile made Jou feel overwhelmed with an undefined emotion, " if I leave him here, he'll be unprotected and alone. I'll murder him then. Now he's coming with me. We will be together for as long as we want. Maybe even forever, if we decide not to come back. I will not leave him alone. Not when I have so much time." Seto smiled at the irony of it. " Life passes quickly, does it not?"



" Oni-san?"
" Hai, Mokuba?"
" It's not going to hurt, right?"
" You won't even know when it starts." I promised. " You won't know until it's finished."
" Okay." Mokuba smiled. " When?"
" Patience," I laughed. " I've never met a child more impatient to die. I have many things to do. Yugi's grandfather is going to die and I have to prepare Yugi and Yami for it-Yami most of all, because he is Yugi's guardian. Then I have to find someone to trade your life with. Someone dead, of course. I have to give my deck to Jou."
" Why Jou?"
" He is the next Dragon Tamer."
" With that Red Eyes of his?"
" Of course."

Mokuba blinked. " Okay...but I thought you hate Jou."
" Hate a goofball? Please!" I laughed. " Now, give me a suggestion. Who should I give life to?"

Mokuba paused. Slowly a smile spread across his face. " You decided already!" He accused.

I laughed. " Smart. But I always knew you were. For this to work, however, I need the help of the Millennium Items, as well as that gate."
" Are you going to tell the others?"
" No need. I'm a ghost, remember? I can do whatever I want." I smiled. " Make people mad. That works, but I don't want to do that. I want to make my name better for a change. I want people to remember me as just Seto. Not the foster son of Gozaburo."

" Gartonian, Gasnog, what's with all these weird names?" Honda blinked.
" Hey, if there are people named Skunks, there ought to be others." Anzu answered.
" Uh, right." Honda answered, scowling. " But...geez, why do teachers make you find the rare books?"
"
Because they aren't rare at first, you dummy. Everyone starts burrowing the same book. Then, wala."

Honda stretched his back and yawned. " Need a break."
" After only fifteen minutes? Good heavens!" Anzu rolled her eyes.
" Hey guys," Yugi waved. Ryou was with him. " What are you doing here?"
" English teacher wanted us to find an English book." Honda muttered. " Stupid, how English is the international business language. They should make it Japanese."
" Sure, Japan is the top business country in the world! Yeah, right!" Anzu rolled her eyes again. " It's the US, genius."

Yugi and Ryou chuckled.

" What do you have at the end of the day?"

She asked me that question. It's strange. Anzu had this gift of expression and dramatic speeches. It might be a curse, but when it came to making a strange point she makes it directly.

I am fifteen years old. That was how I met Yugi, that was how I died. What can a fifteen year old get at the end of the day? Some new information on World War II? A new way to do trigonometry? A new law in chemistry?

Be glad, Anzu, that you have a place you belong to. That there is a crowd where you can simply be yourself, no matter how annoying, no matter how upsetting, and yet no one will push you away but will pull you into their circle as they gathered. When I was little people laughed. Seto Kaiba was never the son of Gozaburo. Some people stick to the truth-Seto was an orphan. Others made stories. Seto was a son of a prostitute. No one can make fun of me during class because I was smarter than them all. But when it came to normal times, normal times when children were remembered for, they reject me.

Was it my choice not to have a childhood? It's like this, Anzu. Childhood can be spent in different ways. My childhood was a struggle to survive. You see children playing in the park and you smile. Some people shiver at the thought that they were once so little. It's all the same. Childhood only lasts so long. Once it's gone you'll never get it back. You'll never have a chance to be so carefree, so dependent, so relaxed, knowing that if something goes wrong your mother and father will be there to pull you through. You can be naughty. You can be nice. You'll still get gifts from Santa. You can celebrate your birthday. You can wonder at the most trivial things. When that childhood is over, you can never be so carefree. When you play people frown at you, thinking your irresponsible. You will never have the benefit of a doubt. Your parents will never pull you through difficult situations because you have to learn to pull through them yourself.

I was never carefree when my parents died. I was never able to play, and when I get into a difficult situation I can never expect Gozaburo to pull me through it because he's not my father and he wouldn't care for me like a father would. He will turn his back on me and say " You brought it on yourself." So I learned to grow fast. I sacrificed my childhood for Mokuba's. See how childish he is? He's lucky. He could afford to be a child.

What do I have at the end of the day? I have nothing. But the question shouldn't be directed at me, Anzu. It should be directed at Mokuba. What do you have at the end of the day, Mokuba? And you will find my brother saying, " I have the luck to go to bed knowing a day of childhood has ended and another day will begin."



" It's remarkable." Seto nodded, pleased. " Stocks are actually growing? Then that will mean more for Motou. It's good!"

The phone rang.
" Hi Mokuba." Seto said, while staring at the screen. " Everything okay over there?"
" Hai." Mokuba giggled. " You're still working on the stocks?"
" I have to make it slow." Seto answered. " I have a lot of time. I also have other things to do, unfortunately, so that makes this luxury time."
" How much time?" Mokuba asked.
" Several more weeks. I extended it."
" Nani?"
" We can always leave early." Seto answered.
" But I want to leave now."

Seto leaned back. He wasn't too happy. " Mokuba, life isn't that hard for you, is it?"
" It just feels like I'll lose you if I wait too long." Mokuba whispered.

Seto hesitated. " I'll call a driver over. You can spend the afternoon here."
" Really? You never let me come that often-"
" Today's special. You won't be seeing this office too much anymore." Seto clicked. " Besides. I can use a little brother to tease once in a while."

Mokuba giggled. Seto hung up and dialed a driver. He turned back to the screen.

They finally got the message. The stocks dropped. Low.



Mokuba entered the office without smiling, but Seto could tell that his brother was elated.
" How are the stocks?" He asked.
" Low. They got the message."
" About time!"

Seto laughed and rose. " I think I'll take a short break. It's getting boring-nothing's happening over there. I'll have to plan my schedule for tomorrow. Pay a visit to Pegasus, somehow find Noa perhaps, if I feel like it. But then again, this company will fail. Maybe I shouldn't bother with Noa. I also have to pay a visit to Yami. Spirit talk, eh?"
" Why do you want to talk to Yami?" Mokuba asked.
" What if I told you I still have a grudge against his dueling skills?" Seto smirked.
" Nah. I wouldn't believe that."
" Why not? It's probable."
" It's clear you're over that, oni-san."

Seto laughed again. " Actually, I think Yami still has a grudge against me." He frowned for a moment. " Even though Yugi doesn't, Yami's very competitive. It wouldn't be nice to leave forever with hard feelings now, would it? And besides, Yami is worse off than I am. It will comfort me much to offer a little sympathy, even if he doesn't want it."

Mokuba grinned. " So what are you going to say to him?"
" What should I say?" Seto asked. " Perhaps we'll just talk. I want to talk to someone. Other than you."
" Aww, I'm not enough for you?" Mokuba asked.
" Of course you're enough for me. You're all I need." Seto laughed, rubbing the boy's hair. " But this will be the last time I speak with Yami, perhaps. I'll have to plan. Then we can go. I think the deal with the stocks will end sooner than I thought."