Chapter 8 - Mission Impossible
"Okay, now someone better explain to me right now what's going on!" Seto Kaiba snapped. Crimson rolled her eyes in disgust.
"Unless you haven't noticed, we were finalists in Duelist Kingdom until they captured Mai and Bandit. We tried to save them and ended up getting Mokuba instead. Then the guards and weird snake stuff chased after us. We found you and we escaped the island. Satisfied?" Kaiba smirked.
"How did you get Mokuba out of his cell?"
"I melted the bars."
"Melted?"
"Melted." Kaiba glared at her suspiciously for a moment. Finally, he made a satisfied sound and went off to see Mokuba. Crimson sat down on a stack of old tires.
"He's such a jerk!" she muttered. Kaiba whipped around. He glared at her with his piercing blue eyes.
"I'd watch my big mouth if I were you," he warned.
"I'm not scared!"
"Perhaps it's because you haven't known me for long."
"Yeah, sure. Whatever."
"I'm warning you."
"Shut up, jerk."
"I'm seriously warning you!"
"Jerk."
"Bianca!" Kaiba opened his mouth once and shut it again. Crimson gave him the dreaded Look. Yugi let his gaze wander across the both of them. He remembered the name, in his dream. The others stared at Kaiba with wary expressions, and then glanced at Crimson. The boat grew still and quiet.
"Now that's just scary," Crimson stated. Crimson and Kaiba glared at each other.
"Hey look! Domino Harbor!" Joey shouted. The spell of silence was broken. Téa and Tristan rushed to Joey's side to look at the view. Yugi sighed with relief and headed off to get Mokuba. Bakura patted Crimson on the shoulder and went off to help steer. Crimson watched the others. She jumped off the tires to go help them. Kaiba just stared at her the whole time.
Half an hour later, the eight were safe as they could be inside Yugi's house. To Téa, Joey, Yugi, and Tristan, the house felt empty without the presence of Yugi's grandfather. Crimson and Bakura felt no difference, and Kaiba couldn't tell because he refused to step foot into the house. Instead, he stood inside the first floor game shop.
"Do you want something to drink?" Yugi asked Kaiba politely. Kaiba only grunted in response. Téa came up to Yugi.
"Is that a yes?" she whispered. Kaiba crossed his arms and leaned up against one of the counters.
"Take it as a no. It won't hurt if he dies from thirst," Crimson said sourly. She glanced in Kaiba's direction. He glared back. Téa and Yugi smiled nervously as they edged away from the battle scene.
"What's your problem anyway?" Kaiba asked.
"You!" Crimson said, as if it was obvious, which it was. "Why can't you act nice for today?"
"Why should I?"
"Because...I don't know! Maybe cause it might actually prove you're human and not some pre-programmed computer!" Kaiba smirked.
"What makes you say that?"
"Ugh! Kaiba! Your brother has been robbed of a soul and all you can do is hate everyone! Including me! I saved your life and you hate me!"
"What do you want? You want me to fall in love with you? Why bother with a useless fool like you?" Crimson flushed red. Bakura, Yugi, Tristan, Téa, and Joey all huddled at the entrance to the game shop to watch the argument.
"I can save your brother, Kaiba. But apparently, he doesn't matter to you anymore!" Crimson spun on her heels and stomped back to the kitchen. Kaiba looked at her for a second as if deciding what to do. With a sigh, he walked after her.
"How?" he asked. Crimson stared at him for a moment. The five others stood in the doorway, watching Kaiba and Crimson stare at each other. They waited for at least five minutes.
"I have ways," Crimson finally responded. The microwave suddenly made a loud ring, which startled everyone. "Hot chocolate, anyone?"
A few minutes later, everyone was seated in the living room sipping hot chocolate. Even Kaiba seemed hungry enough to join them. Crimson smiled as she watched him take a sip. He put down the cup and glared at her.
"What was that for?" he asked. Everyone turned to stare at him. Crimson's smiled slowly vanished.
"Uh..." she didn't want to admit the true reason, that she thought he looked strangely familiar, and cute, as he sipped his drink. "Um...you don't look so evil and computer-programmed when you drink."
"What do I look like?"
"You look cute." Joey choked on his drink while Tristan spluttered his mouthful. Téa, Yugi, and Bakura looked at each other. Crimson shook her head. "Er... I mean, I mean...in contrast to your usual self...not like the real cute...just a contrast..." Kaiba smirked slightly at her before taking another drink. This made Crimson blush red.
"Anyway," she said. "Moving on! Yugi, you told me that your grandfather's Soul was also taken. How?" Crimson tried to avoid Kaiba's glance.
"Well," Yugi started, trying not to grin. His subject was nothing to grin about, but the way he saw that Crimson was obviously trying to avoid Kaiba's gaze was funny. "It was a while back, perhaps two weeks ago. My friends, Téa, Joey, and Tristan, and I were here in this very same room, watching a Duel Monsters Tournament. Then Grandpa bought in a package."
"Oh yeah, I rememba' dat! I fell afta' tryin' to hug him," Joey exclaimed. "Ova' the back of the couch."
"That was funny," Téa remarked.
"Anyway," Yugi continued. "Inside the package was a Dueling glove, star chips, and a video tape."
"At first," Tristan said, "we didn't know what to expect. Yugi put the video into the VCR. At first, it was a normal tape with Maximillion Pegasus talking to us."
"Yeah, then somethin' freaky happened!" Joey exclaimed. "The TV sucked Yug' in and we all were frozen!"
"Millennium Items!" Crimson said. "I knew it!"
"Pegasus pulled me into the Shadow Realm and we Dueled. It was a timed fifteen-minute Duel and whoever had the highest Life Points at the end of the time limit won. At the last minute, Pegasus used a special card and my life points went down lower than his. The buzzer went off. That's when Pegasus said I had to compete in his newest tournament. To make sure I obeyed, he took Grandpa's Soul."
"Yeah," Téa said. "When we were finally able to move again, all we saw was Yugi's grandpa lying on a chair and Yugi furiously shaking the TV."
"I see," Crimson said. "I bet he was after your puzzle."
"Most likely," Yugi said. Crimson took a deep breath and looked over at Kaiba.
"How about you?"
"Me?"
"Mokuba." Kaiba looked over at his brother's soulless body, staring out into the ceiling. He turned back and looked at his chocolate.
"It's a long story," he said.
"I'd like to hear it," Crimson said in a comforting voice. Everyone gave her the Look. Crimson decided to change her tone. "I mean...I need to hear it; I don't care how long it is."
"Well, it kind of goes back to my childhood days. It's more of personal matter, really. But one thing was that Pegasus and I were friends."
"Hmf! Nice long lasting friendship you had going there."
"Pegasus only wanted my company, and I'm not talking friend-wise. He wanted Kaiba Corp. After turning my corporate officers against me, he kidnapped my brother. My company bylaws say that only a living Kaiba heir may rule the company. When Pegasus got my brother and I was out of the way, he could take over the company."
"Why? Why did he want Kaiba Corp.?"
"Probably so he could own the biggest companies in the whole game," Bakura suggested. "After all, Duel Monsters wise, Industrial Illusions makes the card game and Kaiba Corp. makes the Duel arenas and such."
"We'll never really know for sure," Crimson said. "But we do have to save Mokuba and Yugi's grandfather."
"How?" Kaiba asked.
"We have to travel to the Shadow Realm itself, the seven of us."
"What will we do once we're there?" Bakura asked.
"Well, I'll explain later. We have to somehow find the person in charge of all the Souls. Like a jail keeper, you know. I'm not exactly sure, but we've got to try it."
"That's going to be risky," Yugi said. "The Shadow Realm is a dangerous place. You've got to know exactly what you're doing when you're in there."
"I know that Yugi, but we've got to take a chance. For your grandfather's sake. And Mokuba's."
"I agree," Kaiba said. "We have no other choice."