None of them had ever been to Kyoto before. It was a rather peculiar city, over 1,200 years old with many amazing historical monuments, yet still strangely modernized. The beautiful skyline of the mountains was nearly concealed by a giant throng of skyscrapers.
As the five teens exited the train, they were startled out of the way by a large group of American tourists, and were even more surprised by the large crowd of loudly painted tour buses.
"I wonder if Tokugawa Ieyasu had to deal with bad traffic...?" Joey commented, sarcastically, regarding the huge build-up of cars.
"Oh, my..." Bakura trailed off dismally. "How are we ever going to get around the city?"
"I think we should first find out where we're going." Yugi said. "Look, there's a phone booth over there."
"Good thinking, Yugi." Tristan said. The four boys ran off, leaving their female companion by herself.
//This is going to be very strange...// Tea worriedly thought, before hurrying after them.
**************************
"I think we're pretty close now..."
After a long, fruitless goose chase things seemed to be looking up for the five teens.
"Is it just me, or does the whole neighborhood seem to be looking worse with every step we take?" Tristan asked suddenly.
He was right. The paint on all the houses was peeling, and the grass seemed a very off shade of green. The apartments were all rickety wooden flats with broken-down balconies.
Hardly anyone had a 'WELCOME' mat.
"Yugi, are you SURE we're going the right way?" Tea asked, gazing apprehensively at a large dog, chained up and growling, in the yard next to them.
"I'm positive, Tea. This is Kaiba's aunt's neighborhood."
"So, someone remind me why we're not going to KAIBA about this?" Tristan interrupted, non-chalantly striding down the street with his hands in his pockets.
"Can you imagine THAT conversation?" Tea sighed. "He'll be very angry...you know how he hates having people prod into his life, try and help him..."
"I don't think we HAD every right to watch that tape...it seems a little unethical." Bakura put in uncertainly.
"Ryou's right. Guys, I'm not sure we should do this...questioning his aunt? If Kaiba never told us in the first place-"
"Then it's probably something we should know. Did you see that poor woman? She was crying her heart out...and what does HE do? He throws the thing away! I think it's pretty safe to say HE'S not visiting her any time in the near future..."
"But why? Why would he not want to see her? What has she done to him? She seems so lonely...what a poor woman..." Tea trailed off.
With that the conversation lapsed into a bleak and uncomfortable silence.
***********************
"Um...I guess this is it..."
They had reached their destination. It was a rather large house, surprising for a woman who apparently lived on her own. The teens could see the house had once been very fine and respectable, as had all the houses in the neighborhood, but had, in recent years, fallen into disuse and derelict disrepair. It had assumed an old, tired, gray and morbid look. Forlorn and uninviting.
"Well...we didn't come all this way just to look at it, did we?" Joey ventured lightly, most likely to lighten the mood.
"Shall we...knock?" Ryou asked of the others.
"What else are we supposed to do?" Tristan answered.
"Okay, come on you guys." Yugi started first, the other four following.
When they reached the step, Yugi knocked apprehensively. Three short, unassuming knocks.
They only had to wait a minute before hearing small shuffling...and the opening of the front door.
It was the same woman from the tape. Everything about her...her black hair, round face, large, crystalline eyes...even the false hope they held...were the same.
Uneasily her eyes darted from one face to another. Resignedly, she sighed in disappointment.
"Can I help you?" she asked, curiously.
"Mrs. Oda? Mrs. Mariko Oda?" Yugi asked, wide eyes already knowing the answer to the question.
Mariko's own eyes widened in surprise.
"Why...yes. How did you-?"
"May we come in, Mrs. Oda? We must talk to you about something." Ryou bowed respectfully, as if to show they meant no harm.
"Well..." Mariko eyed Tristan and Joey apprehensively. Sensing her discomfort, Tea cut in.
"There's no need to be alarmed by these two, Mrs. Oda." she reassured. "They may LOOK tough, but they're actually completely harmless."
Joey grinned and rubbed the back of his head good-naturedly, addressing Mariko.
"It's okay, Mrs. Oda, we're not here to start trouble we're just here about your nephews-" He blurted out.
"My nephews! Oh, please, come in, come in!" Mrs. Oda hastily shoved them all inside.
Tea glared at Joey.
"Nice going, idiot! What happened to 'letting things down easy'???" she whispered angrily.
"Hey, there's no point in stalling the inevitable!" Joey defended.
Mrs. Oda led them to the living room, then hurried off to make them all tea. She did not question further.
There was an eerie silence.
Bored, Joey examined his surroundings. The room itself was drab, unkempt, and dull. The beige sofa looked old and crusty, as if it hadn't been sat on in awhile.
In the middle of the room was a heavily stained coffee table. And on the middle of the table, a large blue book innocently lay.
Joey was about to reach for the book, when Mrs. Oda came back into the room, a half-excited, half-worried look on her face.
"Here we are! Tea for all of you." Mariko set down a large tray of traditional Japanese china and green tea. She then sat down herself.
"Doomo arigato gozaimasu, Mrs. Oda."
"Doo Itashimashite." she answered. "Now...tell me all your names."
"Well, I'm Yugi Mouto. This is Tea Gardner..." He introduced them all in turn.
"Doozo Yoroshiku. I am Mariko Oda, as it seems you all know...now where shall we start?"
"Um...well..."
"I've got it. How do you know my nephews, why aren't they here, how did you get this address, what are they doing, where are they, how are they-?" Mrs. Oda had turned from calm to frantic in a split second.
"Woah Mrs. Oda! Slow down, slow down!" Joey cut in. "Yugi's probably got some way of answering you...Yugi?"
Yugi cleared his throat nervously.
"Mrs. Oda, I can't tell you anything until you, uh...fill US in."
She started, visibly caught off guard.
"But...why? What do you mean?"
Yugi sighed.
"I can't say. I know it seems strange, but you'll understand soon enough."
"It's a pretty complicated situation." Tristan threw in.
"I don't imagine there's any way we can tell you, yet." voiced Bakura, softly.
"...I..."
"I can tell you this much, Mrs. Oda. We are classmates of your elder nephew. Both he and Mokuba are in perfect health. Now please, answer some of OUR questions."
Though it was obvious she didn't understand, Mariko complied.
"I feel you have good intentions...though nothing you've said makes any sense, you're the only lead I've had so far, so..." she smiled. "Ask away."
Yugi and Bakura both smiled politely and nodded, whereas Joey and Tristan grinned at each other with piquing curiosity, Joey especially. Though he would hate to admit it, Seto Kaiba intrigued him (when he wasn't infuriating him). Despite what people thought and all the stupid things he did, Joey was not a dumb blond. He knew a thing or two about people, and Seto Kaiba was a mystery he intended to solve.
"Good, now, first off...when was the last time you saw your nephews?" Tea, who had been silent for a few minutes, bounced back into the conversation.
"Let me think..." Mariko paused. "Seven...no, Eight years. Eight years."
"Woah! It's been awhile, hasn't it?"
"Yes. Yes it has..." Mariko smiled dimly.
*****************************
"I've got a better idea...just start from the beginning." Ryou directed. He suddenly seemed more...assertive. Yugi noticed this, and his mind sparked. Had you-know-who taken Ryou over?
"From the beginning? Of what?"
"Of everything."
Mariko slowly nodded in understanding.
"Well, first of all...I am Seto and Mokuba's mother's sister." She paused to gaze at them each in turn.
"Yeah, yeah, Mrs. Oda! That's right!"
"All right then...well, my sister was younger than me by three years. We had been close for most of our lives...but after she got married, we never really talked seriously again. I was angry at her, and for all the wrong reasons...I know now, when it's too late to do anything about it, that I should have been HAPPY for my younger sister. But I wasn't. I was wildly jealous of her."
She stopped suddenly, as if she had said something greatly significant. Seeing no reaction, she continued.
"Her husband was so perfect. Tall, handsome, intelligent, well off, and kind. There didn't seem to be ANYTHING wrong with him. I, on the other hand, had married a...less than perfect man." She paused. "By the way, all this rambling of mine will hold some significance in the rest of the story, young man."
Tristan was thoroughly confused by her narrative. Mrs. Oda could apparently tell.
"Ahem...as I was saying. When my sister and future brother in law were married, I was so angry, resentful and jealous I didn't even go. That was about the end of my sister and my relationship.
"About a year or two after they were married..." Mariko smiled, fondly. "Seto was born."
Interest in the room piqued considerably.
"I received many letters and phone calls from them. I expected them to be ecstatic, but I never suspected my nephew's birth would fuel even MORE jealousy my own part."
She cast her eyes downward in shame.
"Apparently...my sister had given birth to a child. No, she and her husband had created a PRODIGY.
"I had had a child a few years before. He was not a prodigy in the slightest. He was very sickly and not intelligent, at least not amazingly so. So I suppose...I just grew more angry and jealous.
"The visited a few times in the first few years, but I was not a gracious host. Seto was fine, as near to perfection you could have in a child. I was so resentful...I hated him."
Mrs. Oda looked as though she might begin to cry again.
"And then...my sister became pregnant with her second child!"
"...About four years after Seto was born?"
"Yes, that sounds right. Eight months into the pregnancy...my sister went into premature labor."
"How awful!" Tea gasped out loud.
"It was. Since it was unexpected, I was not there to say goodbye. Only my brother-in-law and Seto were there. The child...Mokuba...was born in perfect health. My sister was not so fortunate." She stopped to draw in breath, and perhaps...compose herself.
"After many complications...she died of blood loss."
Mariko said her last words hollowly. A small pause, and then,
"I felt regret. I was sorry I had no said a last civil word to her. I tried to make it up to my brother-in-law and nephews. He was very busy with work...consumed by it. I took care of the children when he needed me to.
"Though I was bad, I was hardly worse off then Seto. My brother-in-law told me...Seto was in the same room of the hospital when she...
"From the first times I had seen him before, he was completely different. Very quiet, small, polite. I suppose a little shy as well. But then...it was no wonder. A five-year-old, to have watched his own mother DIE!"
Yugi-tachi sat silently. No one chose to comment.
"Mokuba, being a baby..." she continued, "...Didn't have a worry in the world! It seemed like he was the only happy one in our family. Such a sweet child...I always felt that Seto shouldered as much grief as he could, as to protect Mokuba...
They say that at birth a child sees a person and decides to model them...for Mokuba that was his brother. 'Nisan' was the first thing he said, as I recall.
"Things turned for the worse after about a year. I was...having some of my own problems...with my son and...such. I was angry again, and my brother-in-law...I asked him for money, but at the time...it's a rather long story." she finished uncomfortably. "We had a falling out. Seto and Mokuba stopped coming over. I was upset with the children's father, and that somehow caused me to take it out on them. And then..." Mariko closed her eyes, her whole body shaking.
"Three years after my sister...her husband was in a fatal car accident."
"You mean-?" Joey choked out.
"H-hai. He followed the same fate as my sister. What seemed like the most promising future for them...so tragically ended."
She stared at the book on the table, reflectively.
"Mrs. Oda...surely your nephews couldn't have been very aware...Mokuba was only three!" Bakura pressed.
"Yes, Mokuba was very confused...but Seto had been aware, even when his mother died..."
"What happened to them?" Tristan asked.
"The woman who had been named in charge of the boys' affairs had to find them a new home...with a relation. Naturally, I was the one they came to..."
"Did you take them in?" Yugi asked so softly, it was almost a whisper.
"...No."
It was too much for the woman. Mariko burst forth in uncontrollable sobs.
The boys' faces were stony, solemn in appearance. Tea immediately stood up, walked over to her, and put an arm upon her frail shoulder.
"Mrs. Oda...it's all right, Mrs. Oda..." she cooed, comfortingly.
"It's not!" she cried out. "It was the most selfish decision I've ever made!"
Tea pulled back, alarmed. Mariko continued.
"I did it out of spite! Anger, jealously! I was too focused on my own problems...fears...I was inhuman."
"So...what happened to them?"
"They were sent to a small children's orphanage. I haven't seen them since."
Mariko Oda's lengthy narrative had reached its end. What followed was a silence, so thick that even their breathing seemed small and unreachable.
"Mrs. Oda...is that a family album?"
Surprisingly, Joey broke the silence in a very abrupt manner. He had been uncharacteristically quiet throughout Mariko Oda's story, and was staring rather intently at the large, leather-bound book on the table in front of him.
"Joey, is this really the time?" Tea asked him, irritated.
"No, no...it's fine." Mariko cut her off. "Yes, it is, Joseph."
Joey continued to stare at it.
"Would you like to see it?"
He nodded wordlessly. Mariko stood u with the book and carried it over to him.
"Let me show you..."
Yugi and the rest of the gang crowded around them as well.
"I've got this out," she explained, "because I've been looking at it constantly lately. It helps me remember..." she trailed off. "...Oh! Remembering...that reminds me!" Mariko seemed to recall something of importance. "I've got to go get something! I'll be upstairs, just flip through that if you like..." she disappeared up the stairs on one side of the room.
Joey immediately opened the book. The five teens were greeted my pictures of a young beautiful woman next to a tall man. Both were smiling broadly.
It took a few moments for Joey to realize the woman was Mrs. Oda.
"She looks so happy with him..." Tea murmured. "What could have gone amiss?"
Joey shook his head at his friend's naiveté. Many things could go wrong for those seemingly in love. Hadn't his parents once been the same as Mariko and her husband in the picture?
He turned the page. There was Mariko again, holding the hand of a little black-haired boy. He was small and thing with a crooked smile. Underneath the picture was scribbled, "Mari and Sano, age three."
"Sano..." Yugi said aloud. "That must be her son!"
Joey frowned. Hadn't Mariko said in the video that Sano had died?
He turned the pages faster. There they were, Mrs. Oda, her husband and son all together, With every page, they seemed more tired or ill. Unhappy...each smile, strained, each hug, hapless.
Joey turned a page with what appeared to be Sano's eighth birthday party and found a wedding picture. The woman was not Mariko, but she looked enough like her to be...related.
"It's them..."
The man was slim, with striking, handsome facial features. His large, gray eyes shown with utter bliss as he held the arms of the woman beside him.
She was small, with a lovely olive neck adorned with only a simple silver chain. She had dark, black hair, as Mariko, and amazingly cobalt blue eyes.
"Kaiba's got those same eyes, you know..."
Everyone around Joey turned to him in surprise.
"It's easier to tell with Mokuba, see?" He put his hand over the picture and pointed to the man. "He's happy a lot, like his Dad, and you can see that THEY'VE got the same eyes.
"But Kaiba...he's rarely happy, even more rarely does he show it...but I guess..."
"What?"
"I guess...if you picture this woman angry...or Kaiba happy...you would see they've got the same eyes..."
"Which do you think is harder...to picture...?" Yugi asked softly.
"I think...this woman looking angry..."
Everyone froze. Silence seemed to make the walls higher and the furniture disproportionately large.
"Lovely picture, isn't it?"
The five teens jumped. Mariko was back and carrying something under her arm.
"They sent me that after the wedding..." Mariko's finger traced the photograph, resting on her sister. "Keiko wanted me to be her chief bridesmaid."
Joey stared down at the picture a last time before turning the page. As soon as Mariko saw it, she turned away, completely overwhelmed.
There was the couple again, this time in more casual attire. On the woman's lap sat a small child.
"There's no way..."
A little boy, large blue eyes, and floppy brown hair that fell down over them.
"It can't be..."
He was sporting a small smile. So innocent.
"Is that...?"
Those eyes. Could such little time have transformed their wide curiosity to blunt hard-edged disdain for human kind?
"It is him." Joey pointed at the woman, then Seto. "Like I thought-same eyes." He grinned. "Same haircut his whole life, heh. Can't wait to get him on that."
It was true, upon close examination one could see that Seto had inherited his mother's amazingly blue eyes, and Mokuba's pepper eyes were his father's. Besides those traits, however, Mokuba looked like his mother, with a round face, black hair and olive complexion. Seto looked remarkably like the boys' father-tall and slim, with a long and handsome face. Over his eyes hung the same brown locks. The most discernible difference between father and son, it seemed, was expression.
The man in the picture had a genuine smile on his face. He looked truly...content, as he stood near the two most important people in his life. As if everything that woman did held meaning for him.
Had Seto Kaiba, as long as they'd known him, ever looked like that?
He did in this picture.
Joey turned the page again. There was just mother and child this time. She was laughing, holding onto her little boy tightly, he smiling and struggling to get free. And then...snap, flash. A brief moment of unknowing innocence was captured forever.
To Joey, it seemed unreal.
Yet he knew the photographs were not anyone's cruel joke.
He turned it again. There was father and son, and the elder's similarity in looks to his present eldest son was so striking that Tea almost mistook them as the same. Another turn of the page.
There were the three again, if possible, looking happier STILL.
"...She's pregnant..." Tea said in her smallest voice of all.
It was true; Seto sat next to his mother, hand over her protruding belly, smiling blissfully.
"He was so looking forward to becoming a brother..." Mariko's voice was muffled by her handkerchief.
"Yeah, I could see that..." Tristan said.
Joey turned the page, once more.
The woman was absent from the photograph.
In her place was an infant, large gray eyes very familiar. Mokuba's unruly black hair had already started to grow, and brushed his older brother's chin. Seto tenderly held Mokuba.
Mariko looked up.
"I remember..." she said, softly, "He was a peculiar child. Never did show the faintest trace of jealousy towards his brother...at least not in any material way..."
They looked up, almost as one.
"You see, though he never looked at his brother with malice or bitterness..." she sat down. "...He did gaze upon him with a...sadness. I think he was envious of Mokuba's...innocence."
Joey shut the old album and placed it on back on the table. Bakura chewed thoughtfully on his thumb, Yugi too was spacing out. Tea, apparently concerned with her fellow female, got up to go comfort her.
"You're a horrid aunt, you know that?"
The boys came back to earth with a start. Mariko, too was taken aback.
"Even when times are tough, families stick TOGETHER. And blaming a child for what their parents do is NEVER fair. You have every right to be as ashamed as you are. You sent your own flesh and blood to live in an orphanage. And both weren't even close to being grown up." Tears of anger filled the teenage girl's eyes. "How could there ever be a question in your mind? HOW? Tell me!"
Tea found her mind drifting to Duelist Kingdom, for some reason. Why, of all times and places, was she thinking of...?
"You have no heart!"
Her eyes widened. That was the last place she'd been this angry. The last time she'd been so angry that tears welled up...
Ironically, she'd been angry with one of the subjects of argument now.
Seto Kaiba.
"I'm...I'm not sure..."
She pitied Mariko, so fragile, so weak.
"That's probably why I don't get it, either."
**********************************
Ieyre: Crud! That was such a thrash to write!
Yami Ieyre: And it sucked, too. Which leads me to wonder why this is being written at all-OW!
CYI: *giggles*
Yami Ieyre: *glares at chibi*
Ieyre: Okay, the reason for such a long wait for an update is in my profile, so check it out. And by the way, if anyone includes in his or her review a cool name for CYI, I'll put him or her as a cameo in the story.
CYI: *sporting sign that says 'GIVE MEE NAME'*
Ieyre: Okay, tomorrow I'm going on a trip to London, so I expect lots of pretty reviews when I get back. Oh, and sorry for not answering reviews this chappy. Now time. Okay, Ja ne you all! Happy Holidays!
As the five teens exited the train, they were startled out of the way by a large group of American tourists, and were even more surprised by the large crowd of loudly painted tour buses.
"I wonder if Tokugawa Ieyasu had to deal with bad traffic...?" Joey commented, sarcastically, regarding the huge build-up of cars.
"Oh, my..." Bakura trailed off dismally. "How are we ever going to get around the city?"
"I think we should first find out where we're going." Yugi said. "Look, there's a phone booth over there."
"Good thinking, Yugi." Tristan said. The four boys ran off, leaving their female companion by herself.
//This is going to be very strange...// Tea worriedly thought, before hurrying after them.
**************************
"I think we're pretty close now..."
After a long, fruitless goose chase things seemed to be looking up for the five teens.
"Is it just me, or does the whole neighborhood seem to be looking worse with every step we take?" Tristan asked suddenly.
He was right. The paint on all the houses was peeling, and the grass seemed a very off shade of green. The apartments were all rickety wooden flats with broken-down balconies.
Hardly anyone had a 'WELCOME' mat.
"Yugi, are you SURE we're going the right way?" Tea asked, gazing apprehensively at a large dog, chained up and growling, in the yard next to them.
"I'm positive, Tea. This is Kaiba's aunt's neighborhood."
"So, someone remind me why we're not going to KAIBA about this?" Tristan interrupted, non-chalantly striding down the street with his hands in his pockets.
"Can you imagine THAT conversation?" Tea sighed. "He'll be very angry...you know how he hates having people prod into his life, try and help him..."
"I don't think we HAD every right to watch that tape...it seems a little unethical." Bakura put in uncertainly.
"Ryou's right. Guys, I'm not sure we should do this...questioning his aunt? If Kaiba never told us in the first place-"
"Then it's probably something we should know. Did you see that poor woman? She was crying her heart out...and what does HE do? He throws the thing away! I think it's pretty safe to say HE'S not visiting her any time in the near future..."
"But why? Why would he not want to see her? What has she done to him? She seems so lonely...what a poor woman..." Tea trailed off.
With that the conversation lapsed into a bleak and uncomfortable silence.
***********************
"Um...I guess this is it..."
They had reached their destination. It was a rather large house, surprising for a woman who apparently lived on her own. The teens could see the house had once been very fine and respectable, as had all the houses in the neighborhood, but had, in recent years, fallen into disuse and derelict disrepair. It had assumed an old, tired, gray and morbid look. Forlorn and uninviting.
"Well...we didn't come all this way just to look at it, did we?" Joey ventured lightly, most likely to lighten the mood.
"Shall we...knock?" Ryou asked of the others.
"What else are we supposed to do?" Tristan answered.
"Okay, come on you guys." Yugi started first, the other four following.
When they reached the step, Yugi knocked apprehensively. Three short, unassuming knocks.
They only had to wait a minute before hearing small shuffling...and the opening of the front door.
It was the same woman from the tape. Everything about her...her black hair, round face, large, crystalline eyes...even the false hope they held...were the same.
Uneasily her eyes darted from one face to another. Resignedly, she sighed in disappointment.
"Can I help you?" she asked, curiously.
"Mrs. Oda? Mrs. Mariko Oda?" Yugi asked, wide eyes already knowing the answer to the question.
Mariko's own eyes widened in surprise.
"Why...yes. How did you-?"
"May we come in, Mrs. Oda? We must talk to you about something." Ryou bowed respectfully, as if to show they meant no harm.
"Well..." Mariko eyed Tristan and Joey apprehensively. Sensing her discomfort, Tea cut in.
"There's no need to be alarmed by these two, Mrs. Oda." she reassured. "They may LOOK tough, but they're actually completely harmless."
Joey grinned and rubbed the back of his head good-naturedly, addressing Mariko.
"It's okay, Mrs. Oda, we're not here to start trouble we're just here about your nephews-" He blurted out.
"My nephews! Oh, please, come in, come in!" Mrs. Oda hastily shoved them all inside.
Tea glared at Joey.
"Nice going, idiot! What happened to 'letting things down easy'???" she whispered angrily.
"Hey, there's no point in stalling the inevitable!" Joey defended.
Mrs. Oda led them to the living room, then hurried off to make them all tea. She did not question further.
There was an eerie silence.
Bored, Joey examined his surroundings. The room itself was drab, unkempt, and dull. The beige sofa looked old and crusty, as if it hadn't been sat on in awhile.
In the middle of the room was a heavily stained coffee table. And on the middle of the table, a large blue book innocently lay.
Joey was about to reach for the book, when Mrs. Oda came back into the room, a half-excited, half-worried look on her face.
"Here we are! Tea for all of you." Mariko set down a large tray of traditional Japanese china and green tea. She then sat down herself.
"Doomo arigato gozaimasu, Mrs. Oda."
"Doo Itashimashite." she answered. "Now...tell me all your names."
"Well, I'm Yugi Mouto. This is Tea Gardner..." He introduced them all in turn.
"Doozo Yoroshiku. I am Mariko Oda, as it seems you all know...now where shall we start?"
"Um...well..."
"I've got it. How do you know my nephews, why aren't they here, how did you get this address, what are they doing, where are they, how are they-?" Mrs. Oda had turned from calm to frantic in a split second.
"Woah Mrs. Oda! Slow down, slow down!" Joey cut in. "Yugi's probably got some way of answering you...Yugi?"
Yugi cleared his throat nervously.
"Mrs. Oda, I can't tell you anything until you, uh...fill US in."
She started, visibly caught off guard.
"But...why? What do you mean?"
Yugi sighed.
"I can't say. I know it seems strange, but you'll understand soon enough."
"It's a pretty complicated situation." Tristan threw in.
"I don't imagine there's any way we can tell you, yet." voiced Bakura, softly.
"...I..."
"I can tell you this much, Mrs. Oda. We are classmates of your elder nephew. Both he and Mokuba are in perfect health. Now please, answer some of OUR questions."
Though it was obvious she didn't understand, Mariko complied.
"I feel you have good intentions...though nothing you've said makes any sense, you're the only lead I've had so far, so..." she smiled. "Ask away."
Yugi and Bakura both smiled politely and nodded, whereas Joey and Tristan grinned at each other with piquing curiosity, Joey especially. Though he would hate to admit it, Seto Kaiba intrigued him (when he wasn't infuriating him). Despite what people thought and all the stupid things he did, Joey was not a dumb blond. He knew a thing or two about people, and Seto Kaiba was a mystery he intended to solve.
"Good, now, first off...when was the last time you saw your nephews?" Tea, who had been silent for a few minutes, bounced back into the conversation.
"Let me think..." Mariko paused. "Seven...no, Eight years. Eight years."
"Woah! It's been awhile, hasn't it?"
"Yes. Yes it has..." Mariko smiled dimly.
*****************************
"I've got a better idea...just start from the beginning." Ryou directed. He suddenly seemed more...assertive. Yugi noticed this, and his mind sparked. Had you-know-who taken Ryou over?
"From the beginning? Of what?"
"Of everything."
Mariko slowly nodded in understanding.
"Well, first of all...I am Seto and Mokuba's mother's sister." She paused to gaze at them each in turn.
"Yeah, yeah, Mrs. Oda! That's right!"
"All right then...well, my sister was younger than me by three years. We had been close for most of our lives...but after she got married, we never really talked seriously again. I was angry at her, and for all the wrong reasons...I know now, when it's too late to do anything about it, that I should have been HAPPY for my younger sister. But I wasn't. I was wildly jealous of her."
She stopped suddenly, as if she had said something greatly significant. Seeing no reaction, she continued.
"Her husband was so perfect. Tall, handsome, intelligent, well off, and kind. There didn't seem to be ANYTHING wrong with him. I, on the other hand, had married a...less than perfect man." She paused. "By the way, all this rambling of mine will hold some significance in the rest of the story, young man."
Tristan was thoroughly confused by her narrative. Mrs. Oda could apparently tell.
"Ahem...as I was saying. When my sister and future brother in law were married, I was so angry, resentful and jealous I didn't even go. That was about the end of my sister and my relationship.
"About a year or two after they were married..." Mariko smiled, fondly. "Seto was born."
Interest in the room piqued considerably.
"I received many letters and phone calls from them. I expected them to be ecstatic, but I never suspected my nephew's birth would fuel even MORE jealousy my own part."
She cast her eyes downward in shame.
"Apparently...my sister had given birth to a child. No, she and her husband had created a PRODIGY.
"I had had a child a few years before. He was not a prodigy in the slightest. He was very sickly and not intelligent, at least not amazingly so. So I suppose...I just grew more angry and jealous.
"The visited a few times in the first few years, but I was not a gracious host. Seto was fine, as near to perfection you could have in a child. I was so resentful...I hated him."
Mrs. Oda looked as though she might begin to cry again.
"And then...my sister became pregnant with her second child!"
"...About four years after Seto was born?"
"Yes, that sounds right. Eight months into the pregnancy...my sister went into premature labor."
"How awful!" Tea gasped out loud.
"It was. Since it was unexpected, I was not there to say goodbye. Only my brother-in-law and Seto were there. The child...Mokuba...was born in perfect health. My sister was not so fortunate." She stopped to draw in breath, and perhaps...compose herself.
"After many complications...she died of blood loss."
Mariko said her last words hollowly. A small pause, and then,
"I felt regret. I was sorry I had no said a last civil word to her. I tried to make it up to my brother-in-law and nephews. He was very busy with work...consumed by it. I took care of the children when he needed me to.
"Though I was bad, I was hardly worse off then Seto. My brother-in-law told me...Seto was in the same room of the hospital when she...
"From the first times I had seen him before, he was completely different. Very quiet, small, polite. I suppose a little shy as well. But then...it was no wonder. A five-year-old, to have watched his own mother DIE!"
Yugi-tachi sat silently. No one chose to comment.
"Mokuba, being a baby..." she continued, "...Didn't have a worry in the world! It seemed like he was the only happy one in our family. Such a sweet child...I always felt that Seto shouldered as much grief as he could, as to protect Mokuba...
They say that at birth a child sees a person and decides to model them...for Mokuba that was his brother. 'Nisan' was the first thing he said, as I recall.
"Things turned for the worse after about a year. I was...having some of my own problems...with my son and...such. I was angry again, and my brother-in-law...I asked him for money, but at the time...it's a rather long story." she finished uncomfortably. "We had a falling out. Seto and Mokuba stopped coming over. I was upset with the children's father, and that somehow caused me to take it out on them. And then..." Mariko closed her eyes, her whole body shaking.
"Three years after my sister...her husband was in a fatal car accident."
"You mean-?" Joey choked out.
"H-hai. He followed the same fate as my sister. What seemed like the most promising future for them...so tragically ended."
She stared at the book on the table, reflectively.
"Mrs. Oda...surely your nephews couldn't have been very aware...Mokuba was only three!" Bakura pressed.
"Yes, Mokuba was very confused...but Seto had been aware, even when his mother died..."
"What happened to them?" Tristan asked.
"The woman who had been named in charge of the boys' affairs had to find them a new home...with a relation. Naturally, I was the one they came to..."
"Did you take them in?" Yugi asked so softly, it was almost a whisper.
"...No."
It was too much for the woman. Mariko burst forth in uncontrollable sobs.
The boys' faces were stony, solemn in appearance. Tea immediately stood up, walked over to her, and put an arm upon her frail shoulder.
"Mrs. Oda...it's all right, Mrs. Oda..." she cooed, comfortingly.
"It's not!" she cried out. "It was the most selfish decision I've ever made!"
Tea pulled back, alarmed. Mariko continued.
"I did it out of spite! Anger, jealously! I was too focused on my own problems...fears...I was inhuman."
"So...what happened to them?"
"They were sent to a small children's orphanage. I haven't seen them since."
Mariko Oda's lengthy narrative had reached its end. What followed was a silence, so thick that even their breathing seemed small and unreachable.
"Mrs. Oda...is that a family album?"
Surprisingly, Joey broke the silence in a very abrupt manner. He had been uncharacteristically quiet throughout Mariko Oda's story, and was staring rather intently at the large, leather-bound book on the table in front of him.
"Joey, is this really the time?" Tea asked him, irritated.
"No, no...it's fine." Mariko cut her off. "Yes, it is, Joseph."
Joey continued to stare at it.
"Would you like to see it?"
He nodded wordlessly. Mariko stood u with the book and carried it over to him.
"Let me show you..."
Yugi and the rest of the gang crowded around them as well.
"I've got this out," she explained, "because I've been looking at it constantly lately. It helps me remember..." she trailed off. "...Oh! Remembering...that reminds me!" Mariko seemed to recall something of importance. "I've got to go get something! I'll be upstairs, just flip through that if you like..." she disappeared up the stairs on one side of the room.
Joey immediately opened the book. The five teens were greeted my pictures of a young beautiful woman next to a tall man. Both were smiling broadly.
It took a few moments for Joey to realize the woman was Mrs. Oda.
"She looks so happy with him..." Tea murmured. "What could have gone amiss?"
Joey shook his head at his friend's naiveté. Many things could go wrong for those seemingly in love. Hadn't his parents once been the same as Mariko and her husband in the picture?
He turned the page. There was Mariko again, holding the hand of a little black-haired boy. He was small and thing with a crooked smile. Underneath the picture was scribbled, "Mari and Sano, age three."
"Sano..." Yugi said aloud. "That must be her son!"
Joey frowned. Hadn't Mariko said in the video that Sano had died?
He turned the pages faster. There they were, Mrs. Oda, her husband and son all together, With every page, they seemed more tired or ill. Unhappy...each smile, strained, each hug, hapless.
Joey turned a page with what appeared to be Sano's eighth birthday party and found a wedding picture. The woman was not Mariko, but she looked enough like her to be...related.
"It's them..."
The man was slim, with striking, handsome facial features. His large, gray eyes shown with utter bliss as he held the arms of the woman beside him.
She was small, with a lovely olive neck adorned with only a simple silver chain. She had dark, black hair, as Mariko, and amazingly cobalt blue eyes.
"Kaiba's got those same eyes, you know..."
Everyone around Joey turned to him in surprise.
"It's easier to tell with Mokuba, see?" He put his hand over the picture and pointed to the man. "He's happy a lot, like his Dad, and you can see that THEY'VE got the same eyes.
"But Kaiba...he's rarely happy, even more rarely does he show it...but I guess..."
"What?"
"I guess...if you picture this woman angry...or Kaiba happy...you would see they've got the same eyes..."
"Which do you think is harder...to picture...?" Yugi asked softly.
"I think...this woman looking angry..."
Everyone froze. Silence seemed to make the walls higher and the furniture disproportionately large.
"Lovely picture, isn't it?"
The five teens jumped. Mariko was back and carrying something under her arm.
"They sent me that after the wedding..." Mariko's finger traced the photograph, resting on her sister. "Keiko wanted me to be her chief bridesmaid."
Joey stared down at the picture a last time before turning the page. As soon as Mariko saw it, she turned away, completely overwhelmed.
There was the couple again, this time in more casual attire. On the woman's lap sat a small child.
"There's no way..."
A little boy, large blue eyes, and floppy brown hair that fell down over them.
"It can't be..."
He was sporting a small smile. So innocent.
"Is that...?"
Those eyes. Could such little time have transformed their wide curiosity to blunt hard-edged disdain for human kind?
"It is him." Joey pointed at the woman, then Seto. "Like I thought-same eyes." He grinned. "Same haircut his whole life, heh. Can't wait to get him on that."
It was true, upon close examination one could see that Seto had inherited his mother's amazingly blue eyes, and Mokuba's pepper eyes were his father's. Besides those traits, however, Mokuba looked like his mother, with a round face, black hair and olive complexion. Seto looked remarkably like the boys' father-tall and slim, with a long and handsome face. Over his eyes hung the same brown locks. The most discernible difference between father and son, it seemed, was expression.
The man in the picture had a genuine smile on his face. He looked truly...content, as he stood near the two most important people in his life. As if everything that woman did held meaning for him.
Had Seto Kaiba, as long as they'd known him, ever looked like that?
He did in this picture.
Joey turned the page again. There was just mother and child this time. She was laughing, holding onto her little boy tightly, he smiling and struggling to get free. And then...snap, flash. A brief moment of unknowing innocence was captured forever.
To Joey, it seemed unreal.
Yet he knew the photographs were not anyone's cruel joke.
He turned it again. There was father and son, and the elder's similarity in looks to his present eldest son was so striking that Tea almost mistook them as the same. Another turn of the page.
There were the three again, if possible, looking happier STILL.
"...She's pregnant..." Tea said in her smallest voice of all.
It was true; Seto sat next to his mother, hand over her protruding belly, smiling blissfully.
"He was so looking forward to becoming a brother..." Mariko's voice was muffled by her handkerchief.
"Yeah, I could see that..." Tristan said.
Joey turned the page, once more.
The woman was absent from the photograph.
In her place was an infant, large gray eyes very familiar. Mokuba's unruly black hair had already started to grow, and brushed his older brother's chin. Seto tenderly held Mokuba.
Mariko looked up.
"I remember..." she said, softly, "He was a peculiar child. Never did show the faintest trace of jealousy towards his brother...at least not in any material way..."
They looked up, almost as one.
"You see, though he never looked at his brother with malice or bitterness..." she sat down. "...He did gaze upon him with a...sadness. I think he was envious of Mokuba's...innocence."
Joey shut the old album and placed it on back on the table. Bakura chewed thoughtfully on his thumb, Yugi too was spacing out. Tea, apparently concerned with her fellow female, got up to go comfort her.
"You're a horrid aunt, you know that?"
The boys came back to earth with a start. Mariko, too was taken aback.
"Even when times are tough, families stick TOGETHER. And blaming a child for what their parents do is NEVER fair. You have every right to be as ashamed as you are. You sent your own flesh and blood to live in an orphanage. And both weren't even close to being grown up." Tears of anger filled the teenage girl's eyes. "How could there ever be a question in your mind? HOW? Tell me!"
Tea found her mind drifting to Duelist Kingdom, for some reason. Why, of all times and places, was she thinking of...?
"You have no heart!"
Her eyes widened. That was the last place she'd been this angry. The last time she'd been so angry that tears welled up...
Ironically, she'd been angry with one of the subjects of argument now.
Seto Kaiba.
"I'm...I'm not sure..."
She pitied Mariko, so fragile, so weak.
"That's probably why I don't get it, either."
**********************************
Ieyre: Crud! That was such a thrash to write!
Yami Ieyre: And it sucked, too. Which leads me to wonder why this is being written at all-OW!
CYI: *giggles*
Yami Ieyre: *glares at chibi*
Ieyre: Okay, the reason for such a long wait for an update is in my profile, so check it out. And by the way, if anyone includes in his or her review a cool name for CYI, I'll put him or her as a cameo in the story.
CYI: *sporting sign that says 'GIVE MEE NAME'*
Ieyre: Okay, tomorrow I'm going on a trip to London, so I expect lots of pretty reviews when I get back. Oh, and sorry for not answering reviews this chappy. Now time. Okay, Ja ne you all! Happy Holidays!