YUGIOH

Blast in the Past

Chapter 7.

Before they could search for the old man, they decided to first go to the hospital, and check on Kaiba. His condition was the same....comatose, unmoving. Mokuba was there as well, crying at Seto's bed. Joey nodded, "No, I'll stay out here. I can't go in guys, not with his brother in there...." Still feeling it was his fault.

The others slowly came in, and Yugi went to Mokuba, saying, "I'm really sorry, Mokuba...."

Mokuba sniffed, "I don't get it, Yugi....why wont my brother wake up? The doctors say they can't find anything wrong with him, but he wont wake up!"

"Mokuba, we believe this might be....magically related. There was an old man that left the room just before this happened, who explained to Joey that he sold magical items of some sort. We plan on finding this guy about it." Yugi said.

"You mean....someone did this to him? Why would someone want to hurt my brother like this, Yugi?" Mokuba asked, with sad puppy-dog eyes.

Tristan saw Joey shaking, after over-hearing Mokuba inside the room, like he was about to blurt out something really stupid. And after earlier today, Tristan didn't want him making enemies when Joey simply was too dumb to realize what the old man might have really been up to. He quickly grabbed Joey, saying, "Come on, we're getting you outta here."

Tea watched them leave, as Joey struggled against Tristan, but not nearly as much as he usually would. She walked in, saddened by all this. 'Perhaps Kaiba was a creep sometimes, and perhaps some of the ways that he hurt people might have even made him deserve to be....punished in some way. But what was done to him wasn't hurting just Kaiba, it was hurting Mokuba, as well. And his little brother didn't deserve that.' Tea thought, feeling bad.

"I don't know, Mokuba....but we're going to find out, okay? Whoever did this, should be able to get him back." Yugi said. He then patted Mokuba on the shoulder, and walked out of the room to meet Tea, allowing Mokuba some time alone with his brother. Tea looked at him so sad, and Yugi said quietly to her, "I feel terrible about this, Tea. I've never seen Kaiba look so helpless. It's like the very life had been taken out of him, and there was nothing left but machines keeping his body going. I was barely 10ft. away from the room. If I went in there sooner....maybe I could have somehow stopped this from happening."

"It's not your fault, Yugi. It's neither yours nor Joey's fault." Tea said, looking sadly into the room. "Yugi, if we can't find a way to fix this....what's going to happen to poor Mokuba?"

"I don't know, Tea. I'd hate to think he'd end up back in an orphanage again. Kaiba is his legal guardian. Without him...." Yugi stopped, not wanting to think about it. "That family had already been through so much. It's not fair."

"Well, Joey has that business card. Let's go find the creep that did this!" Tea said, fighting back tears.

Yugi looked up and smiled, nodded to her. Together they left to scoop up their other friends, and start looking for the place.

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Kaiba made it to school, with his supposed 'friends' Joey and Tristan. As they walked, he observed these two pushing through the crowds of school kids, like he would normally do with Joey. That took Kaiba off guard, as he watched them. It was....unlike them, as far as he knew. He went to his normal locker, hoping it was the same, turned the combination, and pulled. He sighed, pleased to see that did not change. Pulling the books out, he did not wait up for the two, and headed to class.

He entered the room to see Yugi there enjoying himself with his Duel Monster cards. As soon as he saw Kaiba though, he put them away, and looked away fearfully. 'What's his problem?' He thought, but then paused noticing something immediately different about Yugi....he did not have his Millennium Puzzle. Yugi never went anywhere without it, and found it rather strange. But Kaiba ignored it and turned away, heading to his seat and pulling out his things.

As Kaiba sat down, Yugi exhaled, breathing easy again, and pulled his deck back out making Kaiba eye him strangely. What was Yugi expecting him to do?? He tried to ignore it again, and see if he had all his work done. After all, he was already given the grade lecture. 'D student? I'm a D student?? That's not possible!'

Now Joey and Tristan entered, immediately noticing Yugi and his cards. They quickly circled around him. But Yugi didn't notice, too engulfed in his deck and thinking it was safe since he was already ignored by Seto. Before Yugi knew it, his deck was snatched from him by Joey. "Well....what do we have here? Looks like the loser wimp's playing with some stupid cards, now!"

"Man, you never learn, do you, Yugi." Tristan chimed in.

Yugi was physically upset, crying out, "Please, give me my cards back! That's my grandfather's deck!!"

Yugi's cry brought Kaiba's attention back to him, as he looked up surprised by this. Joey and Tristan were bullying....Yugi?? He saw them circle him, and assumed they were going to hang out together, as he was used to them doing. But instead, they were stealing what was important to Yugi, and pushing him around.

Tristan grabbed Yugi, pulling him from his seat and tossed him on the floor. "Whatcha gonna do about it, Yugi....huh ya little wimp??"

"Yeah, you wanna fight me?" Joey asked.

"I....I don't believe in violence." Yugi said, putting his head down.

"Maybe you should learn to stick up for yourself, ya wimp. Then people like us wouldn't be stepping on ya all the time! And maybe if you weren't playing with these little girlie toys, you wouldn't be making such a target for yourself!" Joey said, shoving his finger into Yugi forehead.

Yugi grabbed his head after that, and said, "Please give me my card deck back...."

Tristan laughed, as Joey said, "And what if we don't? You know what, I think I'm gonna keep this thing. I think I'm gonna find a nice garbage can for it, and throw it in there."

"NO!" Yugi cried out, as tears began to well up in his eyes.

Narr note: When this was posted at another sight, I had one reviewer tell me that they were quite shocked to believe that Joey could be a bully like that towards Yugi, or that Kaiba could stoop to being a bully in any world. Well, in the very 1st Japanese season of Yugioh (which can also be read in the manga books), Joey 'was' a bully in the beginning, along with Tristan towards Yugi. And though Kaiba wasn't a bully in 'that way' towards specifically Yugi, he was still a bully to everyone. The only difference was that since Kaiba was rich, he used his security to bully people into getting what he wanted. Since Kaiba's common-classed in this world, he has to rely more on himself.