Chapter 15: Go for Broke

Jounouchi had arrived at the shut-down hotel.

To be precise, he was sitting in a crouched position and leaning back against a dilapidated brick wall that lay behind a damaged chain-link fence, which was a couple of hundred of yards from the building.

Jounouchi peered over the wall briefly, his left index finger counting out the number of Crashers that were hanging around the exterior of the apartment building. He noticed a group of five rolling dice for money, and on the far right stood two other Crashers who were merely loitering.

Jounouchi returned to his original position, his lips flattened in a frustrated grimace as he stroked his chin with the pad of his thumb.

Shit. Whose bright idea was it to just waltz in there in broad daylight? Oh wait, that's right: me. I oughta just punch myself fer such a great idea, but I have a feelin' that a good deal of the Crashers are more than willin' to do that for me.

He briefly peeked over the wall, again frowning as he slumped back down behind the wall with an annoyed sigh.

%"Jounouchi, if I may give you a word of advice," Seto suggested as he picked up his briefcase.

"Yeah? If yer tryin' to talk me outta chargin' in there wrecklessly—"

"I'm not going to tell you how to do things. I'm simply giving you my 'two cents', as the Western cliché would go..."

"Ah. So, uh...so what is it that ya gotta say before we get goin'?"

Seto made no reply, instead he clutched his arms tightly around himself as if he were cold. He licked his lips to moisten them, his azure eyes concealed behind his eyelids as he appeared to be deep in though, searching for the right words.

"Seto?" Jounouchi appeared concerned.

Seto opened his eyes; the intensity that usually accompanied the azure pair were instead replaced with obvious worry.

"It's nothing...I just want to suggest that you go with whatever strategy you have that will guarantee your surviving all of this."

Jounouchi smiled warmly. "Gettin' through tough scrapes is like my specialty, but I'll be sure to remember yer words particularly."

Seto gestured as if he wanted to say more, but instead sighed when he failed to do so. Jounouchi, having taken notice, simply smiled.

Despite his stern expression, Seto's cheeks revealed a tinge of redness. "Good. I would be terribly disappointed if you didn't return."

"Ha; ya know what ya really mean is that you'd break down if I didn't return."

Seto looked back at the dirty blond; his lips in a coy smirk. He retreated from the safe-house, his left hand clutched around the handle of his briefcase and his right resting in his pocket.

Jounouchi watched the retreating brunet with compassionate amber eyes, his lips forming soundless words. %

Wish I told ya those words, Seto, Jounouchi lamented as he looked up at the sky. I wanted ya to know that yer the reason I'm gonna make it outta this one. I hope ya manage to survive yer confrontation, 'cause I'll never forgive myself if I don't tell ya in person.

Jounouchi held his right fist to his chest, inspecting the bandages he wrapped around the knuckles. He kissed each individual knuckle.

"Don't let me down, boys. This is gonna be the big one." He smiled as he stared at his fist for a few moments before he sprang to his feet, shoved his hands into his pockets, and casually strode towards the Suzuki building.

The loitering Crashers were the first to notice the approaching dirty blond, their cigarettes dropping from their fingers from the surprise of seeing the renegade on their turf.

Jounouchi grinned as he held his hands up. "Not lookin' to fight ya cronies...I'm just here to settle things with Hirutani."

Jounouchi glanced over his shoulder and noticed that the five Crashers that were gambling moments ago had completely surrounded him.

"Oh man," Jounouchi chuckled. "Okay. Y'all don't seem too happy to see me, which is understandable considerin' that I realllly fucked Hirutani up. But hey; I had spoken to Kenshiro, and we've got an understandin' that this is between him and—AAGH!"

One of the punks struck Jounouchi on the small of his back with a lead pipe, catching the dirty blond off-guard. Jounouchi staggered forward, but much to the surprise of the Crasher, Jounouchi had turned around, gazing at the punk with anger.

"What the fuck is wrong with ya?" Jounouchi demanded as he rubbed his back. "If yer gonna fuckin' hit me with a fuckin' pipe, go fer the back of the head; damn! Otherwise--" Jounouchi snatched the pipe from the stunned Crasher—"otherwise, I'm gonna have to do this!" Jounouchi swung the pipe like a baseball bat, striking the Crasher in the gut and swung again, striking the punk squarely on his jaw and sending him five feet into the air.

"So, have we learned anythin' today?" Jounouchi inquired as he threw the pipe aside. The six remaining crashers glanced at each other and suddenly raised their fists and charged at Jounouchi simultaneously.

"Gimme a break," Jounouchi muttered. He dodged a punch thrown out by one Crasher, and retaliated with a swift uppercut, his fist connecting with the punk's jaw. Jounouchi quickly lowered his arm, bending it and thrusting it in a reverse motion, elbowing another Crasher that had attempted to sneak behind him. The dirty blond quickly pivoted on his right foot as he threw out a left forward punch, his fist striking against the chest of a third Crasher.

There were only three that remained standing. Jounouchi regarded each Crasher with caution, his amber eyes watching each punk as they circled around them.

"You guys wanna fight, or are ya just gonna circle me? I kinda have to be in there, ya see," Jounouchi reminded. "Besides, it's not like yer gonna get anywhere, ya know? I ain't even breakin' a sweat or nothin'. You guys're just wastin' yer time 'cuz I'm gonna beat ya all down anyway."

The Crashers appeared to hesitate, looking at each other as Jounouchi's words appeared to sink into their heads. They shrugged their shoulders and stepped aside, clearing the path towards the door.

Jounouchi tilted his head, appearing perplexed. "Uh...gee, I didn't actually expect you guys to....to actually let me through without a fight."

One of the Crashers shrugged. "Well, if ya got prior business, then why should we get out asses kicked over that, huh? Shit, we're just gonna smoke, maybe have some beers." The other Crashers nodded as they waved Jounouchi off and walked away.

"The hell...?! Why the hell didn't I say all that sooner...wasted those moves for nothin'," Jounouchi muttered as he entered the run-down hotel.

Mokuba's brown eyes remained on the crimson-haired assassin, who was taking the time to clean out one of his handguns. Amelda briefly looked up, noticing that the boy was watching him, and smirked.

"You don't need to worry. I have no plans of killing you."

Mokuba frowned. "No, but you're gonna kill my brother!"

Amelda raised a curious brow. "Amazing...not only are you finally speaking to me since I kidnapped you yesterday, but you know English," He held the barrel of the firearm to his eye to inspect it. "I suppose with money like yours, it can afford a good education, huh?"

"I go to a normal school," Mokuba retorted as he folded his arms. "Just why do you wanna kill my brother?"

Amelda raised his brow. "I'll answer that if you answer something that's been bugging me."

Mokuba shook his head. "No way!"

"Then I guess I can't answer your question." Amelda put on a sheepish grin as he put his gun back together.

Mokuba sighed. "Fine, jerk! What do you want to know?"

Amelda's ashen eyes directed themselves at Mokuba. "You say that Seto Kaiba is your brother, but to be honest, I see little resemblance. Are you his step brother?"

Mokuba sneered. "Of course not! We're related...sorta. We have the same mom."

Amelda smirked. "Half-brothers. Makes sense enough, then." He reached for a combat knife that lay across a dusty table. "Okay...to be fair, I'll answer your question. The reason I'm out to kill your brother is because I'm being paid to."

Mokuba tilted his head. "That's...it?"

Amelda's lips tightened in a thin line as he stared at his reflection in the blade. "No. I'll tell you why in just a moment."

"All right, all right...I hate waiting, though," Mokuba reminded as he approached a window. As quickly as the blink of an eye, a smaller combat knife whizzed past the boy's head, landing on the wooden frame that surrounded the window.

"I told you to stay away from those," Amelda reminded as he once again admired his reflection in the combat knife. "I'd black 'em out, but I can't leave you here alone so I can go buy paint...unless of course, I locked you in. But then Seto might arrive, rescue you, and I'd totally fuck up my chance. "

Mokuba turned around and stuck his tongue out at the redhead. "When my brother gets here, he's gonna kick your ass. Just so you know."

"Mmmhmm. And when he does, I'll be sure to inform him that his little half- brother has a mouth on him. Just so you know."

Mokuba stuck his tongue out at the assassin, who chuckled with innocent amusement.

"Oh, how you remind me of Miruko at times..."

"Who?"

Amelda promptly set the combat knife back onto the table. "My little brother. Your eyes have that shine to them, much like Miruko's...and he had rather wild-hair too."

Mokuba blinked. "Where is he now?"

Amelda motioned to the ground. "Dead; killed in an explosion. You see, our home was ravaged by a war that was raging there..." He clenched his teeth as he uttered this. "That pointless war took away my family and my home. After Miruko's murder, I vowed to find those responsible and make them pay for destroying so many lives."

"But what does this have to do with my brother?" Mokuba demanded, his demeanor having suddenly shifted to impatience.

Amelda shut his eyes. "The assassinations I committed placed my name on worldwide top ten lists, and now everyone behind a badge has decided to pursue me. The reason your brother is to be an unfortunate casualty is because—what was that?"

The echo of glass shattering had interrupted Amelda; the assassin whipped his head in the direction of the door as he heard it. He frowned as he slowly reached for one of his combat knives and slowly crept towards the door, the knife held tightly in his right hand. For his own safety Mokuba remained silent as he watched Amelda slowly and ever-cautiously open the door. The assassin glanced over his shoulder.

"Mokuba...you are to remain here. The windows are nailed shut, and I'm locking you in from the outside to ensure that you don't escape...not because I'm being absolutely evil, but because I don't want you getting caught in the crossfire." He smiled briefly before shutting the door.

Amelda held his knife close to his side as he slowly descended the stairs, his ashen eyes scanning each corner as best to his ability. He quickly glanced down and barely managed to avoid stepping on a piece of a shattered mirror. His head remained held high to allow him to check his surroundings as he knelt down. He looked away briefly so he could carefully pick up the reflective shard. The assassin quickly rose to his feet and ran to the closest wall.

He glanced over his shoulder before he flattened himself against the wall and crept towards the edge. He slowly lifted the shard and held it outward just enough for the reflective shard to give him a view of what lay behind the wall. Amelda could see the broken window; he tilted the shard to give him a view of the floor, which revealed translucent pieces and a chunk of a brick.

Amelda relaxed his arm as he stood away from the wall, looking over the corner and emitting a soft whistle from his lips.

"Tch...I get all worked up, and for what? Just a buncha punk-ass kids."

He turned around to return to the room he was hiding out in, but instead he felt a sudden and rather powerful force smacking onto the right side of his face. The impact caused Amelda to spin around as he crashed onto the floor.

"Cripes! What the blazes—" Amelda rolled onto his back and held up his head in hopes of getting a good look at the attacker.

His jaw fell slack.

"I honestly hope you intentionally used an outdated tracking device on Jounouchi and that you had planned for me to find you because unless you were being careless on purpose, you are a very stupid man," Seto stated as he lowered his right leg.

"Doesn't matter whether I meant to be careless or not," Amelda muttered as he sat upright. "You're here."

Seto smiled sarcastically. "I'm going to hit you, Amelda. I'm going to hit you, a lot. And it's going to hurt. A lot. I'm not hurting you just because you're trying to kill me, or not even just because you took Mokuba. I'm going to hurt you because you're really pissing me off, and inflicting pain upon you will make me feel so much better."

"Tough talk from a kid, I gotta admit," Amelda replied, his right hand scrambling for his knife. "But I've got battle experience...you're just a punk kid who's still wet behind the ears!" Amelda swung his arm across horizontally. Seto barely saw the glimmer of the blade; he barely had time to hop backwards in order to dodge the attack. Amelda flipped the blade, catching it with ease in his grip, the tip of the blade facing his elbow.

Seto looked down and noticed a faint red streak on his chest. He glowered at the assassin. "I have a hell of a lot more experience than you even think, you son-of-a-bitch. You're more than welcome to continue underestimating me, but it will be something you'll regret."

"I'm petrified, really," Amelda jested as he slowly circled the brunet. "It's gonna end here, so you better use your all if you expect to stand a chance in hell against me."
"Whoa!"

Jounouchi barely had the opportunity to dodge the small whizzing object that was aimed dead center at his forehead. The object instead barely grazed his left earlobe.

Jounouchi scowled at the group of Crashers that had greeted him in the lobby. Three of them wielded yo-yos as weapons, the circular objects dangling up and down from the cords that were wrapped around their index fingers. Two other Crashers stood behind the yo-yo wielders, cracking their knuckles in preparation in case Jounouchi managed to defeat the yo-yo wielders.

Jounouchi glanced upwards and noticed Kenshiro leaning against the banister on the upper floor.

I take out these guys, and yer next. I hope yer ready. Jounouchi exhaled as he returned his gaze to the opponents that stood before him.

"So? Ya gonna fight, or are ya gonna play with yer toys?" Jounouchi demanded.

"Ya know the only way to the boss is through us," reminded the middle yo-yo wielding Crasher.

"Suit yerself." Jounouchi charged towards the quintet, his sights aimed at the two Crashers that stood in the back row. The yo-yo holders extended their toys simultaneously. Jounouchi dodged low and left, evading the two yo-yos successfully but the third slammed into his ribs on his left side. Jounouchi stumbled back a couple of steps.

"Aagh! Okay!" Jounouchi cried as he clutched his side. He raised his left. "Not the best idea. What am I gonna do?"

"Maybe shut up and give up already?" one of the weaponless Crashers suggested.

"That was one of them rhetorical questions," Jounouchi pointed out, pleased with himself that he managed to say such a word. He charged towards the punks once again, this time focusing on the trio with the yo-yos. The trio thrust their trinkets outwards once again simultaneously, and Jounouchi shifted his body in an effort to dodge them. He dodged to his right, swayed backwards to avoid one that was headed straight for him, but as he pulled himself forward a yo-yo slammed into his right shoulder. Jounouchi stumbled back a couple of steps once again.

"Okay, so maybe chargin' ain't the way to be doin' this," Jounouchi concluded as he held his shoulder. But I gotta get past them guys if I'm gonna get up there and face Hirutani. Shiiiiit. If I had my briefcase with me, it could give me somethin' of an advantage.

He loosened his stance when he made a realization.

Damn! What I wouldn't give to have Kaiba's briefcase right about now. Then again, Kaiba'd be so fast he woulda been on his way to Hirutani—focus, Katsuya! What I would need is a metal surface; hell, a hard surface like a big-ass board would be good enough for me.

"Would ya either fight or give up already?"

Jounouchi's concentration returned towards his adversaries, their positions having remained unchanged during Jounouchi's personal exchange.

Jounouchi raised his fists. "Okay. This is the third-and the last-time I'm gonna try this. After that, well...we'll just see how things go." But how the hell am I gonna stop those yo-yos...?

Jounouchi slowly, cautiously stepped towards the quintet, his eyes quickly scanning the lobby for any piece of debris that could possibly serve a purpose in the rather challenging battle. As he returned his gaze to the punks, he barely caught notice of a large wooden board that lay just in front of the Crashers' feet. Carefully using his stern expression to mask his excitement for this lucky discovery, Jounouchi increased his pace, so far repeating his twice-failed tactic of charging directly at the Crashers.

Cue the yo-yos. Rather than coming out simultaneously, the Crashers thrust them forward one at a time, and at different-hitting levels. The first was aimed at Jounouchi's head; the dirty blond swayed backwards to avoid the attack. He barely continued his charge when he felt the second yo- yo successfully strike his left kneecap, causing Jounouchi to fall forward.

Perfect. Jounouchi smirked as he reached his hands outwards. Not only had he managed to break his fall, but he grasped the wooden board. The instant he rose to his feet, Jounouchi instantly held the board to his head. He breathed a sigh of relief when he heard the thunk! sound of a yo-yo deflecting off of the board's surface.

He left no room for hesitation. Jounouchi thrust the board forward after the parry, a smile curling on his lips as soon as he had knocked out the middle yo-yo holding Crasher. In the short moment that it took for the other two yo-yo holders to realize what just happened, Jounouchi punched them in their faces at the same time, crushing their noses upon impact. He briefly glanced at the spot where Kenshiro stood, and was angered when he noticed that he was no longer standing there.

"Fuckin' hell!" He gazed at the two remaining Crashers. "I'm givin' the both of you a five second head-start before I smash yer faces like these two down here."

The two glanced at each other with perplexed expressions, unsure of what to make of the situation and what course of action they should take. Jounouchi heaved an impatient sigh as he shook his head, and promptly punched the Crasher standing on the left in the gut and arched his fist in a forty-five degree angle, the blow crashing into the punk's face and crushing the bridge of his nose. The two Crashers hadn't even fallen to the floor by the time Jounouchi raced up the stairs.

"Kenshiro! Hirutani! I'm comin'!" Jounouchi exclaimed as he reached the apex. "Send out however many cronies ya want; I'll take 'em all on!"

He ran through the passage, glancing into each door for any other Crashers that may have been waiting by to ambush him; he was disappointed when nobody jumped out from the doors.

The trail ended with a large door, apparently the remains of what was once the hotel's executive suite. Jounouchi stopped, his determined eyes staring at the doors. His briefly cracked his knuckles, and took a deep breath.

He kicked the door open with such force one of the doors was torn from its hinges upon impact. Jounouchi stepped inside, looking around the room for any possible clue as to where his former friend and former boss were hiding. He immediately took notice of the backside of a torn leather chair that stood in the center of the room.

Jounouchi stepped faster, his disregard for caution evident. "You son-of-a- bitch, you think you can call me out and not even show yer face once; I'll fuckin' have ya for that, Hirutani—"

Jounouchi swung the chair around, his fist prepared to strike at the person that sat in it. However, when he saw the person that was sitting in it, his fist was a trifle lower due to the surprise.

"Sorry, bud, but it's just you and me now."

"Kenshiro? Where the hell is Hirutani?" Jounouchi demanded.

"He's not here."

"Ya mean to tell me that I took time outta my day to find someone that wasn't there, even though ya said he was gonna be here?!"

"I never said that he was gonna be here, Jounouchi."

"You sure as hell implied it." Jounouchi grabbed Kenshiro by his jacket. "I'll give ya until the count of ten to tell me where Hirutani is before I fuck you up real badly. One..."

"Jounouchi..."

"Two..."

"Hirutani's dead."

Jounouchi froze. His eyes were wide from the unexpected news, his grip having become looser. Kenshiro leaned back, escaping from the weakened remains of Jounouchi's grip.

"No way," Jounouchi whispered as he gazed at Kenshiro. "Yer all lyin' about that! Hirutani's not fuckin' dead!"

"He was killed a month and a half ago...we woulda told ya sooner, but you'd have never listened. I'm sorry to have tricked ya like this, but it was the only way to get ya to listen."

Jounouchi was furious. "You put my friends at risk...even nearly injured a close friend of mine, and beat up students at my school, for this shit? For this bullshit?!"

"If I were lying, would I be holding these?" Kenshiro displayed three small gold chain necklaces to Jounouchi.

"...he never took those off," Jounouchi murmured as he inspected the chains. He glared at Kenshiro again, the anger remaining. "He put ya up to this, didn't he?"

"I know it's hard to believe, but if ya ask almost any of us, we could tell you, in exact detail, just what happened that night. Ya see, we were haning' out over at J'z, kickin' it back with some smokes and beers. Hirutani had just gotten out of the hospital, so he was already plannin' on gettin' even with ya. Suddenly, we see Shoichi fallin' down the stairs. Someone beat him up pretty bad, so most of us got ready for a fight, grabbin' our yo-yos and stun guns and the like. I figured I would just stand around and watch things unfold—especially if the intruder was you, which we all assumed it would be, since we figured word got to ya that Hirutani was out.

"Of course, that wasn't the case. Walking down the stairs was this guy...it was nobody we knew or anything. He wore a hoodie over his face, so we never got a real good look at the guy, save for his mouth, which was always smilin'...gave me the creeps. He also had a sword, but we all assumed again, thinkin' it was just some wooden piece of shit. Anyway, this guy, he looks right at Hirutani, and holds up a photograph and asks 'Have you seen this kid?'. Hirutani fuckin' laughed, and told us to just waste 'im. I still didn't do anythin' 'cause I wanted to see what this guy was made of.

"He was a fuckin' monster. He managed to take out everybody like they were just nothin' to him! He moved so friggin' fast, too, he was like a blur, and nothin' we threw at him seemed to faze him either! He simply laughed and just brutally beat the shit outta the guys. As soon as he finished that, he then walked up to Hirutani, and asked again, 'Have you seen this kid?' Hirutani's pissed. He raises his fists, ready to break this guy's nose, when the guy moves fast; real fast, and winds up stabbin' Hirutani through the gut with his weapon, which turned out to be a real motherfuckin' sword. The tip was like, inches from my own gut. He then asks one more time if he's seen the kid, and Hirutani shakes his head. The guy removes his sword, and Hirutani just drops, dead. He then looked at me, smiled, and ran outta there as quickly as he came in."

Jounouchi was silent as he processed this information, his expressions ranging from surprised, to skeptical, to anger.

"Bullshit," he concluded.

"What?"

Jounouchi shook his head. "How long it take ya to look up that urban legend, huh? 'Guy walks in lookin' for someone in a photo and then beats the shit outta everybody'. Shit; I think I saw that in a cartoon when I was a kid."

"I could take you to the place where we buried him, if ya'd like," Kenshiro suggested.

Jounouchi shook his head. "I don't do cemeteries."

"Well, how else are ya gonna believe me? I figured the chains would have been enough—"

"I don't believe ya because I know, and you know how important I was to the Crashers. I was the best one there, even better than Hirutani, and ya made sure that ya all manipulated me to the best of yer abilities to ensure that I remained there, and now yer all testin' me again to see just where I'm at! So ya know what; take yer invitation and shove it. I'm outta here." Jounouchi stormed towards the remainds of the doors.

"Wait, Jounouchi."

Jounouchi did not bother to turn around. "What is it? I got other things to deal with."

"I know. But I have one other thing to point out to you about this matter...I know ya don't believe me 'cause ya think this is some ploy to get ya to come back, but I'm bein' honest. Ya said so yerself that aside from yerself, I was one of the only Crasher with a sense of honour. Chew on that fer just a minute."

Kenshiro stared at the dirty blond as he remained standing in the doorway in contemplation. An unusual silence fell upon the room as the Crasher awaited Jounouchi's reply.

"So, if ya are bein' sincere, so what? What does that mean to me?" Jounouchi turned around to face Kenshiro. "If this hooded bastard is fer real, I'm gonna go after him." Jounouchi looked away. "But it ain't because I'm doin' ya any favours. This hooded man stole the fight I had been achin' for."

"Do what you want, Jounouchi. If ya ever decide, though, to return to our crew—"

"Don't even finish that sentence, man. Ya know where I stand on that. 'Sides, the Crashers are done. They were done the day my fist pounded Hirutani into the ground. But hey; if YOU ever decide to give up this gang- banging bullshit, yer always welcome to the underground battles." Jounouchi immediately set out to vacate the hotel, disallowing Kenshiro to make any final statements.
Seto slowly walked around the condemned building, his eyes scanning the area for any possible signs of his pursuer and his ears listening for any unusual sounds.

"HAA!"

Amelda managed to catch Seto off-guard with a surprise knife strike. Luckily for Seto, his sidestep prevented a mere slash from becoming a serious injury.

Amelda flipped the blade in his hand. "You're a fast little bastard, I'll give you that. That won't help you, though, because eventually you're going to tire out, and when that happens—"

Seto thrust his right leg forward, his heel striking the redhead in the chest. "A little tip for you, Amelda: If you actually expect to win, shut the fuck up and fight."

Amelda glared at the brunet, his left hand patting at his chest. "I'll try to remember that." He readied his knife, and lunged at Seto, swiping horizontally twice. Seto easily dodged the attacks and countered with an open-palm strike. Amelda ducked as he sheathed his knife, and successively countered with a rising knee strike to Seto's jaw. Without giving Seto much time for recovery, he followed the attack with a high-hitting roundhouse kick. Seto barely guarded the attack, the force of which caused Seto to stumble from loss of balance. Amelda smirked as he kicked low at Seto's right shin, forcing the brunet to hunch over, and finished the combination with an elbow hook to Seto's face, knocking him to the ground.

Seto tried to sit up, but Amelda placed his foot atop his chest and pressed down to make sure that the brunet would not get up.

"Like I said, 'wet behind the ears'. You put up a decent fight, though not a memorable one. Oh well..." Amelda reached for his holster and removed his Desert Eagle handgun. "I'll make this quick. It'll be a merciful kill; you won't even feel a thing."

Seto stared at the nozzle of the gun with wide eyes, his mind frantically searching for a way that could free him from this predicament.

Amelda clicked back the hammer. "I hate having to kill someone so young, but it's either you or me."

Seto bit his lip as his hands scrambled for something, anything, that he could try to use as a means to getting freed. His right hand suddenly felt the sharp edges of a shard of glass; he couldn't tell how large this piece was, nor did he care. It was sharp and that was what mattered. He grasped at the piece—

"Good-bye, Seto Kaiba—AAAAGH!" Amelda suddenly felt a sharp pain near his ankle, disrupting his opportunity. Seto promptly threw the shard aside and grabbed at Amelda's shin and pulled forward, knocking the redheaded assassin to the ground.

Seto back-sprang to his feet and promptly kicked the gun out of Amelda's grip. He stared down at Amelda with hatred in his gaze. He then turned his attention towards the handgun, picked it up, and pointed it at Amelda.

Amelda smiled. "So, you have me right where I want me...pull it."

Seto just stared.

"As I said, it's either you or me. If you don't kill me, I will kill you."

Seto held the gun back, and with a click, removed the ammunition clip inside, and placed it inside his pocket. He handed the gun back to Amelda.

"If you're going to fight, then fight for real. None of this gun shit," Seto snarled as he turned away. "Besides, I'm not finished with you just yet."

"Don't you even try coming off as honourable...fucking stabbed cut me with a piece o' glass," Amelda retorted as he slowly reached for his knife.

"You were the one who pulled that gun!" Seto narrowly dodged the sudden knife strike, the blade only able to leave a small slash on Seto's shirt. Amelda continued slashing his combat blade, mixing things up with horizontal and vertical strikes and changing between high and mid-strikes. Seto was still able to dodge the strikes but was unable to find an opening for an effective counterattack; Amelda's consecutive attacks were coming out so quickly.

Amelda continued his slashes, his ashen eyes remaining focused on the azure pair that was before him. He sneered. "All it takes is for one of us to let up, and I know you can't keep up like this forever."

Seto frowned; he knew Amelda was right. "If that's all it takes for this repetitiveness to come to end already, then I'll be happy to oblige—but you'll have to do so in my place." He spun low, extending his right leg, sweeping Amelda off of his feet. The assassin fell back, landing on the back of his head. His knife fell from his grip in the process.

Seto kicked the knife away. "That's twice I've knocked you down, and twice that I've disarmed you. You've got little left save for your fighting talents, but they're nothing compared to my skill. Take me to Mokuba, now, because I'm done with this game."

Amelda sat up. "All right...he's through that door."

Seto followed Amelda's extended index finger. He raised a brow as he stared at the door.

"It won't explode when you open it." Seto glared at Amelda. Amelda shrugged his shoulders. "I'm being serious. I'm an assassin, not some terrorist."

Seto frowned as he turned the doorknob, revealing a rather narrow alley before him. He turned around.

"You're certain he's out there?"

"Oh for Chrissake's; yes."

Seto sneered at the assassin as he stepped outside into the alleyway. He glanced around at the tall brick buildings that stood at either side, took notice of the rusted fire escapes, and noticed the point where the alley dead-ended. He sighed as he shoved his hands into his pockets.

"I don't see him," Seto muttered to himself as he continued looking around, the alley. A rather sarcastic smile curled on his lips as he nodded his head.

"Okay; very funny, asshole. I bet you're sneaking up on me with a knife right now, too. I'll fucking have your arm for that." Seto whipped around, his arms raised in a defensive aikido stance.

There was nothing.

He frowned, his brows knitting together in a mix of confusion and frustration.

"Playing hide-and-seek," Seto snarled. "Amelda! You want to play kids' games, take it to a schoolyard!"

"Hey!"

Seto looked up to see Amelda waving to him. The scarlet-haired assassin was standing in a fire escape.

"I'm all the way up here! Why don't you come up here if you want to finish this so badly?" Amelda challenged.

Seto shook his head as he made his way back to the building, when he heard a strange zipping sound. Instinctively, he hopped back a step, watching as an almost invisible "line" whizzed past his face, inches close to grazing his nose. He appeared confused and angry as he glared at the "line" and proceeded to step underneath it when he heard the same sound and fell backwards, narrowly avoiding another "line" that would have cut into his shins had he reacted any later.

As he rose to his feet, he heard more of the sounds of "lines" zipping by him; six more times to be precise until a "web" had formed around him, trapping the him between its lines.

Seto stared at the "lines", panic almost overwhelming him. "What...what the hell is this?"

Amelda chuckled. "It's a little trick of my own design...it's a trapping network constructed of cutter wires...when a victim is trapped within the 'web', their only choices are to either remain trapped inside until they meet their fate, or to try to get out—and be sliced into pieces. You see, before you got here, I set the traps on the various bars of the fire escapes. After I hit a switch, the wires are fired out. There are small 'claws' on the wires, designed to latch onto the bars at the opposite end over there." He smiled. "Pretty clever, huh?"

Seto glanced back and forth at the various wires, his anger rising. He looked back at Amelda, a burning hatred in his azure eyes.

"You back down on our fight, and worse you back down on your word. So help me, if I find a way out of this, I will kill you!"

"Don't recall making any promises, or guarantees for that matter," Amelda sighed as he reached for something inside the apartment. "Even if you could find a way out of there, I won't let you live long enough to do so." He pulled his sniping rifle into plain sight.

Seto's eyes widened. "At the very least, you could tell me what monetary amount could have possibly motivated you to take out some...kid!" He hated that he had to refer to himself as such.

Amelda arched a scarlet brow as he tested the scope on his rifle. He smirked. "Stalling for time, are we? Well...it's not a long answer, so it's okay if I allow you another minute to live." He lowered the rifle. "The truth is, I wasn't hired to kill you because the money was so appealing. The thing is, I took this job because the person who hired me promised me my freedom."

"Freedom? What do you mean by that?"

"I'm a wanted criminal. It's becoming harder and harder for an assassin to lead an inconspicuous life these days, and given how systematically I worked to destroy my targets, I stood out like..." He paused. "Like I do now, here in Japan; a foreigner of European nationality, sticking out quite easily here."

"So you're doing this because the person that hired you promised to make sure you wouldn't be arrested for the assassinations you committed."

Amelda nodded. "Correct. As I said, it's either you, or me. I can't go to prison, I'm afraid. I know that sounds awfully selfish of me and you seem to be a good kid, but there's still too much for me to do to let it all end here."

Seto's shoulders fell with defeat. "So...so then this is where it ends for me."

Amelda looked on at Seto with forlorn eyes. "If it's any consolation, I hate that I have to do this to someone unknowing and so young. I'll make this quick. It'll be over before you know it."

Seto stared down at his legs and noticed the red laser sighting crawling upwards; he tightly shut his eyes. Shit! This wasn't how it was supposed to be at all...a death like this is an embarrassment, and to die knowing that I failed to save Mokuba is even more so. Mokuba...I am so sorry for failing you, twice. I just hope you realize that my efforts were not in vain, and that you grow up to be a much better person than I was, so that you don't have to sacrifice your self to make things better for the ones you care about.

Amelda peered into the scope, doing his best to focus the crosshairs on Seto's head. He sighed to himself.

Seto Kaiba...I may not be a good man, but I can understand your plight.

His index finger reached for the trigger, ever-so-slightly applying pressure to it—

"Noo! Don't kill my big brother!"

Seto's eyes snapped open, a smaller figure with wild obsidian hair standing in front him. "Mokuba?"

"NO!" Amelda screamed, hoping to pull the gun away in time but his actions had long overridden his thought.

The crackling sound of gunfire echoed through the alley.

AUTHOR'S COMMENTS
Quick note: Whenever something is between a "%" symbol, that denotes a flashback. I prefer using a symbol over saying "flashback"; it'd have been too obvious if I were to say "flashback" and even interrupt the story's flow a bit.

And that's the end of Chapter 15! Quite a cliffhanger for an ending—you'll definitely have to read the next chapter to find out just how Mokuba got freed, and what happened after Amelda fired the shot.

As for Jounouchi...some of you may feel that Hirutani's murder was a cop-out as far as his piece of the story is concerned. I won't blame you if you do, but understand that the hooded man is a VERY significant piece of the puzzle—Jounouchi's story is long from over.

Some people may also raise some 'brows at the fact that Mokuba is written as Kaiba's half-brother. Truth be told, I was always bothered by the fact that Seto and Mokuba share little similarities physically, plus, in order to work out Seto's origins (which are going to be revealed later), it was best to write their relationship as such.

Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed the chapter. Thanks for the reviews (100!!! Thanks everyone!), and I hope to see more! Chapter 16 is the final chapter in Part 2, so don't miss it! PEACE!!